First Grade News Week Ending 1/14/22

 Hello! We have been SO busy this week. I know I say that a lot but I really mean it. The kids must be exhausted. We are doing two different science units. We started space last week which will continue until February vacation. We are currently on Mercury heading toward Venus. Our other unit is through Go2Science. It's an awesome program that lets the kids help real scientists find data for their hypothesis. We are looking to see if the kangaroo population is still thriving in Australia even though there are more houses and people around. We even get to ask questions to Beth and Curtis each Tuesday and Thursday as they zoom with us and share their videos. It's awesome. Ask your child about it.

READING AND LANGUAGE ARTS

We started non-fiction writing. We have Space Journals called The Family of the Sun. Each time we visit a planet, we write down facts and draw a diagram. This will help us when we write our own non-fiction books.

We read the book, The Snow Child, and then stuffed socks to make snow babies. We wrote stories to go with them.

We started Spelling Tests this week. Six words focus on a specific sound. Four words are sight words. On the back of the test I give the kids two sentences to write. I am looking for how many words they spell correctly out of sixteen, how their handwriting is and how many conventions they get out of six. They get two points for capitalization, two points for punctuation and two points for spacing. I did remind them that I use spelling words for the sentences so if they can spell it correctly on one side, they should be able to spell it correctly for the dictation. :)

MATH

We are working with place value and the equal sign. It is important for them to have a good understanding of the equal sign for when they get into harder math. For example: 3 + 2 = 5 and 5 = 3 + 2. It just has to be the same on each side. Another example is: 4 + 2 = 3 + 3. This was tricky. Many wanted to add all four numbers or say no it is incorrect because it wasn't a turn around fact (4 + 2 = 2 + 4). We will continue to work on this. In place value we are practicing making numbers different ways with base ten blocks. For example: 25 = 2 tens and 5 ones but it can also equal 1 ten and 15 ones or 25 ones.

Our Level Up math is going great. The kids are working really hard for four minutes to get as many addition problems done as they can. I encourage them to use strategies they know. For example: say the big number and count up or use doubles (2 + 3 is like 3 + 3 - 1) or make tens (5 + 8 = 5 + 5 + 3). Any tricks you know to help your child know their facts quick, would be awesome. We're always looking for new ways!! :)

ITEMS OF INTEREST

* No school on Monday, January 17. 

* Thank you Natalie for donating prize box treats and a box of disposable masks!!

* We are doing our play for PreK and K on Wednesday at 8:45. We will tape it on Thursday to hopefully get it out to our families soon after! They are doing a great job remembering their lines and movements.

Happy Long Weekend!

Stay Warm!

PICTURES from Week Ending 1/7/22

Painting scenery was lots of fun! 

STEM building.

We also added space to our building and role play!

Place Value with Base Ten Blocks

Toasting the New Year

We love space!

We wrote our own toasts!

Ask your child what they wished for their friends.

Choosing to read to class coupon!

HAPPY WEEKEND!

FIRST GRADE NEWS 1-7-22

 Happy New Year! We are off and running in Grade One! We are very excited to start the New Year learning about space! It's always a favorite unit! A really cool, FREE, app is called SkyView. It lets you hold your phone up at night and see what is above you. It's great for locating planets and constellations. Check it out! Also, start observing the sun and the moon with your child. Just take notice to different shapes, where they appear and when they are present. We will be talking lots about this all month.

A FEW NEW THINGS

A New Year...Some New Things! We will be starting Spelling Tests next week. On Mondays you will get a list of words to practice with your child. We will practice at school as well. On Fridays we will have a test over the words. We will also incorporate these words into sentences to practice using good handwriting and conventions.

In Math we will be playing LEVEL UP. Three days a week the kids will be given 25 addition problems to do in four minutes. If they finish all 25 correctly, they move to the next level. If not, they get to finish/correct problems for practice so they can level up soon. Once they get through ten levels of addition we move onto subtraction.

One more very exciting new thing...Miss Chloe Bilodeau will be here student teaching with us for eight weeks! She has already been in our room last semester for her 100 hours. We are very excited to have her with us!

MATH

We started place value. We are using base ten blocks to help us with this. Flats are hundreds, Longs are tens and cubes are ones. We use the words interchangeably. We will also be using dollars, dimes and pennies for place value. A fun game you can play with your child is called The Exchange Game. To play you  take a bowl and put 20 pennies, 20 dimes and a dollar bill in it. Use a dice. Each player rolls and takes out whatever the dice says. When you get ten pennies you exchange for a dime. When you get ten dimes, you exchange for a dollar and win. You can challenge yourself and play this backwards where each player starts with a dollar and tries to get to zero. It helps the kids understand place value and work on carrying/borrowing without knowing it.

READING AND WRITING

We continue to read daily. Books will be coming home each night. Please have your child reread them for practice, even if it's to a dog or stuffed animal. If your child has a longer book, s/he will know if they are supposed to keep for a couple days or only read a part of it. 

We are writing our own fairy tales. This will start us on our journey to publish many books. We have some very creative kids in grade one! It's fun listening to their ideas as they develop their stories.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

* OUR PLAY - We are still doing our play, THE RUNAWAY UNICORN. However, due to the increase of Covid numbers going up, we will only be doing it for the PRE-K and Kindergarten students. However, Mrs. Shannon and Mr. Arell have both offered to help me video tape the production. So if all goes well, you will all get to see it in the comfort of your own home. We tried on costumes and made scenery this week. We also went without scripts!! I'm hoping to do one more week of rehearsals and then start taping.

* SNOW - It's here. Please remember to pack your child's snow gear (coat, pants, boots, mittens or gloves, hat and scarf). We go outside twice a day. It's also a good idea to send an extra pair of mittens because they tend to get wet. Your child can leave snow gear here in their locker or bring it back and forth in a big reuseable plastic bag. 

* Extra Clothing - It's a great idea to leave some extra clothes in your child's locker incase they get wet at recess or get cold and want to put on a sweater/sweatshirt. They can hang a bag with their clothes in their locker.

* We toasted the New Year by making toast! It was a huge hit!

* We would love donations for our treat box. When in doubt...don't throw it out! Send it to school! They love all kinds of treasures hahaha. 

HAPPY WEEKEND!

FIRST GRADE NEWS AND PICS WEEK ENDING 12-17-21

There is definitely a lot of excitement in the air this week...not sure why. (haha)

We had fun listening to more of our classmates share their traditions.

We made reindeer out of our feet and hands.

We worked on counting by tens from various numbers.

We worked on three digit addition.

We added to our Poetry Books.

Reminder next week is a three day week! 

HAPPY WEEKEND!