Whewww~hewww...Week 2

FIRST GRADE IS IN FULL SWING

We are off to a great start in first grade.  Our daily routine is getting better each day.  We are focusing on independence and responsibility.  Please help your child develop routines for things at home and help them to work on independence. We are using the assignment books, please sign the bottom of the page after your child has completed all homework and you have checked over it.

Reading:

In reading we are working on short a words, beginning middle and ending sounds, sequencing, cause and effect and comprehension strategies.

Spelling:

Short vowel a, o and i used in VC and CVC words.  The spell-out words that we are reviewing are:

a, I, the, will, to, you & and.  

Phonics:

Beginning, middle and ending consonant sounds, blending sounds to make words.

Math:

Writing the digits correctly, graphing, color words, number words and directional words.

Please have at least one parent attend the parent meeting on Thursday, August 23.

Session one~6:00

Session two~7:00

This is a very important meeting.

Thank you for partnering with me to help your child get off to a great start.

Welcome to First Grade

It was so nice to welcome 18 bright happy first graders to my classroom.  We are going to have a  spectacular year.  I am excited that Mrs. Amy Wade will be our part time assistant this year.  I'm looking forward to digging into our curriculum and watching these firsties grow and succeed!  August will be filled with learning about our new friends and about how to be a great friend.  We will also focus on responsibility and independence.  Pete the Cat will be watching us and he may even give us a few tips on how first grade works.

I can't wait to get to know each child and their families.  Please fill out the information sheets in the green weekly folder and return those to me ASAP.  Feel free to contact me with any concerns. 

HeRe  wE gOOOOO.

March comes in like a LION and goes out like a LAMB!!!

We are working like lions, roaring through out new beginning "chapter books", writing creative stories, using adjectives to describe, designing and building leprechaun traps, spelling two syllable words, counting mixed change, adding two digit numbers, telling time, solving word problems...and reading fluently!!!  We are a fierce group who has worked  very hard thus far in first grade.  We are excited about the adventures that spring has to offer.

Field trip to Build a Bear
Field trip to Oatland Island
Field trip to Blue Heron Nature Center
Spring Musical

We will be studying about animals in April and May.  We are looking forward to learning about life cycles, habitats, living habits,  and special features of the animals who share out planet. 

Assignments for January 31-February 2

Math
Study all flash cards
Parents-Make a 10x10 grid
Students-write to 100 on teh 10 x 10 grid
Count 100 small items in groups of 10 (cereal, chocolate chips, noodles)

Reading
Review all words in theme 5
Begin studying week one of theme 6
Log daily

Spelling
Review all spell out words
Study the CvCe pattern using long -u : tube, cube, cute, rule, tune, June, use, mule, rude, tune
Study the CvC pattern of short u words: tub, cut, us, sub, us, run, bus, rug

Language
Write a sentence and a question in your zebra book each day.

**With parental guidance the children could research groundhogs:
Youtube: Fun Facts About Groundhogs
Youtube: How to draw a groundhog

Predict if the groundhog will see his shadow or now.  Go outside and make shadows using different things.

Write 3 facts you learned about groundhogs.

The * items are ideas for extra fun.

***We have been learning about cold weather.  We were going to watch The Magic School Bus in the Arctic.  This is a good video about how arctic animal keep warm.  We will be doing an experiment next week about blubber.

****We have been studying adjectives.  We are going to make a poster for each child in the class using adjectives to describe 1. Physical appearance and 2. Character traits
Your child can write 2 adjectives about each class member and we will compile our information on Monday.  We did Ashley's on Monday so we have hers.  We need
Hunter
Keaton
Eric
Keira
Jill
Collins
Nolan

I hope you all stay well!!

Brrrrrr.... It's Cold in First Grade.

January has been filled will topics related to cold weather.  Many of the students experienced snow for the first time.  Each student wrote a story about building a snow man in which they used the sequencing frame FIRST, NEXT, THEN, LAST as a guide to help with sequence and recall.  We made "snow paint" using glue and shaving cream and we used it to paint snowmen, the pictures dried into   puffy 3-D snowmen.   We made "snow" from cornstarch and lotion and enjoyed making snowballs with our classroom snow.  We put water and food coloring in an ice tray and left it in the fairy garden over night.  When we left it it was a liquid, but when we found it the next morning it had frozen into solid cubes.  We used these colored cubes to do ice drawings (we had to work quickly because the cubes were cold!!)  This week we will be studying about Arctic animals and how they survive in the cold.  We built a "den" in the math room to protect us from the cold...(the AC unit blowing full force!), we saw how a shelter is helpful in keeping us warm.  We will do an experiment using blubber to find out how important this fat layer is for our cold weather friends. 

In math we have been working on addition and subtraction facts with 2, addition facts that we call "doubles +1, graphing, tallying, counting by 2's, 5's and 10's forward and backwards, number words, double digit addition with out regrouping and word problems.  We will begin regrouping soon!!

We have completed Theme 5 in our reading series and we started the Accelerated Reader program.  Our reading skills are really getting stronger.  Stop by first grade and you may just find us curled up with a good book!

Dashing Through December...December 12, 2017

Hi Parents,
I've listed some helpful tips as you head into the "Twelve Days of Christmas"...
-put time limits on technology
-set aside time for journaling/journal with them as well
-play board games
-teach waiting...waiting in a store, waiting at a restaurant, waiting for their time to talk
-teach monotonous tasks...Santa loves a hard worker.
...folding laundry
...hanging laundry
...unpacking groceries
...setting the table
...clearing the table
...making breakfast/lunch
...making their bed
Social Things to work on-
-taking turns
-sharing
-winning and losing nicely
-compromising
-complimenting others
-using please and thank you

Christmas vacation is a great time for snuggling in front of a fire and sharing a great book or telling a story.  Spend quality time with your child this season...next year they will be a year older and much bigger so cherish each moment and enjoy your family time!! 
Merry Christmas

November 19, 2017

November was filled with many activities related to Native Americans, the Pilgrims and our first Thanksgiving.  The students discovered the different land forms that were homes to the Native Americans and how they used the land to survive.  They studied about the homes and survival skills of  the Ojibway, the Iroquois, the Cherokee, the Lakota, the Hopi and the Haida tribes.  We drew different  types of homes (tepee, long house and pueblo) , made pottery from play dough, wrote summaries of each tribe and played a few Native American games.  We learned a rain dance and are waiting on the rain to come!!!
All of the children have made exciting progress with their reading skills and look forward to their time for independent reading each day.
We are studying odd and even numbers, adding 2 to a number, ordinal numbers, symmetry, telling time, counting money, capacity of containers, estimation, and using standard and nonstandard measurement.  The children are copying and creating beautiful patterns using pattern blocks and they enjoy using calculators to solve and check higher level math problems.
There is never a dull moment in our classroom...first grade is fantastic.

We will be boarding the Polar Express and going around the world to learn about Christmas in other countries during December.