Friday Flyer

 Dear Families,

          We are “Gearing up” for March is Reading Month!!

Book Bingo

          During March is reading month, the first graders will be playing Book Bingo on Fridays.  The purpose is to get more books in the hands and homes of all our first graders.  This will re-energize readers to read more often if they have more books, new books, and for some…just books in their home.  You can help support this by cleaning off your children’s book shelves at home and sending in any gently used books.  The books will be used as prizes during our bingo games.  Several years ago we did this and children were leaving school with arm loads of new books to read.  What a great experienceJ!!  Stay turned for more information on March is Reading Month activities we will be participating in as well.

Language Arts

       The past few weeks we have been working hard on preparing for our upcoming report cards/conferences.  The children have done very well with the assessments given thus far. J Next week, the children will be introduced to the strategy of “Asking questions before, during and after reading a story”.  I will model this for them and then they will be given the opportunity to practice the first part of writing down questions they have as they review the cover of the book.  This strategy helps readers to activate any schema they may have as well as do some predicting which helps the brain get ready for words they may see in the text. During Spelling, we began our unit on long vowels and words that contain the silent e at the end.  As a challenge, I even chose some words with blends at the beginning that also had the silent e…the children did awesome!!  Super spellers in the making!!

Math

This week we celebrated 100 days of school with lots of activities centering around the number 100!  We rotated through each of the first grade classrooms and did 100 second exercises, did estimation jar activities, read 100’s Day books, and much more!

In math workshop, we did Valentine’s Day review stations and brushed up on building numbers using base-10 blocks, deciding if two math sentences were equal among other review activities!  This week we focused on making 10 mentally when adding so we can do math in our minds (ex. Thinking of 9+5 as 9+1+4, which is actually 10+4).  Some students are still choosing to use math manipulatives or number grids to solve these problems and some students have figured out strategies to solve them mentally!    

                            Science

In science we are half-way through our “Sorting It Out” unit.  We have sorted objects using the properties rough and smooth, flexible and rigid, and we have begun experimenting sorting objects that are magnetic and not magnetic.  We went “fishing” in our classroom to see which items in our “pond” were attracted to our magnets.  We also came up with our own questions about magnets and performed experiments to answer our questions.

Social Studies

We watched a video clip, read non-fiction books, and even learned how to perform safe searches on the internet to learn about Valentine’s Day last week.  Ask your students about this holiday and what we learned about St. Valentine. J

Upcoming dates:

Friday, March 4- ½ day of school, 11:25 dismissal

Wednesday, March 9- Evening conferences

Thursday, March 10- Afternoon and Evening conferences

Thursday, March 10- ½ day of school, 11:25 dismissal

Friday, March 11- No School

Friday, March 25- Family Fun Night at the high school 5:30-8:30

Tuesday, March 29- Talent Show 1:30-2:30

Thanks for your continued support at home!

Mrs. Mason & Mrs. Putnam 

 

Friday Flyer 

Dear Parents,

        As February approaches, the pace and expectations in first grade continue to accelerate.

The children continue to strive towards working independently, making good behavior choices, and showing that they are ready and responsible with school materials.  Please support your child’s growth at home with these same concepts. 

        This week during our language arts block, we practiced a new comprehension strategy called “track your thinking”.  We used post-it notes while reading for documenting our thoughts. Your child marks areas in the story (with a post-it note) that they love (heart), have questions about (?), something new or exciting (!), important part ( * ), answer to something that makes sense (light bulb), and any text connections (t-s, t-t, t-w). The next time your child is reading at home, give them a stack of post-it notes and ask them to track their thinking for you.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised at what they are capable of doing.

        During Writer’s Workshop we are wrapping up our non-fiction writing unit.  The “All About” books turned out great and are on display in our hallway.  Ask your child what topic they chose to write their books about!  In February we will begin our unit on poetry.  Your child will be learning about line breaks, stanzas, and how to add “music” to their poetry.

        Some of our concepts being taught during math workshop are understanding that a number is made up of tens and ones and representing 10’s and 1’s using base-10 blocks, using <, >, and = symbols to compare numbers, and applying our knowledge of numbers to add two-digit numbers together without re-grouping (although some of our first graders are even picking up on how to re-group!).  We reviewed and assessed telling time to the hour and half hour.  Some students are still working on correcting reversals of their numbers, I just point out other numbers on the page for them to notice which direction their number should go.  Keep up with the ixl.com homework; it is really supporting what is happening in the classroom, thanks so much for your help!

        In social studies we learned lots about Martin Luther King Jr.  We read stories and did an “egg experiment” to demonstrate that inside we are all the same!  What an amazing person to teach valuable lessons to our first graders!

        In science we are starting a new unit called “Sorting it Out.”  We will be sorting objects by properties such as color, shape, flexibility, etc.  We will also learn about properties of water and investigate magnets in this unit.  Great job scientists!

       

**Upcoming Events**

*February 5^th : Popcorn Day- The PTC gives one free bag to each student

*February 8^th: 1^st/2^nd grade Music Concert at PAC 6:00-7:00

* February 12^th: Valentines Party at 2:15.

*February 15^th : No school for students-Teacher PD

*February 18^th : Chuck E. Cheese Night

Enjoy your weekend as a family and keep warm!

                Sincerely,

                  Jennifer Mason and Kelly Putnam