ALL SUBJECTS: This week and next no new skills will be introduced, but we will learn about Thomas Jefferson and test on him Dec. 17 or 18. All other subjects will be review or continuing the previous skills and topics.
Tomorrow in class we will complete the study guide for our math unit test which is MONDAY, DEC. 16. Feel free to detach the math portion and only have students turn in their reading logs on Friday, so you have the math to review next weekend right before the test. I hope everyone has had the chance to give some thought to the HOLIDAY PROJECT! Students seem very excited about this. It can be any holiday you choose, but if you celebrate this time of year we would love to know about that. HOLIDAY PARTY!!!! Here is the link to see our needs and sign up to send in items: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0C4DABA82BABFA7-holiday If you plan to attend and would like to help, great! Just be sure to go onto the Fulton County website and fill out the volunteer form & information. Our party is Thursday, Dec. 19, 10:45-11:45. Last week was MUCH better in terms of how many toys students had at school. Thanks for your support! Mrs. Rosenthall has made it very clear to all teachers that our learning should continue - regardless of holiday fun sprinkled in. :-) I hope everyone had a wonderful long Thanksgiving break! I am thankful that I get to see your sweet children again tomorrow! We will be having a very busy three weeks before another break, so I will try to keep us on track with weekly info here (updates on Sunday evenings) and with reminders via Class Dojo. Keep an eye out for a link to Sign-Up Genius and how you can help us with our winter party, which will be Thursday, December 19, 10:45-11:45.
SCIENCE: Test on SOUND & LIGHT will be Thursday of this week. Study info will be sent home tomorrow (Monday). After the test we will move on to SOCIAL STUDIES, and begin our study of Thomas Jefferson. MATH: Continuing with word problems involving the missing number in all positions. We call this the "I AM WONDERING...." spot, and students should draw a box to represent the missing number. We look at our word problems and find the beginning, middle, and end, which helps us determine which number is missing. We will continue working to relate addition to subtraction, FACT FAMILIES. READING: Using our snap words (NOT sounding them out when we come across them in text), reading fluently (sounding out VERY few words in a grade level text), being able to talk about a story. This continues through December. WRITING: Continuing to work on writing non-fiction "chapter" books, where students practice writing about a topic in sections, such as writing about a pet for example - what it needs to eat, what it needs for sleeping, etc. We will also be working with possessive pronouns such as HERS, MINE, HIS, OURS, THEIRS. We do not teach possessives using apostrophe in first grade, such as...The dog's collar is blue. Busy times ahead! This week we have the Book Fair as well as Thanksgiving Family Feast. There will be LOTS of people joining our classes, so please allow extra time for parking if you come on Thursday. Again, our time is 10:25-11:05.
PLEASE remind our students to leave all toys at home! If they bring something in a book bag to play with at day care, etc., they need to be sure and leave it in the book bag. This includes "watches" that are actually toys. Trust me, those things are irresistable to first graders! :-) The MOE website is a great source for upcoming dates and info. Be sure to check it out, as well as Mrs. Rosenthall's weekly family posts! Speaking of weekly posts, I will be skipping next Sunday due to the holidays, but will be back with weekly info on Sunday, December 1. (WOW! Will it really be December already?!?!?) I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING AND IS ABLE TO ENJOY THE LONG HOLIDAY BREAK! These next two weeks in November will be very busy! I will give some highlights here, but please also check out the MOE web page.
-First grade musical performance is Thursday of this week! -Book Fair is open the week of Nov. 18. If you want your child to shop during the school day that is fine, but PLEASE BE SURE any money sent in is labeled "Book Fair". -Thanksgiving Feast....Our class welcomes you to join us at our special time of Thursday, Nov. 21, 10:25-11:05. Meals are $3.45 per person and can be purchased online. Student meal accounts will be used for them as normal. The Book Fair will be open so if you come to lunch, you may want to take your child there afterwards. -There are a variety of giving opportunities sponsored by MOE organizations, (pajama drive, etc.) both right now and as as we approach the holidays. Please see the MOE website for details! IN THE CLASSROOM MATH: Working with word problems with the unknown in ALL places. Example: 2 + _ = 5, _ + 4 = 6, and the unusual... 3 + 4 = _. SCIENCE: Learning about light sources (natural or man made), how light affects shadows. WRITING/GRAMMAR: We just finished our unit about teaching books, and are beginning to write non-fiction chapter books. Using past, present, and future tense verbs. READING: Reading to learn about the world. Working on talking about what we read and STAYING ON TOPIC. There is a lot to keep up with these days, and that will be the case all the way up to 2020! I will try to hit the high points on my weekly updates.
- LIBRARY BOOKS ARE DUE WEDNESDAY! - No Halloween costumes at school, please! Also, please be sure our students DO NOT bring any candy to school with them Friday. Sometimes they think that will be a fun snack - nope! - You may have recently heard that upper grades "Iowa testing" has been cancelled for this year, so parents are once again able to attend lunch with students. :-) - Picture retakes will be Friday, 11/1. A pink 1/2 page form with details was sent home. Call the front office for further info. - Wednesday students will bring home a "progress skills checklist", which breaks down skills more than the report card. This is not a change from reports cards, just more detailed info. Keep the checklist, sign and return the envelope, please. - Reminder: NO TOYS AT SCHOOL. If a child has a toy in their book bag for whatever reason, please remind them it needs to stay inside that book bag until they are not at school. Not only are toys a distraction, but I don't want them to be broken, lost, or stolen. :-( - Students should all know how to log on to ClassLink, find iReady, and work on math &/or reading a few times each week at home. That would be perfect for those days off next week! - No school November 4 & 5. Enjoy! In the classroom this week: MATH: Understanding the meaning of the equal sign, all the ways to make a 10 by using addition. Check out homework tomorrow for examples. WRITING: Continuing our step-by-step books teaching how to do something, including an introduction and maybe a dedication page. Also comparative adjectives (word endings -er, -est...big/bigger/biggest). READING: words with silent e at the end, vowel teams (ea, oa, etc) SCIENCE: investigating light MATH: Monday (tomorrow) we will complete the Unit 2 study in class, and students will bring that home to study as their homework for this week (in addition to reading nightly). The test will be Thursday.
WRITING: More work on writing teaching someone "how to" books! Students are working hard to follow the step by step format we teach. READING: Trying to turn many new words into SNAP WORDS, and then we do not need to sound them out over and over again! Also, being sure to read all the way to the end of each word. Working on knowing who is in a story and what they are doing. SOCIAL STUDIES: Monday students will bring home a page with Ben Franklin info to study. The test will be Friday. Upper grades are testing each morning so MOE has suspended parent lunches during this time. Check the website for more info. MATH: Continuing work with grouping ten items (especially pennies to trade for dimes), graphing and the questions that go along. UNIT 2 TEST WILL BE THURSDAY, OCT. 24. We will work on the study guide in class and students will bring it home to study for their homework NEXT week.
WRITING: Writing to teach others how to do something! READING: Being sure to read all the way to the endings of words, remembering that each syllable has a vowel (for both reading and writing). SOCIAL STUDIES: We begin studying Benjamin Franklin - his contributions to society as well as how his life then is the same or different from our lives now. TEST WILL BE FRIDAY, OCT. 25. I will send home a study guide in the Friday folder. SAVE THE DATE!!! Art Show for 1st and 3rd grade will be Nov. 14. More info to come home between now and then. MATH: More of the same! SOCIAL STUDIES: Reviewing and testing on Our Earth, Our Home. Hope you found the half page study/info guide that I placed in your child's blue folder Friday. WRITING: We begin writing "how to" books, where students teach us about something they know, step by step with a good ending. READING & PHONICS: Looking all the way to the end of a word, using words we know to make new words, words with long vowels and silent e at the end. MATH: Using dimes and pennies to continue working on tens and ones, making groups of tens and "extra ones", "left overs", or "lonely ones". We don't so much use coins for adding up amounts of money per se, but rather to help demonstrate how ten pennies can be traded for one dime. With our graphing we will not focus on questions to compare the different categories, such as how many more, how many fewer, etc. SOCIAL STUDIES: We begin Our Earth, Our Home, the unit where students will learn the continents & oceans, as well as our city, county, state, and country. In this unit we also work on landforms - mountain, valley, coast, and plain. READING: The recent grade for reading was from the topics mentioned in my previous post, primarily focused on reader behaviors. We continue to work on these, as well as how students should work with a partner. WRITING/PHONICS: I will be assessing the kindergarten review sight words that we have been working with daily. We move this week into actual first grade "snap" words. In writing we are building up to students giving me their very best "small moment" story which includes a beginning, middle, end, and some details in both pictures and words. MATH: Beginning a new unit that will start with grouping objects into groups of tens and naming how many are "extra" or "left over", continuing to fill in numbers that are missing, writing numerals
SCIENCE: Finishing up and reviewing our weather unit, TEST ON FRIDAY READING/PHONICS: Being sure students can identify and NAME long and short vowels, not just make the sound but actually identify a sound they hear by using the words SHORT and LONG VOWELS WRITING: Using examples we look at together, students will try to liven up their writing by using a few craft moves (techniques) that authors use MATH: We will continue counting pennies and trading them for dimes as a way to reinforce tens and ones. We work on drawing a bubble or ring around ten pennies in a picture, to show they can be traded for one dime. Sometimes we can draw this bubble more than one time, if we have enough pennies! Several children stop when they draw a bubble, even if there are many pennies left. We will keep working on this understanding.
SOCIAL STUDIES: Continents are going well! We shift our focus now to include the oceans, as well as some basic landforms (mountain, valley, coast & desert), moving on to the basics of where we live (city, county, state, country, continent, and all the corresponding names). Test on all will be October 8. LANGUAGE ARTS: We begin a new unit this week in which students will be WORD DETECTIVES! This is a fun way of looking closely at our words, for reading as well as writing. Curriculum Night and Fun Run!
READING: Dropping bad habits and picking up good ones, like TAKE A SNEAK PEEK, REREAD, DO SOMETHING AT THE END. WRITING: Continuing to focus writing a story on a "small seed" (topic) and adding details. MATH: Reading and writing numerals to 120, knowing the number that comes next or before a random number, interpreting data, representing a number in two or three different ways. SCIENCE: identifying weather patterns, severe weather. |
These are some high points - not a full list....Many topics carry over from week to week. |