Jan. 4-8:
When we return we will begin working on similes in our writing. In math we are going to work on months and days to understand calendars better. In social studies we will begin to discuss air. There are several experiments we will do together to help them understand that air has weight and takes up space. Following those lessons we will start talking about the different seasons and how the air is different during those times.
Dec. 14-18:
Next week in writing we are going to be working to still add details to our stories with adjectives. We will use the book, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to grasp the pattern of the book. Then from there we will make our won book either "The Very Hungry Reindeer" or "The Very Hungry Snowman," whichever they decide on. In social studies we will wrap up our Celebrations Around the World and work on something special. In math we will finish up working on addition and subtraction facts to 18.
Dec. 7-11:
Next week in writing we will still be working on making flat sentences fat by adding adjectives. Since the semester is coming to a close very soon we will do our 2nd nine weeks writing assessment. In social studies we will continue to travel around first grade to learn how other cultures celebrate holidays this time of the year. In math we are going to start learning about fact families. We will use what we already know about related facts and learn how to make those into a fact family. Some students need extra practice, so your child might bring home an additional activity for you all to work on to reinforce the skill.
Nov. 16-20
Next week in writing we will continue working on adding adjectives in our writing. Our discussion will be on finding words that "sparkle." In social studies we are going to still be focusing on the past. The lessons are going to be covering how the pilgrims, immigrants, Native Americans, and Columbus all worked together. In math we will finish up our unit on place value and begin talking about patterns; shape and number patterns. In Kindergarten they were exposure to shape patterns quite a bit. This year we will review those but then focus more on additive patterns.
Nov. 9-13
Next week in writing we will start talking about adding elaboration to our sentences. We will be working to add adjectives to help add more elaboration. In social studies we will continue working on our Native American tribe. We are learning how their basic needs were met even back during that time. They will be visiting 3 other first grade teachers to learn about 3 other tribes. Today we learned about the Plains Indians in our class. Next week we will create a teepee that looks similar to those that were in the Plains tribe. In math we will still be talking about place value, but will start comparing numbers and putting them in order.
Oct. 26-30
Next week in writing we are going to be talking about transition words (i.e. first, the, last, etc) and how to use them to describe the steps it takes to grow pumpkins. In science we are going to be talking about plants and that they are things that we need. We will be performing an experiment with lima beans to see how it grows best. This observation will take us several days to complete. In math we are going to continue talking about place value.
Oct. 19-23
This week in writing we are going to be working on adding punctuation to our writing. Review on capitalization and punctuation will be ongoing all year. In social studies we are going to be still covering our unit on careers/jobs, but focus more on needs and wants along with goods and services. In math we will be working on place value. The first grade requirements are to know about the tens and ones place, nothing higher yet. Students mastering the tens and ones place will be challenged in order to get involved in higher level thinking.
Oct. 12-16
Next week in writing we are going to be talking about capitalization. We will be reviewing that all sentences begin with a capital. What lots of the students really need work on in capitalization throughout sentences. This will be an ongoing discussion. In social studies we will take what we know about communities and learn about different careers and how we are able to get those wants and needs because we perform that job. In math we will be focusing on the skills that have been presented over the first nine weeks. Several activities reviewing these skills will be done whole group and independently. The end of the first nine week is Oct. 23rd.
Oct. 5-9
Next week in writing we are going to continue talking about how stories have a beginning, middle, and end. We will be using a "what if" idea to help us learn that stories are more than just the idea, you need those details to make it better. In social studies we are going to be continuing our communities unit, but focus more on map skills. Towards the end of the week we will be working with Flat Stanley. The kids will be bringing home the Flat Stanley they created along with a note. The idea of Flat Stanley is for him to be mailed off to a family member or friend. That person collects information about their community while taking Flat Stanley along. Once they have good information about their area, they will send it back to your child. Then your child will bring it back to school to share about Flat Stanley's adventures. Information will come home with Flat Stanley at the end of next week. In math we are going to be working on subtraction and how to make subtraction combinations.
Sept. 28-Oct. 2
Next week in writing we are going to be talking about all stories having a beginning, middle, and end. This month we will be working with book by the author, Lio Lionni. We will be using our monthly author study to find these parts in stories. In social studies we are going to start talking about communities and neighborhoods. They will learn where they are compared to the world. In math we are going to being working on addition. Many kids might have addition facts memorized, but more importantly they need to know how to use them other than in a number sentence. We will talk about different strategies to solve addition and then how to use those strategies in story problems.
Sept. 14-18
Next week in writing we will be focusing on verbs; what they are and how to make them more vivid in our writing. Our spelling words will follow the short i sound as in sit or pig. We will still be focusing on the proper pencil grip and body posture during handwriting practice along with starting to learn how to write some capital letters correctly. In social studies we will be focusing on our body system. They will learn about the skeletal system, circulatory system, respiratory system, and some dental health. There will be some fun activities that they will participate in to help them grasp how these systems work while working together with the other systems to keep our body functioning. In math we will be working on problem solving. Our focus will be on learning strategies that work and then applying them.
Sept. 1-4
Next week in writing we will start talking about what top quality work looks like and where we get our writing IDEAS from. In social studies we are going to talk about families and how they are a system that works together. In math we are going to explore our math tools and learn why they are important. Then we will be working on collecting data (information) and learning how to fill in a vertical and horizontal graph with that information we gathered.