Week of November 30

Notes:

Science Project...we will be conducting a classroom science project and completing the assignments together called, "Plop, Plot, Fizz, Fizz". This will ensure that all students will have the experience and receive a certificate. If you wish to do another at home, I'll be happy to send home the forms and information...just let me know!

Dates to Remember:

December 3 - Our last scholastic book order is due before Christmas. Next one will be January. Need books in the car for roadtrips and the upcoming holiday? Need a stocking stuffer? Last one...

December 18 - 10:00-11:00 - First grade holiday party

Our special code word for this week is "Name one of our authors we have studied". Have your child mention this word to me this week and they will receive 5 pennies in their group penny jar!

Our weekly block schedule will be as follows:

Monday PE

Tuesday PE

Wednesday Art

Thursday Music

Friday PE

Reading - We are meeting regularly with our reading groups. Please have the students read their books at home. Most groups need to be reading daily! We are also incorporating a lot of phonics, word blends, and word groups.

We will be working with the short u vowel sound.

Writing - Our focus this 9 weeks is "Writing for Readers: Teaching Skills and Strategies." Here is a checklist of skills we are teaching:

• Writer cycles through writing process, finishing and staring new stories independently.
• Writer writes 8 + narratives across the unit (not a complete page!)
• Writer often stretches out unfamiliar words and records at least initial sound
• Writer represents (correctly OR incorrectly) all the dominant sounds in a word.
• Writer rereads their own writing with 1:1 matching.
• Writer leaves spaces between most words.
• Writer uses lowercase and uppercase letters appropriately.
• Writer uses a growing repertoire of high-frequency words.
• Writer spells and reads unfamiliar words by relying on analogies to familiar words, not just letter by letter, but also by chunks.
• Writer writes with end punctuation.

Math - In first grade, emphasis is placed on introducing the concepts and allowing for practice, not mastery. Listed are the key questions and observable behaviors we are looking for at this point:

• Can students identify a group of objects without counting?
• Can they make a given set?
• Can they interpret patterns using color, position attributes? Can they extend the pattern?
• Can they identify one more/one less?
• Whe changing one quantity to another, can student tell whether to take some away or to get some more?
• Can the correctly record numerals to 30?
• Do students write numerals without a model?
• Can the student verbalize information from the graph?
• Can the student collect data from a variety of sources?

Science - We will be conducting our classroom science fair project this week called, "Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz".

Thanks for all you do!