Miss England's First Grade Class

Winter Literacy Day- Winter Literacy Day was a huge success! The students had a wonderful time traveling through each station.  A sheet came home with your child, on Friday that explained, in detail, what each center consisted of. Ask your child about their favorite activity.

Holiday Party- Please make sure you check your child's GATOR Notebook for a letter regarding our class holiday party. The holiday party will be this coming Thursday, December 17^th from 1:15-2:00. I have assigned each child an item to bring in to help with our party.  If you are unable to send in your item, please let me know so we can plan accordingly. We are also asking for a “wrapped” age appropriate book ($5.00 or less) for our class book exchange. You may send in your assigned item/book in anytime before Thursday if you like.

End of the 2^nd Nine Weeks- We are wrapping up our second nine weeks in first grade. We will be having several paper/pencil assessments the next few days to check student's understanding and mastery of standards. Please continue to read as often as you can with your student. Practice modeling fluency of text and voice expression as you read aloud with your child. Please keep in mind that reading not only involves recall of words, but also comprehension. We have really been working on independent story comprehension this marking period. Every time your child finishes a book, he/she should be able to tell you about the main characters, the setting, the story problem and the solution. As your child retells the story to you, events should be sequential and major details should be recalled. If you notice your child has difficultly with these comprehension elements, the text they have selected is too hard. Please keep in mind that nonfiction text is more difficult to comprehend than fiction.

Math - This week, we spent time reviewing different types of graphs. Students worked on creating bar graphs, picture graphs, and tally tables. Next week, we will spend some time reviewing skip counting, using a number line and addition and subtraction to 12. The children have the most difficultly with skip counting patterns that go backwards. For example ___, 86,84,__,__,__, 76,__ Please continue to work on addition and subtraction facts to 12 at home. The children need to recall facts with ease. They need to practice counting money amounts up to 50 cents with mixed amounts of coins and 20 dollars with mixed bill amounts.

Language Arts/Phonics/Words Their Way- In language arts we continued with our assigned story of the week. We read the story Whistle for Willie. We continued to learn about main and minor characters, primary and secondary settings, and identifying the relationships between the characters. In phonics and Words Their Way, we continue to work on blending short vowel words with and without blends smoothly. We have been discussing and reading long vowel words that end with the silent e or “Magic E”. We are learning about the s, l and r blends. Most everyone has mastered our sight words for this nine week period! Way to go!

Writing- We have been working on writing pattern books.  The students learned that you repeat the pattern of words on each page.  They have learned that pattern books are easy and fun to write.  This week we will continue to work on writing and reading pattern books.

Social Studies- This week in Social Studies we finished our unit on Thomas Jefferson. Students learned many important things about his contributions to our country. Ask your child to tell you a fact they learned about him. This week we will begin learning about Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea.  

Specials Schedule:

M- Art

T- No specials

W- PE

Th- Technology

F- PE

Important Dates:

Thursday, December 17- Holiday Party )1:15-2:00)

Friday, December 18- School-wide Sing Along (1:15 - 2:00pm)

December 21 - January 4-Winter Holidays

*Please be on the look out for information regarding our holiday party. *

Math: EQ: How can I make fair trades using combinations of coins to 50 cents? This week we revisited counting money. Students practiced making amounts to 50 cents. Students worked with a partner to complete a money exemplar where they had to figure out what coins were used to make 47 cents. They were given the total amount of coins used, but needed to figure out which combination of coins equaled 47 cents. They represented their answers using pictures, words, and numbers. They also compared amounts of money using greater than, less than, and equal to. Please work with your child at home to reinforce making combinations to 50 cents.

Language Arts:  EQ: How can understanding story elements help me become a better reader?
We worked on reading to find the main character, setting, problem, and solution of a story.  These are all important elements that can be found in most good stories. Being able to identify these elements helps readers develop better reading comprehension. This week’s story was The Little Red Hen Makes Pizza.  The students created their own pizza slice which incorporated the story elements.  Ask your child what each part of their pizza represented. To sum up our week of story elements, we made our own mini pizzas to enjoy!

We also learned what cause and effect is. Students listened to the story Are You Grumpy Santa and learned how to identify the cause and effect in the story. We created a class Multi Flow Map, which is one of our thinking map graphic organizers, to display our understanding of cause and effect. Students learned that the “cause” in a story is what makes something happen and the “effect” is what happens.

Writing: EQ: How can I use patterns to help me become a better writer? We learned that patterns are not just for math.  You can actually find and use patterns in your reading and writing. We read and looked for patterns in books. Then we learned how easy it is to write using a pattern.  We made a class book this week.  Next week students will have the chance to make their own pattern book.

Social Studies: EQ: Why is Thomas Jefferson an important historical figure? This week we began to learn about Thomas Jefferson. We made a KWL chart about Thomas Jefferson and created a timeline of his important life events. Next week we will learn about the Declaration of Independence and why the 13 colonies were important.

Reminders:

* Please make sure your child is reading their Reader’s Theater scripts daily. Make sure they are returned on Friday so students can perform them for the class.

* Please send in your assigned Winter Literacy Day item by Thursday.

1.    Saturday, December 5- PTA Holiday Shoppe and Pancake Breakfast- 9:00am-12:00 pm

2.    Thursday, December 10- Santa Family Projects are due.

3.    Friday, December 11- Winter Literacy Day

Specials Schedule: December 7-11

M- PE

T-Technology

W- PE

Th- Music

F- PE

What We Worked On This Week:

Donations needed for our room: We are still in need of the following supplies. I would be grateful for any donations that you are able to make.

~gumdrops

~paper plates

~Styrofoam bowls

~colored glitter

This week we began our unit on shapes. We reviewed what a plane shape was (circle, triangle, square, rectangle, pentagon, and hexagon) and talked about how many sides and corners these shapes have. Students “built” these shapes using marshmallows and toothpicks and they used pattern blocks to create their own shape picture. We also learned what a 3 dimensional shape was (cube, cone, cylinder, rectangular prism, and sphere). Students will begin rotating through geometry centers next week.   

Language Arts: EQ: How do I use what I know to understand how stories work?

This week’s story focused on using pictures to predict story words and how to use clues to figure out new words and concepts. Students often encounter new words as they read. By using the words they know and other clues, they can figure out these words connect with what they are reading. We also reviewed the digraphs (sh, th, ch, wh) and the blends (cl, pl, fl, and bl). Next week we will learn about compound words and how to use a dictionary to look up words.

Writing- EQ: How can we add details to our personal narrative?

This week in writing we continued to learn about personal narratives. We learned that adding details, like describing words and phrases, make our writing more interesting. Students also wrote a turkey story as if they were the turkey that might be eaten for Thanksgiving Dinner. They used great “hooks” to get the readers attention!

Friday, November 13^th- Turkey project due

Specials Schedule: Nov.9-13

M- Music

T- PE

W-Art

Th-PE

F-Technology

Donations needed for our room: We have several activities coming up that will require some extra supplies. I would be grateful for any donations that you are able to make.

~gumdrops

~tooth picks

~mini marshmallows

~paper plates

~Styrofoam bowls

~colored glitter

Math: EQ- How can a number line help me add and subtract numbers? What do the words skip counting mean? This week we worked on counting forward and backwards on a number line. Students learned that this strategy will help them when they are adding and subtracting numbers. We also practiced skip counting by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s. Some students are still struggling with counting by 2’s. We will continue to practice during our calendar time. Please reinforce this concept with your child at home as well.  Next week we will begin our geometry unit.

Language Arts: EQ: How can making connections help me become a better reader?

This week in language arts we learned that “good readers” make connections to what they are reading.

We learned that as you make connections during your reading, STOP and THINK about how they help you deepen your understanding of the text.

T-T (text to text) How does the text remind you of another text?

T-S (text to self) How does the text remind you of your life?

T-W(text to world) How does the text remind you of the

world?

We also talked about blends and digraphs. Students went on a digraph hunt. They looked for words around the room and in their book boxes that began with or ended with sh,th,wh,ch. We made a tree map of blends ((bl,pl,cl,sl) and talked about how they help us when we are sounding out are words.

Writing- EQ: What is a personal narrative?

This week in writing students began to learn that a personal narrative is a story about their own lives. They learned that the words I, me, my, and mine are words that are used in a personal narrative. Students brainstormed possible topics to write about and they learned how to narrow their topic down to write about one event. Next week, students will begin to write a narrative on their chosen topic.

Social Studies- EQ: How has Benjamin Franklin contributed to our world today?

We continued to learn about Benjamin Franklin this week. We talked about Franklin’s character traits, his famous quotes, and how his inventions are used in our lives today. On Monday, we will have a first grade museum tour of their projects as an ending to our unit on Benjamin Franklin. Students will get to see how other first grade students celebrate the life of Benjamin Franklin.

Science: EQ: How are magnets important in our daily life?

Next week we will begin our unit on magnets.

Important Dates/Reminders:

Tuesday, November 3^rd- No School

Wednesday, November 4^th- Domino’s Night

Thursday, November 5^th- PTA Meeting and 5^th grade performance

Specials Schedule: Nov.2-6

M- Art

T- No School

W-PE

Th-Technology

F-PE