Monday, September 23, 2013

Finishing off September!



Classroom News
This past week we continued working on reading nonfiction text.  We went further into Africa and learned about why animals live in groups through the story Safety in Numbers.  This text guided us as we learned how to formulate our own questions and wonderings as we read and how to look for the answers to these questions.  We had a lot of different questions about animal groups and the way different animals live.  We were also very curious about predator and prey relationships.  We learned new vocabulary this week.  Our vocabulary words we practiced were charge, herd, flock, colony, shelter, predator, prey, and calf.  We practiced these all week long!!  We learned colony, herd, and flock are different names for different types of animal groups.

In math we continued working on subtraction and learned how to take away all or zero.  We also practiced taking away from 10.

Important Info:
Student's need to work on mastering their kindergarten sight words.  These words are essential to becoming a proficient reader.  Once these sight words are mastered students will then be able to move on and work on mastering their first grade words.  Please practice these words at home with your child.  A sight word is a word that you cannot sound out and it does not follow any specific phonetic pattern.

What We’re Learning This Week:
Reading: We will be continuing with nonfiction text reading about Big Cats and how they are different from normal house cats.  We will continue to work on finding the main idea and key details to support the main idea.  Our vocabulary for the week is: food chain, litter, camouflage, stalks, bursts, dodges, throat, and stole.
Math: We are going to be having our Chapter 2 math test on Tuesday.  Work on the enrichment packet for more challenging work.  We will begin Chapter 3.  Students will learn to add in any order, count on, and add doubles.
Grammar: We will be working on telling sentences.  It is a statement.  It begins with a capital and usually ends with a period.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Just So You Know

Hi Parents,

I just wanted to remind you that there is an informational RTI meeting tonight at Giles.  It is at 6:30 in Anderson Hall.  All students are involved in the RTI process so it would be beneficial to come and hear about the process and what RTI involves.

A second note- parents who are interested in ordering scholastic books online may do so.  They will be able to see a wider selection of books and can order through our classroom and they will be delivered here to Giles.  It is super easy to get started.  Simply go to clubs2.scholastic.com say that you are a parent.  Then it will ask you for your teacher's code.  Our classroom code is: JD2DZ.  Simply enter that in all caps and you will be good to go!  I know this is sometimes easier than sending in checks or worrying about cash etc.  Just wanted to let you know!

Also, some of your children went on the enriched spelling list this week.  Please check their F.R.O.G. folder's for their list.

Have a great rest of your week.

Justinne Nikchevich

Friday, September 6, 2013

Classroom Happenings

Classroom News
Thank you to those parents who came out to our curriculum night on Thursday.  We really appreciate you coming out to hear all about first grade. 

In reading this week we talked about events in a story.  We did this by reading the story The Napping House.  We talked about all the different events in this story.  We then worked together by reading the story Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse and students placed the events in order with guided practice.  They recognized that stories have a beginning, middle, and end.  Thanks to our practice with setting and character students were also able to point this out while reading.

In math this week we worked on addition to 10.  We also had our first chapter test after lots of reviewing.  We are confident our students put forth their best effort.

Looking forward to learning about non-fiction text next week.  Have a wonderful weekend and a great week next week.

Miss Nikchevich