Thursday, December 12, 2013

What's Happening in Room 103


This week we read several Jan Brett books including The Mitten, The Hat, and Annie and the Wild Animals. We did our best to identify important story elements, such as genre, setting, characters, and sequence of events.  We also discussed the similarities and differences in each of these books.

The Elf on the Shelf continues to visit the our classroom. Each day the children look forward to finding the new location of Abraham Lincoln.  We chose a great name for our elf.  The presence of our elf has added excitement in to our classroom.

The children took a Chapter 5 Math Test on Tuesday.  We will continue to review related facts even though we are moving on to Chapter 6.

In grammar we continued to work on plural nouns and nouns in a sentence.  Our new concept is action verbs.  Students learned that a verb is an action.  We had fun demonstrating different verbs!

What We’re Learning Next Week:
Reading: All aboard!  First grade will embark on a journey with The Polar Express.  We will read this wonderful book and also watch the movie.  As good readers we will identify story elements which will include genre, characters, setting, and identify our favorite part of the book.  The kids will receive a movie ticket prior to viewing the movie for admittance to the first grade theaters.

Math: Chapter 6 Numbers and Operations in Base Ten (also known as place value).  Please practice counting to 120 by 10’s, 5’s, and 1’s.  We will use manipulatives to help demonstrate our understanding of tens and ones.

Grammar: Students will be practicing action verbs.



Friday, December 6, 2013

It's December!


Can you believe it is already December?  I can't believe how fast this year is flying by, anyways

We all know what it is like to have a bad day and this week we read about a character named Alexander in the story Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, who has one really awful day.  We looked at character traits and what type of character Alexander is based on his actions and words.  We also talked about plot and beginning, middle, end.  We looked at the different settings in the story and how Alexander is feeling as the story progresses.  We even began to write our own story about our made up “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day”. 

A special friend also visited our classrooms.  The Elf on the Shelf made an appearance to each of our rooms.  He is watching us closely to see how we act.  We are journaling each new day with the Elf.

 In math we worked on basic facts to 20 and ways to make 20.  We looked at how to choose an operation when it comes to word problems and figuring out if we are to use subtraction or addition.  We also worked some more on related facts.  We will be taking our chapter 5 test next week on Tuesday.  Please practice by doing the enrichment packet.

In grammar we worked on plural nouns and nouns in a sentence.  We found the different nouns in a sentence and are now able to recognize that a sentence always has a noun.

What We’re Learning Next Week:
Reading: We will be doing a Jan Brett author study this upcoming week.  We will be working on comparing and contrasting the different texts she has written.  Students will work on writing an alternate ending to the stories and being able to explain their favorite parts.  We will work on writing and explaining what we would do if Santa were stuck in our chimney.

Math: Coming up we will be reviewing chapter 5 and then having our chapter 5 test on Tuesday.  We will begin chapter 6.  In chapter 6 we are going to work on counting by ones to 120 and counting by tens to 120.  You can easily practice this skill at home.

Grammar: Students will be practicing action verbs.