Community Helpers

Classroom News

Reading: Our unit on community helpers has come to a close.  Students really enjoyed learning about the responsibilities of those we see in our community on a daily basis. 

Math: Students began working on subtraction.  We used visual representations as well as manipulatives to help with our subtraction.  A few new vocabulary words we learned include: difference, minus, subtraction sentence and subtract.  We also began Gumball Math.  Students have taken a couple of timed tests with fifty fact problems.  In order to progress onto the next level of difficulty, students must earn a 100%.

Writing: The writer’s workshop has continued.  Students have had opportunities to review how to write a story and label pictures associated with their small moment stories.

What We’re Learning Next Week:

Reading: Robert Munsch is a famous children’s author that we will highlight.  His books are quite humorous for adults and children.  If you have the opportunity to get to the library please check out the Robert Munsch section.  Students will be reading multiple books and completing activities linked to the books we read.

Math: Subtraction practice will continue.  We will use pictures to help us subtract, subtract zero, and take apart numbers.  An assessment is planned for the week of Sept. 22^nd.

Writing: Students are doing well with the writing process.  Encourage your child to write a small moment story at home.                          

Phonemic Awareness:

Inflected Endings –s

The letter s can stand for the sound /s/ or /z/.

Inflected Ending –ing

When reading words with –ing, take off the –ing and read the base word first.

Important Information

Please make sure your child has a healthy snack.  Chips, cookies and donuts are discouraged.  One snack and one drink is sufficient for snack.

Important Dates:

S.I.P. Day 9/17

Progress Reports go home 9/19

October 3

Teacher Institute

No School

Main Topic with Community!

Classroom News

Reading: Our new unit on community helpers and community workers began this week.  We read several books and identified the main topic.  Students used a graphic organizer to note the main topic and also labeled pictures of community helpers from the books we read.  A great website that we used this week is wegivebooks.org.  Please check out this free resource at your leisure.

Math: Students wrapped up Chapter 1.  We spent time manipulating addends to come up with the sums 8, 9 and 10 and also learned how to add in any order.  Students had a summative assessment on Friday.

Writing: The writer’s workshop has continued.  Students have had opportunities to review how to write a story and label pictures associated with their small moment stories.

  

What We’re Learning Next Week:

Reading: We will continue our Community Helper theme for one more week.  Students will focus their learning on firefighters and police officers.  The main topic will be identified and students will learn to use multiple labels with their illustrations.

Math: Subtraction Concepts (Chapter 2) will begin on Monday.  This chapter will teach students about comparison equations or problems with language such as more than, fewer than and how many more.  Students will also learn about problems that take from.  Take from problems involve situations where a number of things are removed from a total group.  Our final type of subtraction problem is considered a take apart problem.  Take apart problems involve situations in which there is a whole group separated into 2 smaller groups.

Phonemic Awareness:

Short o

When there is only one vowel at the beginning or in the middle of a word, the vowel usually stands for its short sound.

Ex. pot, rock

Main Character and Setting!

Classroom News

Reading: Students continued to read fictional stories and identify the characters and setting of each story. A few of the entertaining stories we read this week included First Grade Stinks, Peanut Butter Homework Sandwiches, and Arthur’s New Puppy. Students did an exceptional job identifying the characters and setting.

Math: Students continued working on addition. We learned about adding zero and using a bar model to help with our addition.

Writing: First grade has started the Writer’s Workshop. Students wrote about a small moment, something that has happened to them or something that they did. We learned how to 1) think of an idea; 2) plan a story; 3) write. 

What We’re Learning Next Week:

Reading: Community workers and helpers is our next topic of study.  Students will read information text (nonfiction books) and learn how to ask and answer questions about key details in a text.  We will also describe  connection between two things in a text (people, events, ideas, pieces of information).  Finally, we will use illustrations in a text to describe key ideas.

Math: Chapter 1 will come to an end. Students will have an assessment prior to the end of the week. Please complete the practice test that will be sent home for homework. It is a great way to practice skills and concepts covered throughout the chapter. 

Welcome Back!

Dear First Grade Family,

Welcome back to school!  I hope you are as excited as I am to start a brand new school year.  My name is Miss Nikchevich and I will be your child’s teacher this year.  I am very excited to have your child in my class and am looking forward to getting to know your child and your family.  This is an exciting year for your child.  Your child will make so much growth throughout the course of this year in reading, math, and socially.  With both of our support your child will be sure to succeed!

This year we will be learning new sight words, making important meaning out of both fiction and nonfiction text, and working on our reading fluency.  In math we will be little mathematicians as we work on adding and subtracting numbers within 20, learning about geometry, and measuring concepts.  We will learn how to be writers and authors.  Students will be writing stories and using rich language to enhance their writing while focusing on one main idea.  It is going to be a BUSY year!

Your child is allowed to bring a snack for the morning.  We have a long morning so I do recommend sending them with something healthy to eat.  Please stay away from chips and dessert foods.

I am thrilled that the year is beginning and I know we will be off to a great start!  Please let me know if you have any questions or comments along the way.  My email is jnikchevich@norridge80.net.  Follow along as we progress through the year through our classroom webpage.  You will find information from our newsletter, spelling lists, homework information, and specials schedules listed on our class website!

Looking forward to a great year!

Miss Nikchevich

We Can Make a Claim!

Classroom News

Reading: Students continued learning about the author’s purpose and making a claim to support that purpose.  Our week centered around informative books.  We selected and read books which taught facts.  A student favorite of the week was a book entitled Pop!  This book taught students about the history of bubble gum.  Kids were entertained by the book and also learned new information.  Then, we cited evidence from the text supporting our claim of reading an informative book.  The evidence we cited was in written form.  We are doing a great job with making a claim!

Math: Students continued preparing for second grade math by adding double digits and learning about repeated addition.  We also continued to practice counting mixed coins.

Grammar: First grade has mastered using the art of pronouns!

What We’re Learning Next Week:

Reading: We will spend our final week in school making a claim to support the author’s purpose.  This time the selections will be mixed.  Students will read a variety of books on persuasion as well as informative and entertaining books.  Just like last week, students will read a selection, identify the author’s purpose and make a claim using evidence from the text. 

Math: We will continue to spend time on money while also preparing for second grade math.

Grammar: Students will be reviewing topics taught throughout the year.

Phonemic Awareness:

Students will spend time reviewing sounds and vowel combinations taught throughout the year.

Non Fiction Text Features and Life Cycles

Reading: Our knowledge of life cycles certainly has heightened as we spent another week on this topic.  We really enjoyed learning about turtles, apes, and chickens.  We continued to identify text features and visual features.  These informative features really help us learn more about the topic we are reading about.  When reading a nonfiction selection at home or at the library, please have your child point out any text and/or visual features.   

Math: Students began learning about money.  We introduced the penny and nickel.  We spent time identifying these coins, counting these mixed coins, and making change.  This is challenging to many students so please do your best to practice at home.  We also began to prepare for second grade math.  We took first grade topics and really advanced the skill level.  For example, we returned to the topic of place value but increased our numbers to over 100!  Way to go first graders.  We also worked on greater than and less than with numbers over 100.

Grammar: Students did well learning about pronouns for girls (she), boys (he), things (it), and groups (we).

What We’re Learning Next Week:

Reading: Next week we learn about making a claim to support the author’s purpose.  Students are already familiar with author’s purpose (persuade, inform, and entertain).  This may sound like a mature goal and subject but keep in mind we will read selections about persuasion and discuss what the author is trying to persuade us to do or to think.  We will practice this with many fiction books.  We will use the text to support our claim and prove it.

Math: Our study of money will continue.  Students will learn about a dime and a quarter.  We will also continue to prepare for second grade by advancing our first grade skills.  We will continue with place value and learn about addition and subtraction function tables.

Grammar: Pronouns will continue for another week.  We will focus on the the pronouns I and me which will take the place of a name.  Use I in the subject of the sentence.  Use me after an action verb.

Ex. I invent things.

      My friend Kim helps me.

                         

Phonemic Awareness:

The letters aw  and au can stand for the vowel sound in ball.

The letters ea can stand for the short e sound or the long e sound.  The context provides the clue to the pronunciation.

Important Dates:

ABC Schedule

5/19 No Homework Day

5/20 Once Upon a Time

5/21 Picnic Day: bring a blanket!

5/22 Fun Day!

5/23 Read Outside Day 

"Whoooooooo is Telling the Story" Point of View in First!

Classroom News

Reading: Students began to learn about point of view.  First person point of view is when the character is telling the story.  Clue words students should look for include I, me, my, and our.  Third person point of view is when the author or narrator is telling the story.  Clue words students can look for include he, she, him, they, and them.  We will continue this topic for another week.

Math: We began working on Chapter 12-Two-Dimensional Geometry.  Students practiced how to sort and describe two-dimensional shapes based on the number of straight sides and vertices.

Grammar: Students practiced giving and acting out commands.

What We’re Learning Next Week:

Reading: First grade is going to be very busy next week!  Students will continue to practice point of view.  We will also continue to engage students in a read aloud of a first person or a third person selection.  Then, we will identify the point of view as well as some evidence from the text.  If time permits, we will do a bit of role playing from the perspective of several characters in our selections.  Finally, we will write a letter from the perspective of a character in one of our selections to truly reinforce point of view.

Math: Chapter 12 Two Dimensional Geometry

Students will work on finding shapes in existing shapes, take apart two-dimensional shapes, identify equal and unequal parts, and begin learning about halves and fourths.

Grammar: Exclamations

An exclamation is a sentence that shows strong feeling.

Ex.             School is a blast!

            Pride night was awesome!

Phonemic Awareness:

Diphthong ou /ou/

Sometimes the letters ou stand for the dipthong /ou/.  In a dipthong, each vowel contributes to the sound.