Classroom Happenings!

Hope you are all keeping warm!  Here is what we have been up to this past week:

Reading: This week first grade focused on famous inventors and their wonderful contributions that enhanced our lives. We began our week with Benjamin Franklin. The kids learned how Ben proved that lightening is electricity. We also read about bifocal glasses, a Franklin stove, and a long arm. Our next inventor was Thomas Edison, who invented over 1000 things! His long list of inventions includes the telegraph, Morse code, and the light bulb. Our inventor unit ended with Alexander Graham Bell. Please ask your child what Bell is famous for.

Math: Place value has continued. The kids continued to demonstrate numbers using tens and ones. We also learned how to represent a number in two different ways with tens and ones.

Grammar: Action verbs continued 

What We’re Learning Next Week: 

Reading: Our genre of literature for the next two weeks will be fiction. Students will read books that encompass a Winter Theme as we can’t get enough of the cold and snow! As we read these frosty fiction books, we will stress basic story elements. Those elements include beginning, middle, end, characters, setting, events, problem, and solution.

Math: There will be a Chapter 6 test on Tuesday. We rarely give homework over the weekend. However, we ask that you complete the practice test in preparation for the actual test on Tuesday. We will begin Chapter 7-Compare Numbers (greater than and less than) on Wednesday.

Grammar: Students will be practicing verbs that do not add –s. 

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.

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.

Thanksgiving Is Here!

This Week:

This week we compared and contrasted a fiction and a nonfiction text.  We looked at the similarities and differences between the two and our reasons for why we might choose to read a fiction or a nonfiction text.  We talked about how we read nonfiction to learn new information and to learn, and we read fiction for entertainment.  We also started a mini unit reading A Turkey for Thanksgiving.  Students had the opportunity to work on a variety of comprehension skills as we read this story.  We talked about character traits, cause and effect, problem and solution, and the plot of the story.

We continued with chapter 5.  We worked on identifying related facts and understanding how we know if addition and subtraction facts are related.  We also worked on using addition to check subtraction and how to use a related to find a missing number.

What We’re Learning Next Week:

Reading: When we come back from break we will be reading the story Alexander and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.  As we read we will be working on character traits, problem and solution, and identifying words and phrases that appeal to ones feelings.

Math: Coming up students will work on choosing when to add and when to subtract word problems.  Students will work on adding and subtracting in different ways to make the same number up to 20.  They will continue with more algebra and deciding if a number sentence is true or false.

Grammar: Students will practice plural nouns by adding an (s).

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy the holiday.  I am looking forward to seeing all your children rested and rejuvenated for the final few weeks heading into Christmas Break.

Week of Veteran's Day

Classroom News

Reading: This week we continued to work on main topic and key details.  We applied this skill to a nonfiction story about pilgrims.  We read about the pilgrims voyage to America.  We made a turkey that listed the key details from the text and the main idea.  It was a fun activity to do to display our knowledge of main idea and key details.

Math: We just began chapter 5.  We started working on making models to add and subtract and how models will help us to solve the problem.

In grammar we worked on holidays, months, and days of the week.  We know that these should always be capitalized.

Grammar: Thank you parents and guardians for coming to parent-teacher conferences.  We appreciate your time and your interest in how your child is doing in the classroom.

What We’re Learning Next Week:

Reading: Next week we will be comparing two texts on Thanksgiving.  One will be a nonfiction text and the second will be a fiction text.  We will examine their similarities and differences.  We will look at plot, main idea and key details, characters, setting, problem, and solution.  It will be a busy week and will lead us all the way through until Thanksgiving.

Math: We will continue to work on Chapter 5.  We will be working on related facts.  We will identify related facts, use addition to check subtraction, and find the missing numbers.

Grammar: We are working on nouns and sentences.  Students will start to have grammar homework.  Please be on the lookout for these worksheets. 

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Please don't forget that parent-teacher conferences are this week.  They are on Wednesday and Thursday.  Check to make sure that you know what time you are supposed to come in.  I look forward to seeing you all to discuss the progress of your child.  If you don't remember your scheduled time please contact me so I can let you know when you are supposed to come in.  Have a great week and I will see you in the next few days!

First Week Of November!

Classroom News

This week we really worked hard on main topic and key details in a nonfiction text.  We read a variety of nonfiction texts to aid in our understanding of finding the main topic and the key details that support it.  We read many books on heroes.  We looked at different heroes from different time periods and focused on why they were important.  We also talked about Veteran’s Day.

We finished up with Chapter 4 in math and are going to be beginning Chapter five this upcoming week.  Chapter 4 was a difficult chapter but we are happy to move on!  This chapter focused more on the concepts behind subtraction, but we understand many students are able to use their own strategies to solve problems.

In grammar we worked on proper nouns and titles.  We even started to recognize proper nouns in our writing and reading.

What We’re Learning Next Week:

Reading: Next week we will be continuing to explore main idea and key details.  We will be reading nonfiction texts about pilgrims and Thanksgiving.  Students will be learning important information about Thanksgiving while also learning how to find the main idea and the supporting key details.  We will work on some important vocabulary words like pilgrim, Plymouth Rock, Mayflower, harbor, crop, plantation, village, and trundle.

Math: We will begin to introduce chapter 5. This new chapter will focus on addition and subtraction relationships.  Next week we will work on problem solving, how to record related facts which helps us to find missing numbers, and how to identify related facts.

Grammar: We will be continuing to work on titles and move on to holidays, months, and days of the week.