January 28th Update...

Dear Parents,

Thank you for visiting today!  We've had a wonderful week and I hope you find the following information useful.  The section below, separated by subject, is designed to keep you informed of the exact curriculum  standards that we are covering in first grade. I try to put the sometimes not so friendly education terms into a more parent friendly language! Check out the Class News section below for some very important reminders.

Phonics/Grammar:  This week, we learned the three most common spelling patterns of the long e sound.  We learned to sort and spell words containing these sounds.  We also worked this week learning to sort verbs by tense (past and present).  We reviewed ABC order as well.

Reading:  We read the book Eva the Beekeeper and learned to identify nonfiction text features and their purposes.  We worked in small groups to challenge us in reading. We focused on skills such as oral reading fluency with a special emphasis on paying attention to punctuation, using various strategies to decode unfamiliar words, and locating nonfiction text features in periodicals.  We are enjoying our chapter book, Shiloh, and have done many comprehension activities to gain a deeper understanding of the characters in this book.

Math:  We learned all about fractions this week.  We learned the three ways to represent fractions (picture, number, word).  We learned important vocabulary words such as equal parts, numerator, denominator.  We also compared fractions.  We worked on word problems that use repeated addition in the solution, and we played a game to review number representation to 100.  We also worked in small groups on 2nd grade challenge activities! 

Writing:  This week in writer's workshop, we not only reviewed the importance of including a topic and closing sentence in a paragraph, but we also learned how to organize our details and then come up with a plan to write them  in a logical order.  Students worked on completing their Dolphin papers as well as writing a paper on Harriet Tubman.

Social Studies:  This week, we learned all about Harriet Tubman and Theodore Roosevelt.  We learned about the many contributions these historical figures gave to our country.

Class News...

Congratuations to Kate Henry, our Teacher's Helper this week!  Way to go, Kate!

Congratulations goes to our IXL contest winners; Josie Kwan, Eric Kho, Skye Taylor and Blake Petty!  Way to go on all that hard work and extra practice. 

Thank you to Mrs. DeFreece and Mrs. Gohlke for working in the classroom  this week while I  attended a team  meeting! 

Thank you to our AR helpers this week, Mrs. Turner and Mr. Garcia!

Parents, if  you so graciously offered to donate items for our 100th day trail mix, please send in those items Monday or Tuesday.

Remember, Feb. 2 is now a FULL school day!  No early release as we are making up time from  the snow days.

Feb. 1st is the last day to order yearbooks! The yearbooks are $30.

In your child's blue folder, you will find your child's personal accomplishments with IXL during our contest weeks. Remember, this is a great website for those struggling with math OR for those needing a challenge in this area!  My students have been encouraged to go to other grade level activities to push themselves.  Please continue to encourage work at home on this site even though our contest has ended for now.

Parents, many of your children have successfully completed all the addition and subtraction superstar fact family quizzes.  After the -7, -8, and -9 combined quiz, your child will take a "mixed addition" test followed by a "mixed subtraction" test.  I have to congratualate the students for all their hard work. Memorizing these facts has really shown to be beneficial in the other areas of math.