Hi Parents,
I can't believe it is already October! Where is this year going??? We had a great week. I enjoyed learning about all the historical figures who have contributed to our country this week. The kids who participated enjoyed lunch and a movie in the room today. Be on the lookout for the next opportunity coming soon! Also, AR parent volunteers are beginning on Oct. 4th. I added all the October volunteers to the specials calendar. If you are signed up to help, please be here at 9:40. You will be finished around 10:15. I am also sending an email with more specific instructions...be on the lookout later today. Check out what we've been doing this week in room 205!
Phonics: This week, we learned all about the st blend. We also reviewed when to use "ck" instead of just "k" at the end of words (always when the "k" sound is followed by a short vowel). We worked in our word study notebooks to sort words beginning with the s, t, and st sounds. We used our white boards to practice word and sentence writing.
Reading: This week, we continued our work on story retelling. We listened to the story Mr. Cricket Finds a Home and Roller Coaster and then we retold the story independently showing our knowledge of characters, setting, and four events. We also read books in small groups to work on fluency. We completed independent contract pages to work on such skills as comprehension, phonics, and capitalization and punctuation. We also worked one-on-one with Mrs. W to practice our reading.
Writing: This week, we learned how to incorporate transition words into our writing to show a sequential order of events. We began talking about the important components of a personal narrative. By December, your child should be able to write an eight sentence paragraph with a topic sentence, six detail sentences with transition words, and a closing sentence. This paragraph should be a well developed story about a personal event in your child's life. I will be giving out the Personal Narrative Rubric at our October conference, or you can view the rubric on Picasso. Handwriting Club also began this week. If your child is struggling with legibility when writing, I am providing an extra 5-10 minutes of practice during the first part of recess four days a week.
Math: This week, we explored place value up to 50. The children learned all about how to determine the value of each digit in a number, how to write a number in expanded form, written form and tens and ones, and we learned how to use models to show place value. We visited the computer lab with our book buddies and completed three tasks involving place value and addition practice. We also worked extensively on solving word problems involving repeated addition. I was so impressed with the higher level thinking going on while working on these word problems!
Science: We completed our unit on the seasons this week. The children read out of their science workbook and answered comprehension questions about the text.
Class News and Reminders...
COGAT testing is next week! What does this mean for you? Please make sure your child gets adequate sleep each night (first graders should be ASLEEP by 8:00) and eats a nutritious breakfast each morning. Some "brain foods" are eggs, bananas, peanut butter, oranges, and oatmeal. Please avoid sugary cereals or food first thing in the morning on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. If you don't think sugar affects children, come to my room the day after Halloween! In all seriousness, we want to make sure the kids are able to really perform to their true ability. This test is a group administered IQ test and is used to partially determine your child's eligibility for advanced learning classes here at Kemp.
Thank you, Mrs. Vansant, for providing our class with the skittles we are going to use for a graphing project next week!
Congratulations to Aubrey Byrd for being chosen as this week's Teacher's Helper! Way to go on your excellent behavior!
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