Hi Parents,
I love the week before report cards! It's so rewarding to see the growth of the students over the last quarter. Everyone has worked so hard and their efforts are really paying off. Please make sure you are paying special attention to all the graded work coming home. There should be no surprises when you get your child's report card! Check out below to see what we've been doing in class this week!
Phonics/Grammar: We learned all about the oi/au/ow sounds. We created a word chart with all of our target words, we practiced writing our words on our whiteboards, we completed a make-a-word activity in our journals, and we played a spelling squares game containing our words. We also learned about correct subject verb agreement and incorporating this into our writing. As a parent, I know it is sometimes hard to constantly correct your child's incorrect grammar when they speak, but it really is important as this transfers over to their writing. Please be aware that this correct grammar is now a standard on our 3rd and 4th quarter report card. One common mistake in first grade is using "was" when "were" is the correct verb (they was instead of they were). Another mistake is using "is" when "are" is the correct verb.
Reading: We reviewed how to retell fiction and nonfiction stories. We also reviewed how to write the main idea of a story for each category. I read the children several books and modeled this process. Then the children had the opportunity to listen to two stories and retell them (The Secret Shortcut and Our Capital). We practiced expanding our vocabulary and our fluency by reading out of Junior Great Books Anthology. We used these challenging stories to practice the skill of decoding unfamiliar words as well.
Writing: We read several different books about Theodore Roosevelt. We then wrote informational papers all about Theodore Roosevelt. Our focus on this writing was keeping like ideas together in the paper as well as writing about his life in sequential order (early life, adult life, accomplishments). You will find this paper in your child's folder today. There are FOUR grades on this; the top grade is how your child wrote showing the genre specific characteristics, then there is a grade for capitalization/punctuation, subject/verb agreement and grammar, and spelling. Please take a minute to read over these stories!
Math: This week, we learned some strategies for solving word problems containing tricky clue words or missing information instead of a missing sum or difference. We talked about going through the problem one sentence at a time and processing the information slowly and through pictures. We also played several games in our math journals, practicing ways to decompose numbers. This is a really important skill and shows how well your child understands number sense. To help your child in this area, you can give them a target number, such as 17. Then ask them to tell you all the ways they can make that number (20-3, 16+1, 10+7, etc. ) Your child's answers should contain addition and subtraction sentences.
Social Studies: This week, we learned all about Theodore Roosevelt and his work in the area of conservation.
Class News and Reminders...
Congratulations to Miranda Samiec for being chosen as this week's Teacher's Helper!!!
Please help remind your children to read their 2 required AR books sometime during the week! Some children are forgetting and trying to read books and take tests on Friday, which is our busiest day of the week. The children are given many opportunities during the week to be able to take these tests, but it does require some independence and responsibility on their part. Remember, we are trying to prepare for 2nd grade!
All permission slips and money for field trips was due today. If you haven't turned in these forms, please do so on Monday.
Thank you, Mrs. Conner, for taking on the task of tie-dying our field trip shirts for us! She's a brave woman!
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