World Travel Geography- First Stop, India! 12/5-12/9

Things just keep getting busier and busier in first and second grade.  We traveled to India and on Monday we will be heading to China!  We learned about Diwali, we made rangoli flower patterns and painted elephants! Mr. Rector, the principal from Richmond and UCS parent, stopped in to share about his time in India! We looked at the geography of India and learned how diverse it is.  India has rainforests, snow capped mountains,  deserts and the Bay of Bengal.  We learned that India is on the continent of Asia. It was so much fun.  Here is what the rest of our week looked like.

Learning highlights from the week:

• Math- First grade students have been using their understanding of partners to 10 and doubles facts to add problems with 3 digits.  (4

• +2+6=? WE KNOW 6+4=10, therefore 10+2=12)  Second graders continue to work on word problems.  We have also been practicing our doubles facts.  ( 5+5, 6+6, 8+8 etc)  We are doing so well that on Friday the students earned a game day!

• Reading- Students are working on learning various phonics patterns.  Some groups are wrapping up digraph sounds.  These are ch, sh, th, wh, and ck.  Next week we will be moving on to glued sounds and blends.  We will start with the all /ol/ Other students are working on long vowel patterns.  We are just finishing the CVCe  pattern and moving on to vowel teams.  This week we introduced ay and ai.  Book box reading and book clubs continue.  Our reading challenge is still going.  Please help us earn our celebration by reading at home for 15 minutes at least 4 times a week.  Then fill out our pumpkin sheet.  

•  Writing-  Handwriting has become our writing time focus.  Magic C Bunny made an appearance to see how everyone was doing.  If your child struggles with letter formation, it will slow down their writing. In turn, this can make them lose interest in writing altogether. On the other hand, if they form their letters correctly, they'll be able to write more quickly and fluently.

• Social Studies - We took off on Air UCS on our flight to India this week.  Since we’ve been here we’ve learned about Diwali, the festival of light.  It’s India's biggest and most important festival of the year.  We have made Rangoli’s (sand art paintings) and created beautiful Painted Elephants.  Next stop China!

• Mindfulness- For the month of December we will be talking about empathy and peace.  

 

World Travel Plans and Reading Adventures 11/28-12/2

 

Reading At Home Challenge- Our reading at home challenge is going well!  We are almost up to 20 hours!  Please help us out by having your child read at home and color in the pumpkin on the Reading Sheet.  Remember you can make your own if you can’t print the form. 

 Learning highlights from the week:

• Math- First grade students have been working on combinations of a number.  For example, 5 is made up of 1+4, 2+3, 3+2 and 4+1. In addition they are learning how to look for friendly numbers when adding 3 numerals.  For example 2+ 8+ 5, students would look for the 10’s fact first.  Second graders have been working on word problems and today we started missing addend problems to 100.  For example: 65 + _______ = 100

• Reading- We continue to work hard on blending and segmenting words, and reading and spelling sight words. Book box reading and book clubs continue.  

•  Writing-Our focus for the next several weeks will be on handwriting; forming our letters correctly and using lines and spaces correctly.

• Social Studies- We started our world travel unit this week.  Students learned basic map facts like the 7 continents, 5 oceans and basic cardinal directions.  In addition we applied for our passports. This helped us learn our home addresses. Our first flight will be  to India on Monday as long as our passports arrive on time! 

• Mindfulness- A new month means a switch in our focus for mindfulness.  For the month of December we will be talking about empathy and peace. 

Vegetable Soup, Writing Celebration and Outdoor Play! 11/14-11/18

 

This week we wrapped up our farm unit with a focus on vegetable farms.  We made our own vegetable soup.  Many students LOVED the soup!  We used kid safe knives and students cut up all the vegetables themselves.  Many students asked me to share the type of knives we used with you.  These are similar to what we used. They loved being able to prepare the vegetables safely.  Our next unit is geography and cultures around the world.

Our class has started a reading incentive program!  For every 15 minutes your child reads at home, have them color in a pumpkin.  When they have 4 pumpkins colored in, they can bring it to school and put a sticker on our reading chart.  When we have 60 hours of reading we will celebrate with Pajama and Stuffy Day!  The pumpkin sheet came home in our home school folders, but here is the sheet if you need one! You can also just make your own!  The important part is practicing reading for 15 minutes as often as they can.  

Scholastic Book Orders:  A book order went home on Friday.  Orders are due 11/29.  You can place orders online here.  Click connect to teacher and enter our code FWQFN      If you would like help with your child’s reading level or w Learning highlights from the week:

• Math- First grade students worked on partners to 10 this week.  They worked on knowing them in a flash.  They created flashcards to help practice these facts. When we return we will be working on adding 3 numbers.  Our doubles facts and 10’s facts will help us to solve these problems.   Second graders continue to solve missing addend problems ( 36 - ___ = 60).  The idea is to use their understanding of partners to 10 and place value to solve the problems.  Example:  36 + 4 = 40… (6+4=10) so 40 + 20 = 60.  Therefor 36 + 24 = 60

• Reading- Our hard work on blending and segmenting words,  heart words, book box reading and book clubs continue.  We have also been practicing our automaticity with short vowel sounds.  E’s and I’s are especially tricky!

•  Writing-We finished our Small Moments personal narrative unit this week!  We celebrated by reading our stories to Mrs. Poor’s Kindergarten.  The Kindergartners loved our stories.  When we return from break we will be focusing on writing conventions.  

Mindfulness- The students have really done an amazing job talking about  and showing gratitude.  They were so excited about all the food items we collected and so proud when we brought them down to the office.