First Trip to Cochran's!

 

We had a great time at Cochran's!  Students loved being on the slopes!

The snow was fantastic!

Thank you to all the volunteers that came out to help us!

Animal Research, Measurement and More!

 

 

Learning highlights from the week:

 Math- The first graders are finishing up their measurement unit and continuing their focus on place value and its use in adding and subtracting within 20.   I am linking some fun games you can play at home to help.  All you need is a deck of cards (Face cards and 10’s removed) Partners to 10 are ( 1 and 9, 2 and 8, 3 and 7, etc).  Second graders have finished their current unit and will begin their next unit on Monday.  One of the focuses of this unit is work with partners to 20 and 100.  Just as first graders are working on their partners to 10, second graders use that knowledge, as well as their understanding of place value to continue that work with larger numbers (20, and 100).

 Reading- This week's focus is on understanding nonfiction text. Students have been making sure they understand all the words an author is using.  I.E.  If I’m reading about lions, what is the meaning of the word PRIDE?  

Writing-  In writing we are now focusing on using descriptive sentences to talk about our subtopics rather than just making lists.  Each student selected an animal to research for our all about books. 

Social/Emotional- Our class is working on self regulation and whole body listening. We are using mindfulness to help our learners quiet their body and tune in their brain to the task. 

Nonfiction Features and Choice Time Adventures- 1/9-1/13

 

 Learning highlights from the week:

 Math- The Focus for first graders has switched to measurement.  They will be using both standard and non standard units to measure with. Second graders have begun work adding and subtracting multiples of 10 with numbers over 100.  They are looking for patterns in larger numbers and using these patterns to quickly add and subtract. 

 Reading- This week's focus in reading has been nonfiction.  How are nonfiction books written differently from fiction?  What is a table of contents? Where do we find nonfiction in our classroom library? In phonics some students are working on ng and nk ending blends.  Others are working on long vowel patterns ow and oa. 

Writing-  We are learning all about the features of nonfiction.  We have been building a nonfiction feature book.  We have learned about bold text, table of contents, close ups, labels, captions, maps, illustrations, and photographs.  Tuesday we will be starting our animal research project.  Students will use an online emergent reader database to select an animal to research.  Then they will write a nonfiction all about book on their animal!  It is a favorite of students!

Welcome Back to a Fabulous New Year!

READING CHALLENGE: Our class is getting closer to our 60 hours of reading at home! We are at 38 hours of reading!  Please help your child by practicing reading at home.  For every 15 minutes of reading your child can color in a penguin!  Please send the sheet to school when your child has 4 penguins colored in.  Here is the sheet you can print.  I will be sending new sheets home next week.  You can also make your own if you don’t have a print. A note from you saying they read at home also works! 

Important Dates:

Early Release Day:  Wednesday January 11th.  

Staff Inservice Day:  (no school for students) Monday January 16th

Snowmotion:  Snowmotion is fast approaching.  Our ski dates include Wednesday Jan. 25, Wednesday Feb. 1, Wednesday Feb. 15, and Wednesday Feb. 22!

Extra Clothing:  If you haven’t already done so, please make sure there is an extra set of clothing in your child’s backpack incase of emergencies or a wet/muddy playground.  Socks and extra pants are especially helpful.  

 Learning highlights from the week:

 Math- Some First grade students have finished up unit 3 and will begin their next unit next week.The focus of this unit will be measurement and fractions.   Second graders have been working on word problems with an unknown start.  These types of problems can be very tricky.  For instance: Sally bought cat stickers.  She gave 13 to a friend and kept 32 for herself.  How many cat stickers did Sally Buy?  Students see the words gave to a friend and assume it will be a subtraction problem.  Drawing a sketch for these types of problems helps students to visualize the problem and make sense of it.  

 Reading- We have begun our unit on nonfiction reading.  We have talked about taking a sneak peek into a book to activate prior knowledge and how we learn new things when reading nonfiction. Some groups are working on beginning and ending blends; others are working on long vowel teams.  

Writing-  Students have also begun a nonfiction unit in writing.  They will be writing “teaching books”, and learning about all the features of a nonfiction piece including subtopics, headings, captions, bold print and tables of contents.