Writing:
-We
continued to learn and work on writing informational books. We studied an
author’s book where he wrote about weather and seasons. We created a chart to
help us follow what an experienced author who writes informational books does
in order to be the best writers we can be. Our chart includes adding a title or
a first sentence that tells the reader what the book is about, drawing pictures
that teach, labeling pictures to help teach and writing at least 3 (or more)
facts about the topic. We used this chart, along with the informational writing
checklist to help finish a story that I had written by checking each part to
see if I had it in my story. We finished the week by learning how we can use
comparisons in our writing to help the reader get an even better idea of what
we are teaching them. An example of a comparison would be “A racecar is as fast
as a cheetah.” We are able to add these comparisons in our own writing!
Math:
-We
continued practice with math stories this week by working on subtraction
stories. They are very similar to last week’s addition stories, instead of
adding more items to the story the items are taken away. We practiced telling
and solving these stories as a class this week. We also put this as an option
into our “Math with Someone” choice. The students take turns telling and making
up both an addition or subtraction story and then other partner solves it.
Reading:
-We
had TWO sight words this week-- “look,
out”.
-The
CAFÉ strategy we worked on this week was the strategy.
“Recognize
and Name Problem/Solution”
Your child has already studied the literary
elements of plot, character, setting, and theme. These elements assist with
understanding and help a reader infer what will happen next. Now that they are
familiar with these components of a story, they are ready to dive deeper and
learn more. Being able to recognize and name the problem and solution in a
story helps identify and review the main idea, characters and setting all in
one.
How can
you help your child with this strategy at home?
1.
When
reading with your child, ask them to name an event that is causing a problem.
What clues were given?
2.
To
review characters, ask your child who the problem effects in the story or who
is causing the problem.
3.
Sometimes
events happen in a story that keep the character from solving the problem, or
the author builds up suspense. Talk with your child about these events and why
they are important in the story.
POEM OF THE WEEK: I HAVE, YOU HAVE
CELEBRATION:
We had our third nine weeks celebration this week. All students who had an 85% or higher behavior percentage were able to attend our Minute to Win It celebration. The school was split into three separate groups and we went with first graders. The students names got drawn by using purple tickets and were pulled up front to compete in several challenges and games for one minute for a chance to win prizes!
CONTENT:
We finished our second week of learning about weather! Mother Nature was very kind to us these past two weeks by providing us with many different types of weather to talk about! We had sunny, snowy, windy and rainy weather all in a matter of two weeks! Monday was St. Patrick’s Day so instead of weather talk we completed a few activities to go along with the holiday. The class had a substitute teacher and they wrote a list of ideas of what they would do with a leprechaun if they caught one, made a leprechaun with a pot of gold and ended the day by reading about a leprechaun loose in a school! The rest of the week we completed a weather chart by illustrating and using materials to make sunny, cloudy, rainy and snowy weather. On Friday, we finished our unit by going on a weather walk, estimating how far we could be the wind and blow an item and then discussed all we know about rain and even made it rain in our classroom!
