December News #1

 We continue to keep busy in our first grade classroom. The first week following the Thanksgiving holiday went by very quickly. In January, we will be administering the winter FAST assessment (segmenting, blending, sight words, and oral reading fluency), and I am looking forward to seeing the growth all the students have made. One goal we have been especially working hard on is reading fluency. The goal in January will be to read 41 words per minute. I have implemented many opportunities at school to increase their fluency, and encourage you to listen to your child read the books sent home almost daily, as well as encouraging them to read extra books too. Within our guided reading groups, we work daily on the FAST sight words, as well as decoding strategies. During our "Journeys" reading time we also work daily on sight words, segmenting, fluency, decoding strategies, and grammar. Within the classroom , we are also working hard on being respectful and responsible. I am very proud of how well the kids are staying focused daily to complete independent work- it is great to see them being so responsible. We are also working on being respectful in line and listening the first time.

Reading: Our reading goals last week were to read and spell words with ch and tch, our grammar skill was understanding what a command is and how to use our voice when saying a command with either a period or an explanation point, and our comprehension skill was sequencing the events in a story. Our reading goals this week will be to read and spell words with sh, wh, and ph, our grammar skill will be to identify the subject and verb in a sentence, and our comprehension skill will be cause and effect. We will also learn about contractions with is and not, as well as adding ing, ed, and s to words. Now that we have become more fluent readers, we will focus on reading with expression, and pausing when we come to punctuation. It is important that the kids understand that speed reading is not being fluent. Good readers read like they are talking, and when reading out loud their audience needs to understand what they are reading.

Math: We have been working hard on Module 4, which focuses on addition and subtraction relationships. We are working especially hard on fact families. Check to see if your child can write the 4 facts for the following fact family (10, 6, 4). We also used the strategy of using addition to check subtraction. This week, we will continue to work on Module 4 lessons and fact families. For daily seatwork, we wii also review/practice addition, subtraction, telling time, and equality. During our "Math Warm-ups" time, the students seem to be catching on quickly to telling time to the hour and half hour, as well as identifying the number of tens and ones in a 2-digit number.

Writing: We continue to focus on "Opinion Writing" and this will be our focus until the end of January. Our main focus when writing in our journals has been to state an opinion and then to give a reason why. We have been using the word "because" between our opinion and reason.

Science: We completed our lessons on "Plant and Animal Superpowers" and will move on to "Spinning Sky". This week, we will have a lesson on the solar system. We will complete a project putting the planets in order after listening to a couple of informational books about space. Space is always a unit the kids get excited about and they enjoy listening and learning about it. We will also do a Mystery Science lesson titled "Could a statue shadow move?" coming up soon.

Star Student: Colten and Lizzy were most recently featured. Colten likes to drink pop and eat homemade pizza. He collects antlers and wants to learn more about birds. When Colten grows up, he wants to be a farmer. Lizzy likes to drink sprite with OJ, and eat pizza. She takes cooking lessons and also wants to learn more about birds. When Lizzy grows up, she wants to be a vet.

With the Christmas holiday quickly approaching brings a lot of "excitement and anticipation" for 6 and 7 year olds. I enjoy being around their enthusiasm this time of the year, and it can be difficult to keep their young minds focused. Therefore, please help me out by praising their nice printing and the papers they have been successful with.