January News #1

  Happy New Year!! I hope that everyone enjoyed the holiday break and having extra time with their family. I sure did! Winter FAST testing will take place on January 25th. I am looking forward to seeing the progress they have made from fall to winter. We began 2023 by reviewing the rules and expectations and I will continue to encourage the kids to always use their best work habits, and I will need your help as well, to reinforce this at home when looking at papers. Being neat, taking their time, and following all directions are very important.

Reading: Our reading goals last week and this week are to read and spell words with the long i sound using silent e, as well as the long o sound. Our comprehension skills have been compare and contrast, as well as identifying the main idea and important details in stories we read. Our grammar skills have been to use the following verbs correctly: is, are, was, and were. This week we will work on using the question mark correctly. One of our main stories was a nonfiction selection about "Animal Groups" so we practiced comparing and contrasting the different animal groups. We continue to learn new words daily and use the chunks we've learned to help us decode unknown words. The stories we are reading are getting longer, which means we are becoming better readers. Thanks for taking the time to listen to your child read the books that are sent home. I have been pleased with the progress everyone has made and for their enthusiasm for reading. At home, please remind your child to read with expression and to pause when they come to punctuation. I have reminded them that "speed reading" is not "good reading". This week, I will start having the kids read directions with me, so that when they are working independently during seat work, they can go back and reread them if they forget what they need to do. When correcting papers, I will also start marking answers wrong if the spelling is incorrect if the word is displayed correctly on the paper. This will hopefully encourage them to be responsible and accountable for taking their time and working carefully. The following high-frequency words have been added to our classroom word wall (check to see if your child can read them): bird, fly, those, around, bring, both, long, walk, show, because, eyes, or carry, think, before, and light.

Math: We have completed our lessons on using data to create graphs, and to use graphs to answer questions. One tricky question when looking at a graph is "how many more" or "how many fewer". They learned that you need to subtract when a question asks this. We have now moved on to problem solving and will learn about different problem types. Last week, we worked on Join Result Unknown problems, which are problems that ask for the sum of two addends. We also started working on Join Change Unknown problems, which are problems, where one of the addends is the mystery to solve. We will also be using a number of addition and subtraction strategies to solve these problems. The lessons will also focus on using the "Math Vocabulary" of equation and addends. Problem Solving is always tricky for first graders and we are working hard to read the problem at least twice and to listen to what it is asking us to do. Solving Word Problems is on the first grade report card.

Writing: We have completed our lessons on "Opinion Writing" and will now move on to "Informative Writing". We have started some informative practice by writing "how-to" pieces in our journals. Most recently, they wrote about "How to make a sandwich" using the sequence words of first, next, then, and last. Our first informational writing activity will be to write about a favorite toy. On Friday, January 20th, your child may bring a favorite toy to share and write about. It would also be helpful to write down where they got the toy, and from whom. I really enjoy reading their journals and observing the growth they have made as writers. 

Science: We have started our lessons on "Space". Prior to the holiday break, we read about "Our Solar System" and the students enjoyed coloring the planets with markers and putting them in order. After the holiday break, we have had "Mystery Science" lessons. Our lessons were titled "Sun, Shadows, and Daily Patterns", "Sun & Daily Patterns, and this week our lesson is titled "Daylight and Seasonal Patterns. 

Star Student: Quetzal was most recently featured. Quetzal likes to drink juice and eat spaghetti. Her favorite place is the "water park", and she likes to wear dresses. When Quetzal grows up, she wants to be a teacher.

We are running low on clorox wipes. If you would like to donate some to our classroom, it would be greatly appreciated.