Welcome to First Grade 2021!  I'm very excited to meet all of you this Wednesday at Meet and Greet from 2:30-3:30.  This year is going to be GREAT!

Welcome to First Grade!

Day of Play

What's happening in 1-3:

Working with Base 10 Blocks to learn about place value.

Reading:  We are finishing up our Non-fiction unit.  We have learned a lot about clues the author uses to help us learn new vocabulary or help us understand the text.  Clues like CAPTIONS, LABELS, DIAGRAMS, GLOSSARIES, INDEXES, HEADINGS, BOLD WORDS, etc.  We will continue have mini lessons with non-fiction texts for the next couple of weeks.

JAPAN!!  IT'S ABOUT THAT TIME!  This is my FAVORITE unit of first grade!  We will be "flying" to Japan on Friday, Feb. 24 and will study that culture until Spring Break.  Much of our reading is centered around Japan.  This has repeatedly been mentioned as the kids' favorite time for first grade!  More information will be coming soon about this unit!

Writing:  We are heavy into letter writing.  We made mail trucks to collect letters we are writing here at school.  Later this week we will begin the letter to the family/friend the kids have chosen.  We also will learn about thank you letters and email.  We are also doing A LOT of editing now, both self-editing and buddy editing.  The kids share their weekend news with the class and are learning from each other what kinds of detail and elaboration make our writing more interesting.

Math:  We are working a lot of place value right now.  We use base 10 blocks to "make exchanges" to group things into tens.  We also have begun "coaching" each other on math facts for our timed tests.  The timed tests are 1:15 long and are 24 problems.  The kids progress at their own pace.  We take timed tests 2-3 times each week... every other day.  Ask your child what "coaching" looks like!

Science:  We have wrapped up learning about SOUND and are moving onto LIGHT.  This science unit will take us up to our Japan Social Studies unit, which will officially begin Monday, Feb. 27.

Day of Play:  Last week we enjoyed our Global Day of Play!  The kids were very thoughtful and reflective about how beneficial and fun turning off electronics can be.  They have some new ideas for birthday lists!  Here are some pics from our day:

 

Happy New Year!

 

Happy New Year!  Here's what's happening in 1-3....

Reading - We began our Non-Fiction unit right after break.  We have learned the 3 types of nonfiction books:  Literary Non-fiction (which is non-fiction written in story form), Biography, and Reference.  We have had fun "scanning" some non-fiction books to look for the TEXT FEATURES the authors have used to help organize the material and draw attention to main parts.  Some of these text features are photographs, captions, bolded words, diagrams, labels,  a glossary, and index and headings.  Each of the kids have "swapped" books in their book bins and are enjoying this new genre.  In Book Bags, look for both a fiction story and a non-fiction story your child is reading and discussing in reading group.

Writing - We are finishing up our Tradition Writing that we began before break.  Our focus now is adding lots of detail.  These finished projects will be displayed in the hallway in a couple of weeks, so I'll include a picture when all the kids are done.  Our next unit will be on letter writing and will begin in February.

Math - We began Unit 4 right after break, which is a lot of measuring!  The kids were put into new Math Workshop groups.  We will continue to expand our knowledge of telling time, counting coins, problem solving and addition and subtraction concepts.  Later in this unit we will begin our +/- timed tests!  More information will come after lesson 4-10.  We are on 4-4 right now.

Science - It's time for science instead of Social Studies!  We began a unit on Light and Sound.  We have some new explorations we will be doing this year for this unit, so I'm excited for this!  We do science on Thursdays and Friday, so knowing that may help initiate a conversation about our school day.

Valentine's Day is fast approaching.  I'll be sending home a class list to help your child complete Valentines for each of his/her classmates.  Our room reps are busy planning a fun party for that afternoon.  It is on a Tuesday, so our party will be 1:15-2:15 and then we will still have gym & music from 2:30-3:30.  

Enjoy some pictures from this week and right before break!....

STEM

Today Mrs. Jenkins, one of our Advanced Learning Facilitators, came in to our classroom to do a STEM project.  The kids' task was to "build" a snowman and keep it from melting.  They planned out their project, considering the materials in their team's bag, sketched the project, and then began building.  They had so much fun!  There was a great circle discussion time after the lesson to see what ideas worked and what could be improved for next time.  Thanks Mrs. Jenkins for this great experience!

Onto other news...
This week we will finish our American Symbols unit and our How-To Books.  Next week we will share our How-To Books with other first grade classes... so exciting!  We will also begin our "Lighting the Holidays" social studies unit.  We will learn how different holidays use light as part of their celebration.  We will research Kwanzaa, Hannukah, Diwali, Christmas and Los Posadas in the LMC and in our classroom.   Your child will be bringing home a snowflake to decorate that mentions what holiday they celebrate this time of year.

Next week we will also begin a "Family Traditions" writing unit.  There will be a homework planning sheet coming home this week, due next Monday, that will be very helpful to your child when working on this special writing project.

Also next week... the Unit 3 Math test.  A LOT GOING ON NEXT WEEK! :)  Unit 4 Math will NOT begin until after winter break.  The last week before winter break we will be doing some holiday related math things.    The next 3 weeks will fly by!

Behavior Bucks

Behavior Bucks: Today I introduced "Behavior Bucks" in our classroom. The kids are VERY excited about this incentive. I'm not a huge fan of rewarding things that are expected behaviors; however, I believe at this young age, many still need guidance and training in learning what great student behavior looks like. I hope, in time, some of the positive behaviors I'm looking for will just become automatic.

Here's how it works.... Behavior Bucks are given as rewards for various things, like turning in homework on time, following my direction the first time, keeping things organized, helping others, displaying lots of effort at a task... it really depends and is a bit individual. I have a couple friends who need to work on organization, so they can earn a buck every time I see them displaying great effort to improve that. I have some friends who are working on not blurting out, so when I see their efforts at that, I reward them with a behavior buck. On Wednesdays, the "bank" is open from 11:50-12:10. My "junior teachers" for the day (two students are selected each day to be a Junior Teacher) open the bank and call back tables to "exchange" smaller bills for bigger bills and/or to "buy" a reward from the menu. I have developed a menu of items I have noticed the kids' interest in, things that don't cost any or much money. I have been so impressed in the past at how they work to set goals for themselves to improve a behavior they know they are struggling with. I also have been impressed at how they have learned about the value of things. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Halloween

THANK YOU TO OUR WONDERFUL ROOM REPS!
We had a fantastic party... didn't even miss the food!  The kids couldn't stop talking about how much fun they had.  Here are some pics...