Weekly Updates December 21-23

Hello,

We have a short, but activity filled week! Enjoy the break and take time to relax!

Upcoming Events:

Thursday, December 24-Sunday January 3rd-Winter Break

Curriculum Updates:

Readers' Workshop: We shared our topic research today with first graders in Ms. Schmalzer's class. We learned so many things about the topics we researched!

Writers' Workshop: We are finishing up our Informational Writing Unit. We will be working on opinion writing when we return from break. This unit will focus on making judgments, writing reviews and giving reasons for our opinions.

Math Workshop: This week we are continuing our work with 10s and 1s. We will be representing 2 digit numbers with drawings (tens sticks and ones circles) and number cards, and read and write numerals and number words for numbers through 20 and the decade numbers (30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90)

Science/Social Studies:  We will be finishing up our weather unit this week, researching a little bit about reindeer. After break we will be starting a new social studies unit, Families: Now and Long Ago.

As always, let me know if you have any questions.

Kathy Zobel

First Grade

New Directions Learning Community

Research Posters

Preparing to teach others what we've learned about our topics during Readers' Workshop!

Weekly Updates 14-18

Hello,

This is our last full week of December before Winter Break. It's hard to believe how quickly time is flying. We will be having yoga again this week Friday (thank you Mrs. McEneany), so remember to have your child wear comfy clothing.

Upcoming Events:

Tuesday, December 15th-11:30 Dismissal

Thursday, December 24-Sunday January 3rd-Winter Break

  

Curriculum Updates:

Readers' Workshop: We've started to read about topics we are interested in. After spending some time reading about our topic, we meet with our clubmates to discuss and grow our ideas. This week we will be learning how we can use our hands and fingers to stay organized when telling the main idea and details of our book, comparing books about our topic to grow ideas and make our learning more interesting, coming up with our own ideas about what we are learning, and thinking about why what we are learning is so important.

Writers' Workshop: We will be finishing up our Informational Writing Unit before break. We all received lots of positive comments from our readers who came to Family Night. We taught our readers lots of new things!
This week we will be learning how we can teach readers what new words mean with words and pictures, how to edit step by step, and then fancy our books up for our celebration. 

Math Workshop: This week we are working seeing 10s and extra ones. We solved some story problems using this concept today. This was a little tricky at first!

For example: Sam had 16 pencils. A pencil box holds 10. How many boxes can he fill? How many pencils will be left over? 

We will also be using the Make a Ten strategy to solve story problems. Example: 7 tigers play games. Then 5 more tigers join them. How many tigers are playing games now? Here's one way to solve this using Make a Ten strategy:

We will also spend some time practicing doubles of numbers 1-10 (eg. 1+1=2, 2+2=4, 4+4=8).

Science/Social Studies:  We shared our weather research with the class on Friday. We learned so many new things! This week we will learn how umbrellas were invented, create our own umbrella, and complete a quick assessment to show everything we've learned about weather. 

  

Word Study: We introduced 5 new word wall words today. The words are: did, was, tell, said, ride. We will be assessing these words on Friday. These are words we want students to be able to read and write automatically without having to think to sound them out. Students also continue to work on phonics skills and word sorts at their developmental level.

As always, let me know if you have any questions.

Kathy Zobel

First Grade

New Directions Learning Community

Nonfiction Experts

We are reading aloud our nonfiction books to buddies in Ms. Schmalzer's class to grow our thinking!

Weekly Updates December 7-11

Hello,

The Parade was a huge success and New Directions won first place for our float. Thanks for everyone who was able to help out with this! 

Upcoming Events:

Thursday, December 10th-PJs, Pizza and Publishing Family Night, 5:30-7:00-Students are excited to share their Information books.

Tuesday, December 15th-11:30 Dismissal

Thursday, December 24-Sunday January 3rd-Winter Break

  

Curriculum Updates:

Readers' Workshop: We are continuing our reading nonfiction unit and are spending some more time focusing on reading aloud like experts. We will be planning to think and talk by using key words we are learning in our books and using drama to bring our read alouds to life.At the end of the week we will choose a topic we want to learn more about and read several books about that topic to grow our thinking.

Writers' Workshop: This week in our information books we will review our writing checklist and set new goals, use photographs or pictures about our topic to help us teach our readers even more, edit "as we go" to remember to add punctuation as we write, and prepare our books for our publishing night on Thursday.

Math Workshop: This week we are starting a new unit-Place Value Concepts. Our big goals of the unit are: read, write and represent 2-digit numbers as tens and ones, compare two 2-digit numbers, add tens and one, use strategies to add within 20, and use addition within 20 to solve story problems. A note is coming home today explaining the big ideas of this unit. 

Science/Social Studies:  We are finished our weather centers and have learned so much! This week we will be thinking about what we still want to learn about weather and researching using the ipads and books.  

Word Study: We introduced 5 new word wall words today. The words are: them, here, boy, girl, little. We will be assessing these words on Friday. These are words we want students to be able to read and write automatically without having to think to sound them out. Students also continue to work on phonics skills and word sorts at their developmental level.

As always, let me know if you have any questions.

Kathy Zobel

First Grade

New Directions Learning Community