Weekly Updates February 22-26

Hello,

We are almost at the end of February already! We will be scheduling portfolio conferences soon, so if you haven't returned your conference scheduling form, please do so as soon as possible. I'm excited to share the great gains your child has made so far this year in first grade!

Upcoming Events:

Thursday, February 25th-11:30 Dismissal

Friday, February 26th-No School

Monday, February 29th-Melodies and Masterpieces Family Night-5:30-7:00-Night includes a short concert put on by New Directions' students. 

Friday, March 11th-Author Breakfast-watch for info to come home next week.

Monday, March 21st and Tuesday, March 22nd-Portfolio Conferences. Confirmation forms with scheduled times will come home Friday, March 4th.

Wednesday March 23th-Monday March 28th-Spring Break

Curriculum Updates:

Readers' Workshop: This week we are continuing our "Going on Reading Adventures" unit. We will be studying the characters in our books closely. Without characters, we wouldn't have a story. Readers meet characters and study their relationships, learning all they can about their likes and dislikes, their wants, and paying attention to what they do and say to infer feelings and motivations. We'll learn how readers can reread in order to learn even more about the character, noticing new details to hep them understand the character in new ways. Readers will work on fluency by reading in a way that reflects how the character is feeling. We'll learn how when you read, you don't only get to know about a character, you almost become that character. You read, pretending to be the character and you show it with your voice. When books take you on reading adventures, you don't just follow the character, you practically become the character. You can change your voice to show what the character is feeling and bring the character to life.  

Writers' Workshop: We'll be finishing up our small moments, making our writing readable, unit this week. We'll be using a checklist to make sure our writing is readable (capitals, endmarks, word wall words, and spaces). 

Math Workshop: We will be finishing up Unit 5, "Place Value Situations." We continue to work on the make-a-ten strategy in class using facts with teen totals. Students brought home purple and blue flashcards a few weeks ago. We practice these daily at school. Any extra practice at home is helpful as well!

This week we will be be using reasoning to solve problems, practicing numbers to 120 and taking our assessment.

Science/Social Studies: We finished up our solids centers. This week we will be exploring two new solids using all we have learned about the properties of solids so far.

Word Study: No new words this week! This would be a good week for review, as we've had some tricky words the past few weeks:

rain, who, after, house, out, what, where, new, teacher, school, down, zoo, when, because, some 

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

Kathy Zobel

First Grade

New Directions Learning Community

Investigating Solids

We visited centers to learn more about solids!

February 15-19

Hello,

See below for upcoming activities and events in first grade. Reminder: Six-Flags reading logs are due Tuesday, February 16th if you are participating in this program. Have a great week! It looks like it will be warming up outside, so students will be able to get out for recess. Remember to have your child bring snow pants, boots, hats and mittens to stay warm!

Upcoming Events:

Tuesday, February 16th-Six-Flags reading logs due, if you are participating

Thursday, February 25th-11:30 Dismissal

Friday, February 26th-No School

Monday, February 29th-Melodies and Masterpieces Family Night-5:30-7:00-Night includes a short concert put on by New Directions' students. Look for more info to come home in a few weeks.

Curriculum Updates:

Readers' Workshop: This week in reading we are "Going on Reading Adventures." Every time you open a storybook, you'll meet a character who is going places and doing things-and you'll get to go too! We'll spend some time focusing on using the words to keep track where and when the story is taking place, thinking about what's happening to predict what might come next, retelling the big events in sequence, reread to notice new details, and reread to notice how parts of the story go together. For example, you might notice how the same kinds of things happen again and again, or the way the trouble starts and ends. 

Writers' Workshop: As we continue writing small moment stories, we'll focus on making our writing readable by using word wall words, using words we know to spell unknown words, using the lines, all the while making our stories come alive by adding dialogue, action and thinking!

Math Workshop: We will be continuing our problem solving unit. This week we will be focusing on numbers through 120. We will be writing numbers to 120, finding 10 more or 10 less than a given 2-digit number, using the hundred grid to recognize ten-based (38, 48, 58, ... or 17, 27, 37...) and one-based sequences (3, 4, 5....or 33, 34, 35...), and adding and subtracting multiples of 10 (30 + 70 = 100). One way to reinforce some of these skills at home is to start at a number between 1-120 and have your child count up and down for a short sequence. For example, start at 56 and count up. After your child counts up a few number stop and start at a different number. 

Science/Social Studies: We are continuing our solids and liquids unit in science. This week we will be visiting centers to learn more about solids. In our centers we will be testing hardness, investigating solids in water, rolling solids and testing solids with a magnet. We are adding more and more properties to our solids chart! Ask your child what solid he or she is keeping track of and writing about. 

Word Study: New word wall words for this week are: 

down, zoo, when, because, some

These words will be assessed Friday, February 19. 

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

Kathy Zobel

First Grade

New Directions Learning Community

Valentine's Day

February 8-12

Hello,

See below for upcoming activities and events in first grade. Reminder: Six-Flags reading logs are due Tuesday, February 16th if you are participating in this program. Have a great week!

Upcoming Events:

Tuesday, February 9th-11:30 Dismissal

Wednesday, February 10th-Yoga with Mrs. McEneany-Wear comfy clothes!

Friday, February 12th-Valentine Celebration. See below for a copy of the note if you misplaced yours.

Thursday, February 25th-11:30 Dismissal

Friday, February 26th-No School

Monday, February 29th-Melodies and Masterpieces Family Night-5:30-7:00-Night includes a short concert put on by New Directions' students. Look for more info to come home in a few weeks.

Curriculum Updates:

Readers' Workshop: This week are continuing our, "Readers Get to Know Characters by Performing Their Books." We are getting to know our characters by focusing on the illustrations, paying close attention to characters' facial expression to learn about their personalities and feelings, paying attention to the setting by asking, "Where is the character right now? How does the setting change the way the character might say or do something?", and  retelling our books to our partners by telling the big events, who is in the story and what the character did.

Writers' Workshop: We finished up our review writing and will be revisiting small moment stories. These are true, one time stories from our lives. During this unit we will focus on making our writing readable by using spaces, forming our letters correctly (upper case and lower case), using endmarks (., !, ?), and using strategies to spell words correctly.

Math Workshop: We will be continuing our problem solving unit. This week we will be solving story problems with 3 addends: There are 5 red pencils, 7 yellow pencils and 6 green pencils in a cup. How many pencils are in the cup? We will be using a variety of strategies to solve these problems, including equations, math mountains and drawings. We will also be counting with groups of 10. Students will be developing strategies to count large quantities of objects, and use groups of 10 to help them. We will be spending some times building a hundred grid, finding and representing counting patterns and sequences on the hundred grid and writing numbers to 120, finding 10 more and 10 less than a given 2-digit number, and count to 120 starting at any number. Any counting practice at home is very helpful! 

Science/Social Studies: We are continuing our solids and liquids unit in science. This week we will be observing the properties of solids including color and shape and noticing if they can roll or stack. 

Word Study: New word wall words for this week are: 

what where new teacher school

These words will be assessed Friday, February 12. 

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

Kathy Zobel

First Grade

New Directions Learning Community