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