October Lunch Menu

Follow the link below for the October Lunch Menu

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2BiuAZD6NhGam5NeHdzU0pZT0U/view?usp=sharing

Working on Partners of 10

Weekly Updates September 26-30

Happy Fall!  It is finally starting to feel like fall outside and in our classroom.  We are all very glad that it has started to cool down in school.  Very exciting things are happening in science right now.  Our seeds are growing quickly and we are anxiously awaiting our guppies, snails, pill bugs and beetles to add to our terrariums and aquariums.  

Upcoming Events:

September 28: Wear Purple or NDLC Wear

September 28: Homecoming Parade Meet at 5:45 at Tanner

September 30: Wear Orange and Black  Go Ghosts!

Reading: This week in reading we are introducing a few more strategies to solve tricky words. Readers can double check their reading and think what makes sense in the story and what word matches the letters on the page.  They can also look at the vowels in the tricky word and try it two ways.  It is important that we try both the long and short vowel sound.  We will end the week with some partner work.  We will work on giving book introductions and helping our partners solve tricky words without telling them but instead helping each other do the hard work.

Writing: First grade writers have been doing an amazing job bringing their stories to life! Stories have actions, talking and even feelings! This week we are working on using all we know about spelling to write new words in our writing. We’re using words we know (lunch from our schedule to write crunch) and writing words part by part (st-and-ing). We will also spend some time editing our writing for capitals and endmarks. At the end of the week we will have a mini celebration to celebrate the new strategies we are using in our writing!

Word Work:  We are continuing  to review our kindergarten word wall words as well as focusing on a “Student of the Day.” We are learning so much about each other!

Math: We are continuing to work on the partners of numbers up to 10.  We are making posters for our classroom and making number books.  The sooner that students know these partners the easier our next units will be for them.  It is a first grade standard that students know these by the end of first grade.  We will learn a few more dice and card games to help us practice and plan to take our unit test at the end of the week.  

Content: First grade classrooms are brimming with life! We were so excited to observe the growth our seeds havw made over the weekend. It’s amazing.

We are keeping track of their growth in our plant journals. Seed will be coming home soon. We are also anxiously awaiting the arrival of our bess beetles and pill bugs to add to our terrariums. First graders are so brave when it comes to handling these insects!

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

Investigating Moss and Tree Seedlings

Weekly Updates September 19-23

Hello! It’s another busy week in first grade!  We have our routines down in all subject areas are now digging deeper in all of our units.  Thank you for your support at home in the first couple weeks, especially helping to make checking planners and reading at night a habit!  I hope to see many of you at Family Night on Thursday.  

Upcoming Events:

September 9-23:Safety Week
September 19: PSC Meeting
September 22: Family Night: Hot Dogs and How to Help 5:30-7:00

September 28: Homecoming Parade

The NDLC online store is open until Sept 25. There are sample sizes in the office. They will be out during our family night as well. The code is NDLCSpirit and the link is: https://eaglegraphics.itemorder.com/

Reading: We have been doing an amazing job of establishing strong reading habits. Check out our chart to see some of the strategies we are using!

This week we will be focusing on habits for figuring out hard words. The strategies we will practice are: sneaking a peek at the pictures to figure out the words, looking at all parts of a word, and using meaning to figure out words. We’ll be trying to drop our bad habits for figuring out words (mumbling, freezing, saying the wrong word and not checking back) and practice using these good reading habits.

Writing: We finished the first part of our Small Moments unit and had a mini celebration noticing how much we have grown already as writers. This week we will be working on bringing our small moment stories to life by unfreezing our characters (making them talk and move), telling stories in itsy-bitsy steps (telling all the small actions), and bringing what’s inside out (making our characters think and feel).  

Word Work:  We are continuing  to review our kindergarten word wall words as well as focusing on a  “Student of the Day.” We are learning so much about each other!

Math: Math routines have been well established! This week we are working on partners up to 10. For example, the partners of 7 are: 0 + 7, 1 + 6, 2 + 5, 3 + 4, 4 + 3, 5 + 2, 6 +1, 7 + 0. As we study the partners, we are noticing patterns to help us add and subtract within these numbers. We are using tools including ipads, stair steps, number cards and activity pages to help us learn these partners.

Content: We have started our organism unit! We’ve investigated and planted seeds. Now we will be observing how they grow. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our moss and seedlings to add to the terrariums we will be assembling. This is a high interest, hands-on science study!

Anxiously awaiting some growth!

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

Weekly Updates September 12-16

Hello! It’s already been a week since we’ve been back in the swing of things!  I’ve enjoyed getting to know this class so far.  It’s going to be a fun year!  First graders are settling into their routines nicely. Thank you for sending healthy snacks each day. Students are rather hungry before lunch!

Agendas went home last night for the first time. Please continue to check and sign nightly.  This is a great spot for a quick note too.  Books will be coming home for the first time tonight.  They will be choosing one or two books at first to bring home.  As books become longer they may start to bring only one book home.  This is not meant to take a huge part of your child’s evening...only about 10-15 minutes of practice!  

Upcoming Events:

September 14: Picture Day

September 15: Dot Day (Wear Dots!)

September 16: Fitnesss wear Friday
September 16: Fox Cities Kids Fun Run

September 19-23:Safety Week
September 19: PSC Meeting

September 20: No SchoolSeptember 22: Family Night: Hot Dogs and How to Help 5:30-7:00

The NDLC online store is open until Sept 25. There are sample sizes in the office. They will be out during our family night as well. The code is NDLCSpirit and the link is: https://eaglegraphics.itemorder.com/

This is a quick link for you and your family to get registered for the Fox Cities Kids Fun Run this Friday evening. This is a fun, easy way for our school to earn up to $1000. Be sure to find NDLC from the list of school names as you are registering. Thanks!
https://secure.getmeregistered.com/get_information.php?event_id=122671

Reading: Our first units title is Building Good Reading Habits.  The first part of our unit focuses on establishing structures, expectations, and values during reading time.  We are working on developing good habits before (sneak peek), during (check your sneak peek), and after reading (retell or find your favorite part).  We are also focusing on reading more and setting goals.  Yesterday we made reading mats to help us keep track of our reading. Later this week we will focus on rereading to make our reading voices sound smoother and scooping up words in phrases so we don’t sound like robots when we read! :)

At Home Reading:

As children are learning to read, we reinforce their efforts throughout the day in different ways.  During the school day, reading instruction takes many forms.  The students participate in read-alouds, shared reading, word study, small group instruction, and independent reading workshop.  Another important component to this work is the at home reading students do.

Students will be bringing home a book bag with a book inside for your child to share with you.  This is a book that your child chose from his/her reading workshop book box.  The following are some things to keep in mind when reading the book:

• This is a book that your child chose.  You may find that the book is easy or a bit hard.  If the book is easy, compliment your child on the good job that he/she is doing.  I encourage the children to reread books; it is a great fluency-builder!  If the book is too hard, don’t hesitate to read the book to, or with, your child.  Talk to your child about what the author was teaching you about (non-fiction) or retelling and talk about what was happening in the story (fiction).
• This is part of your child’s homework in first grade.  Please return the book the following day and your child may choose a new book to share.  I will send home books Monday through Thursday.
• It should take between 5-15 minutes to read the book., depending on the length. You can stop after 15 minutes if the book is longer, and continue it another day.
• Enjoy this special time with your child!

If you have any questions about this process, please do not hesitate to ask!  First grade is a magical year and I know you will be amazed in your child’s growth!

Writing: We are jumping into our Small Moments: Writing with Focus, Detail and Dialogue. First graders are thinking of an idea (a thing they do, a thing that happened to them, a strong feeling, or any other way they can think of a story), planning it by telling it across the pages of their booklets, sketching it across their booklet pages, writing the story and then going back and revising to add more by thinking of who, where, how, when, what and adding that to their story. This week we will be using strategies to spell words, zooming in on the small moments-just telling one part of our day, not the whole day, and working with partners to add more to our stories.

Word Work:  We are beginning to review our kindergarten word wall words. We are also focusing on a  “Student of the Day.” Each day we learn about a new student by seeing what they brought in their bag and interviewing them to learn more. Then, we write a news article together about what we learned. We hang these articles in our room and read them regularly together! We also add the student’s name to the word wall.

Math: In math we have been busy learning our routines and becoming familiar with our math tools. Students have math toolkits where they keep their math journals and tools. Each day we focus on a number of the day and students show the number in a variety of way. We are also focusing on numbers up to ten. We have been noticing groups of 5 in numbers 5-10 and using 5 groups to help us visualize 5 without having to count. We have also spent time learning that mistakes help us grow, and mathematicians take their time when problem solving.

Content: We have established our hopes and dreams for first grade and displayed them in our classroom.  By the end of the week we will have our classroom rules established so that we can all accomplish our school work and hopes and dreams this school year.  

We will be moving on to our first science unit at the end of the week and it will be Organisms.  This life science unit teaches students the concept of Organisms and helps them develop an understanding of living things. In this unit, they will learn about:
-The interdependence between the environment and organisms
-How to create and maintain a woodland habitat that contains pine seedlings, moss, pill bugs and bess beetles
-How to set up and observe a freshwater habitat where they introduce aquatic plants, pond snails and guppies

As always if you have any questions, let me know!
Kathy Zobel

Dance Off!

What a great way to end our week-showing off our dance moves!

It's Friday. Have a great weekend!

Exploring Math Tools

First Grade Fun

Responding to Don't Worry Bear with Model Magic. Making caterpillars and moths. 

R