Weekly Updates December 19

Hello,

The countdown is on to winter break and excitement is in the air in first grade! We’re thankful that the temperatures have warmed up a bit so we can burn off some energy outside :)

Upcoming Events:

December 22nd-Holiday Colors

December 23rd- No School- Start of Winter Break

January 3rd-Classes resume

Reading: We are spending this week wrapping up our nonfiction reading. We have chosen a topic we are researching and getting ready to teach to Ms. Schmalzer’s class.  In January we will be digging into more decoding and comprehension strategies as we move up the levels as readers!

Writing: We are finishing up our All About books this week. When we come back after break we will be starting to write reviews as part of our persuasive writing. Look for more information in January about sending in a “collection” to help with this writing work.

Word Work: No new words this week. We will be reviewing the words currently on on our word wall and using them to help us spell other words.

Math:  We are continuing our Place Value unit, which focuses on 2-digit numbers and tens and ones. We’ve spent some time adding 1 or 10 to a two digit number and noticing the difference. We will also be adding tens and ones to decade numbers (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90).We will spend some time adding a 1-digit number to a 2-digit number and exlpore the counting on strategy to determine the total.

Content: We are continuing to research and study how Christmas is celebrated around the world.  So far we’ve studied Germany, Mexico, Italy, England, Sweden and Australia. We are adding our learning to our Christmas Around the World booklets, which we will be bringing home at the end of the week.  When we return from break we will be beginning our family unit.  

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

Expert Readers

We planned out a read aloud using a non-fiction book and read it to a kindergarten buddy. We were quite the experts!

Weekly Updates December 12-16

Hello,

First graders continue to stay busy as winter break sneaks up on us! With the colder weather, please be sure to send warm clothes with your child everyday. Even if we aren’t able to go outside for recess, we want to make sure students are prepared and are bundled up at the end of the day. Thank you!

Upcoming Events:

December 23rd- No School- Start of Winter Break

January 3rd-Classes resume

Reading: This week we are continuing to work on reading aloud by experts. On Monday we used drama to bring our read-alouds to life. We learned we can act out parts of our nonfiction books to learn even more and teach our partners. We will spend the next couple of days making our read aloud the best we can. We will end this unit by creating posters showing what we have learned about a topic we have read about and will celebrate our new learning with Ms. Schmalzer’s class.

Writing: We are working on finishing up another all about book.  We are using all that we know about information books in this last piece and also putting a focus on our spelling and conventions.  Next week we will be adding photographs and images to our writing.  Please help your child find a photograph or image that matches their topic to add to their books.  Feel free to print a picture or find one in magazines.  

Word Work: Our new high frequency words (word wall words) are all, from, they, her, his. We will be assessing these words on Friday.  Some fun ways to practice them are writing them in shaving cream on cookie sheets, writing them in the air, clapping them as you spell them, or tracing over words with different color crayons or markers. We will also be spending time each week work on phonics skills specific to each student’s developmental level.

Math: We are using tends and ones to add such as, 37+5.  Students should count, 38, 39, 40, 41,42.  We are also telling packaging stories and solving them.  An example of a story problem like this would be:

Each box in the bagel shop holds 10 bagels.  There are 6 boxes and 8 extra bagels.  How many bagels are there in the shop?

We will end the week with some more comparing of two digit numbers using the greater than, less than, or equal to sign.  

Content: For the days leading up to break we will be researching and studying how Christmas is celebrated around the world.  We will be studying countries like Germany, Mexico, Italy, England, Sweden, Australia, France, and Israel.  When we return from break we will be beginning our family unit.  

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

Weekly Updates December 5-9

Hello!  Tonight is the Kaukauna Christmas Parade. If you plan to walk with us in the parade we will be meeting at 809 Wisconsin.  We are position 27 in the parade. I hope to see some first graders there tonight!

Upcoming Events:

December 6th- Kaukauna Christmas Parade

December 8th- Pajama Day and PJs and Publishing Family Night. Square 1 Art Orders will also be distributed this night.

December 13th- No School

December 14th- College Day (Wear your favorite college gear)

December 23rd- No School- Start of Winter Break

January 3rd-Classes resume

Reading: We continue to become experts on a variety of topics by reading nonfiction books. This week we are working on reading in ways to teach others, such as reading with feeling and reading like a writer. We are also learning how we can think and talk about keywords to learn more about our topic and share that learning with others.

Writing: We have been working on adding more to our writing.  We will draw on everything that we already learned to teach our readers, including writing how-to pages, persuasive writing, and stories in their teaching books.  Adding these different pages into non-fiction books takes a lot of planning and for first graders this can be the trickiest part.  We will focus on making our writing purposeful for the reader.  We will use a checklist to self-assess our writing and set goals for what we can work on to become an expert at writing teaching books.  

Word Work: Our new word wall words are but, yes, no, that, were, people.. We will be assessing these words on Friday.  Some fun ways to practice them are writing them in shaving cream on cookie sheets, writing them in the air, clapping them as you spell them, or tracing over words with different color crayons or markers. We will also be spending time each week work on phonics skills specific to each student’s developmental level.

Math: We are continuing to build our understanding of tens and ones. We will spend some time investigating doubles of numbers 1-10 and explore addition strategies that use doubles (double plus 1, double minus 1), represent 2-digit numbers with drawings, equations and numbers, show 2-digit numbers with 10-sticks and circles, read and write numerals and numbers words for numbers through 20 and the decade numbers (30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100), practicing grouping ones into 10s and adding with groups of 10. Some things you could do at home to reinforce these skills are

Content: We are continuing our weather centers this week. Students are learning so much. They are especially intrigued by super storms! Ask your first grader to give you some details about this topic. This week we will also be making thermometers and practicing using them to read temperature and making flags to test wind speed.

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