Monday, August 28, 2017

This Week in Room 8 (8/28 to 9/1)

This week we will begin MAP testing. Please make sure your child's iPad comes to school charged to 100% each day.

ELA:
This week we will begin our "Friends" unit in first grade. We will be learning about characteristics of a good friend and reading a wide-range of text to build vocabulary and comprehension skills.

This week we will be working on the following skills:

  • Segmenting blending and consonant review
  • Reviewing kindy sight words
  • Learning about characteristics of a sentence (begins with a capital letter, has spaces in between words, names/days of the week/months of the year are capitalized, and ends with punctuation)
  • Distinguish long/short vowel sounds in one syllable words
  • Ask and answer questions about key details in a text
  • Understand how a retelling rope helps us remember key details in fiction text
  • Handwriting- making sure our letters touch the top, middle, and bottom line, as needed

MATH:
This week we will begin our measurement unit. Students will be working on the following skills:
  • Using non-standard measurement to determine the length of given items
  • Comparing three objects by length; compare the lengths of the two objects indirectly using a third object (using words like shorter than/longer than/same as)
  • Counting and number writing to 120 (and beyond)
  • Continued practice with ST Math
  • Introducing Front Row app for adaptive math practice
  • Introducing Tenmarks app for grade-level and differentiated skill work
 


SCIENCE:
This week we begin our Science unit "Plant and Animal Parts." We begin with how plants and animals are like others of the same kind. Today we had a great discussion on whether or not all tigers were the same. Ask your child about it! We will be working on the following skills:
  • Using adjectives to describe
  • Learning different animal body parts
  • Comparing and contrasting different animals
LEADER IN ME:
This week we will learn about the characteristics of a happy and inspiring classroom. We will discuss what we can do to help others do their best. We will also learn about the circle of control and how we "choose our own weather" when we are faced with something that makes us feel bad. We will also introduce the plus/delta chart so we can determine what we are doing well and what we need to work on as a class. Check in with your child at the end of the week to see what he/she has learned with our LIM skills!


                                                 








iPads and APPS
  • Your child's iPad will be going to and from school each day. It is up to you if you want to have the iPad travel in the plastic bag. The charger needs to stay at home for your child to charge his/her iPad every night. Please email me if your child's charger is not working. I will need to send in a tech request.
  • It is essential that your child's iPad comes to school every day. We use our iPad daily in the classroom. I do not have extra iPads that your child can use if he/she forgets it at home. If an iPad is forgotten at home, your child may need to stay in at lunch recess to finish missed/incomplete work.
  • APPS- Epic offers a wide-range of text for your child to read, audiobooks for your child to listen to, and books that you can enjoy together with your child. There is an option to get access at home. I am working on that and hope to have that up and running for everyone by the end of the week.
  • I will be introducing many new apps this week so your child will be able to use many more apps by the end of the week. 

Monday, August 21, 2017

This Week in Room 8 (8/21 to 8/25)

Welcome to first grade! We will be busy this week learning more about one another in the classroom. We will also be learning about our routines and expectations in the classroom as well as when we
transition from one place to another in the school. 
We are learning that our room is a safe place to make mistakes (since we are growing our brains and learning from our mistakes) and where we can learn from one another respectfully.

ELA:
This week we will be working on the following skills:
  • Review kindy sight words
  • Review consonant sounds
  • Introduce "Stretchy Snake" where we segment and blend sounds together when we decode unknown words
  • Continue to work on brave spelling where we "turtle talk" to write down the sounds that we hear when we sound out the word s-l-o-w-l-y
  • Learn about how words are made of letters/sounds, sentences are made of words and spaces that begin with a capital letter and end with punctuation
  • Recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence (e.g., first word, capitalization, ending punctuation).
  • Capitalize dates (day of the week and month) and names of people.

MATH:
This week we will be working on the following skills:
  • Order 3 objects by length
  • Compare the length of the two objects indirectly by using a third object
  • Number writing 
  • Number sequence- what comes next?

Vocabulary:

Critical Terms: model, units, measure, order, compare, data
Supplemental Terms: longer, shorter, fewer, greater, equal, count, number, numeral

Happy First Day of School!

Our class did a fantastic job knowing what to do and where to go on our first day of school!

 



Time for some silly faces!


We had a special visitor! Mrs. Buch came into the classroom to wish us a 
terrific school year.


Today we worked on goal setting. 
I'm in first grade. I want to learn...
We will post our final project on Seesaw soon!


We worked so hard on our projects!




We synergized to create a class mission.
Why do we come to school?



 The first day of 1st Grade is in the books!
I spy a classful of extraordinary leaders!