Ninety-Eighth Day of School

Our reading passage led us to ask a bunch of questions about bees, which is good because our strategy this week was to generate questions. We wonder if anyone can help us find an answer or two.

• How do bees sting?
• How do bees make honey?
• How do queens lay eggs?
• What is the job of the drone?
• How do people get honey?
• How does the honey get to the store?
• How do bees make the hive?

If any parents are interested, the scoring guide for our first semester writing assignment is available. Just indicate on the homework if you'd like a copy. Scoring guides for subsequent tests in 1st grade will be very similar. 

Reading logs due tomorrow.

Topic 9 Math Test will be near the beginning of the week next week if not on Monday.

Ninety-Seventh Day of School

Today we wrote sensory sentences, cooperatively, trying our hand with adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases.

For Social Science we discussed the meaning and importance of our right to vote.

We took the District Math Assessment.

There is no homework tonight.

Reminders

January Reading logs are due Friday.

Unsatisfactory Notices will go home today with some students please sign and return bottom portion to signify your receipt of the notice. Again, it is not necessary for 1st graders to know the specifics of the notice itself. It is for parents' information.

Unit 4 Week 1

In our new unit we will take a look at teamwork and what is necessary for teammates to work together. This week we will read folk tales and fables as well as a selection on bees working as a team. We will practice the comprehension strategy of generating questions to improve our comprehension skill of making predictions. Our oral vocabulary words are encourage, friendship, relationship, rely, suggest. Our sight words are across, carry, eight, once, saw, upon, walked. We will focus on various spellings of the 'long-a' vowel sound specifically 'ai_' (paid) and '_ay' (pay).

We will take the district Math Periodic Assessment this week.

In science we will begin exploring the weather element air and its capabilities.

Ninety-Fourth Day of School

This week we learned the 3 most important elements of weather: air, heat, and water (tested). It was noted that land formations were a close fourth, but for our purposes in 1st grade science we focus on the former 3 especially for our experiments.

It has been confirmed that we will have Ms. Jordahl for the drama portion of our Arts instruction later in the year. This is good news as she is an experienced, knowledgeable drama teacher from whom the children learn a lot and really enjoy.

On Monday, February 3rd, we will be celebrating the 100th day of school.

Our midyear battery of reading tests is complete. Two students scored perfectly on the objective comprehension portion of the test.

January reading logs are due this coming Friday.

Ninety-Second Day of School

Twelve students passed the Topic 8 Math Test of 22 students taking the test with an adjusted passing score of 12 or better. The modal average score was 13. There were no perfect scores; two students only missed one question.

Unit 3 Week 5 Preview

This final week of the Having Fun Unit we compare children in different parts of the world to ourselves. We analyze text structure for our comprehension strategy and compare and contrast for the comprehension skill. Our oral vocabulary words are culture, custom, language, similar, skill. Our sight words are any, boy, by, does, friend, girl, water. We will also focus (review) triple consonant blend spelling patterns (scrap, splat, stretch).

Eighty-Eighth Day of School

Our next math test will most likely be this coming Tuesday. An important concept on the test will be the concept we learned today (see today's classwork and homework).

At-Home Project

The 1st grade will be hosting the Citizen of the Month Assembly at the end of February. One child from the 1st grade classes will be chosen to read an essay they have written on the subject of sportsmanship. All students wishing to be considered for reading a speech to the student body at the end of the February need to submit an essay to their teacher by Friday, February 7th. A winning essay/student will be chosen by the 1st grade teachers the following week. Parents of that child will be notified so they can make plans to be at the assembly. This is good public speaking experience and an excellent opportunity for video memories.

Eighty-Sixth Day of School

Some nice responses to optional math homework were received. Most students should find this extra practice of value when tests are administered later this month. I sent back a few for a second try with assignment 1. A strategy which seemed helpful for some students was to actually make a set of cards like Dora, manipulate the cards, and write a list of all the possible 2-digit numbers she could make. Then choose the numbers from the list which answer the questions. There is only one correct response to each part (although students may solve the problems using a variety of strategies).

The Memorable Moments lists I saw were also very good. I sent one back in case that parent would like to make a copy of the list. What would be helpful to your child is to choose one or two of the moments each day and retell the story to someone in the household. The first task of narrative building will be to tell their story to a writing partner.

You should find a double folded sheet containing Social Science notes which should be removed from your child's folder and kept with their other Science and Social Science notes at home. The sheet should be titled Symbols of the U.S.A.

Homework Assignment Update

Please try to have your child's list of Memorable Moments completed by this Wednesday. It may be helpful for your child to keep a copy of the list at home. Consider adding to the list over the next few weeks as necessary. Take some time occasionally to discuss a moment and have your child review the memory orally in story format.

Unit 3 Week 4 Preview

We will be discussing how we can be creative and resourceful and likewise how the characters in our selections exhibit these characteristics and what it is that inspires them. Our vocabulary words for this week are create, hobby, inspire, resourceful, structure. Among our selections this week is a fantasy by Harry Horse called A Friend for Little Bear, in which a resourceful toy bear learns the importance of friends over collecting possessions. Another selection is Karen Lynn Williams' story Galimoto about a resourceful child in Africa who has to make his own toys from found objects.

Our comprehension strategy will be making inferences in order to draw conclusions, our comprehension skill. Our sight words will be after done, find, old, new, work.

We will also be working on our midyear reading assessment battery.

We will continue with final silent 'e' long vowel spellings for the remaining vowels along with open syllable long vowels as well as the remaining stanza of our vowel poem.

In Science we will be beginning our unit on weather.

In Visual Arts we will focus on color as a second element of art.

Homework Assignment (This assignment is NOT optional)

Over the course of the next few weeks, we will return to the genre of personal narratives and narratives for writing instruction and independent writing practice.

The Assignment:

With your assistance, over the next few days, have your child construct a list of memorable events. These individual events should be about moments which occur across a time span of approximately 20 minutes maximum in length. Each event should have an identifiable emotion (or two) attached to it (fear, happiness, surprise).

Examples of events which will not work:

• My Day at Disneyland
• Christmas Morning
• My Birthday Party
• The Winning Game

Examples of events which will work:

• Meeting Cinderella
• Opening My Favorite Gift
• Breaking the Pinata
• Scoring the Winning Goal

Try to make a list of close to 20 memorable moments. We will refer to this list as our list of Memorable Moments. Hopefully your child will be able to construct at least 10 narratives from events in the list. They will eventually be choosing from among those narratives one which they focus on for elaboration, revising, and editing for publication.

Optional Math Assignment 3

Find the missing number which makes this number sentence correct.

   48 + __ = 55

Show work using pictures (model), words, and numbers.

Again, do not teach or show your child how to do this problem. Watch their process. Some explanations may include references to place value.