Week of January 9 - 13

Dear Parents,              

We had a great first week back!  Students shared great things they did over the vacation and worked hard to get back into routines. 

Here is a look at what we are working on next week:

Reading: We are continuing to work in our reading groups and centers.  We will be reviewing how to select a book that is ‘just right’, reading strategies, and how to participate in a book talk. We will review how to read with a partner and practice reading strategies and book talks as a group. 

Word Work/Handwriting: Our focus next week will be on word work.  Students will practice making words using consonant clusters, review uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as identifying and distinguishing consonant and vowel sounds.  Games, like lotto, and activities, like letter sorts and making words with magnetic letters, will be used to reinforce what we learn.

Writing: Students have been learning what a ‘How To’ book is and how to create their own.  We will continue to “collect” ‘How To’ pieces in our writing folders.   Students will continue to draw the steps and then translate each step into words.  We will practice picturing each step in our minds to help us draw and write with details.  Picture books and creation of class books will be used to guide student’s development toward their own pieces.  Students will begin to think about their audience for each piece and how they can make their steps clear for their audience.  By the end of the week, we will look at our collection of pieces and choose one to revise, edit, and then publish!

Math: Next week, we will continue sorting and classifying based on attributes and start conducting surveys and analyzing data.  Surveys will be completed as a group in class and students will be creating their own surveys.  We will learn how to collect, represent, and analyze data by answering questions about what they found.  By the end of the week, we will compare our ages by using connecting cubes as a tool to represent our ages and then figure out how many students are each age. 

Science: Students really enjoyed learning about living things and their characteristics.  We were able to talk about habitats and what each living thing needs to survive.  Next week, we will look closely at fish.  We will study their structure, habitats, and observe them in action.  Students will learn the parts of a fish and what they need to survive.  By the end of the week, students will be labeling a diagram of a fish and highlighting what they learned. 

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

~Your first grade teachers: Miss Field and Mrs. McIntire