Week of February 20-24

Dear Parents,

We had a very busy week celebrating the 100th day of school and Valentine’s Day.  Students enjoyed center activities where we were able to count up to 100, practice vowel sounds with Valentines, write our Valentine a letter, and much more!  There will be no school on Monday, February 20, in honor of Presidents' Day.  Our next sharing assembly is on Friday, February 24 at 2:15 in the gym.  We hope to see you all there!

Here is a look at the week ahead:

Reading: This week we learned what inferring means and how we can use inferring when reading to gain a better understanding of our stories.  We also explored inferring with poems and short stories, and predicting events before and during reading.  Students are now able to infer with their own books during independent reading time.  Next week we will explore fiction and non-fiction books, discuss the difference between the categories and sort books that fit each category. 

Word Work/Handwriting: Next week, we will wrap up vowel discussions and move into high frequency word activities and recognizing words that go together.  We will begin by playing “Follow the Path” in groups to help us recognize and read sight words: ‘they’, ‘see’, ‘went’, ‘from’, ‘were’, ‘there’, and ‘said’.  A game of memory will be used to work on concentration of the high frequency words as well as others on our word wall.  By the end of the week, students will learn the proper formation of lowercase letter ‘s’ and review letters ‘c’ and ‘o’ from this past week. Our week will end with sorting words by their meaning. 

Writing: Students have been very excited about our new writing unit “Authors as Mentors”.  Students have read Lois Elhert, Cynthia Rylant, and Arnold Lobel books and can recognize their similarities and differences.  Next week, students will begin collecting pieces.  We will use what we know about each author and their books to help guide us in composing each piece of writing.  Many students are eager to begin writing chapter books with talking animals, like Arnold Lobel!

Math: Students have enjoyed exploring the number ten through tens-frames, quick images, “Tens Go-Fish”, and story problems.  They have worked hard to find combinations of ten in groups and individually.  Next week, we will take what we learned and begin solving story problems with missing parts, playing dot addition, and revisiting a familiar game called How Many of Each. 

Science: Students loved our bird discussions!  We were able to highlight a long list of things we know about birds and what would we like to learn over the next few weeks. Videos and books will be used to add real-life experience during our study of birds.  By the end of the week children will be able to discuss characteristics of a bird, their habitats, and what they need to survive.  Labeling a bird diagram will be used to show the body parts that help birds stay alive.

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

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