Dear Parents,
March is off to a wonderful start! We have many exciting things coming up this month! Our new writing unit is a huge hit and students are enjoying collecting information about their animals for science! We will also be starting Student V.I.P. (Very Important Person) in our classrooms. This Friday, a student from each class will be randomly selected to be our first V.I.P. for the following week. A poster will be sent home for the student to complete. Students may bring in five things that they would like to share with the class for Monday, along with their poster. V.I.P.s will have special jobs in the classroom and students will have the opportunity to write about their V.I.P.s each week! Every student will have their own week to be a V.I.P. Students are very excited about this and are anxious to see who our first V.I.P will be! If you have any questions, please feel free to email us!
Here is a look at the week ahead:
Reading: Students have enjoyed reading non-fiction books this week! Our reading ties in nicely with our writing and science, as well! Next week, we will take a look at our three authors; Cynthia Rylant, Arnold Lobel, and Lois Ehlert. We will chart the characteristics of all three authors and use their books to make connections and sensory images during and after reading. We will also continue to practice our retelling skills while exploring our authors more in-depth.
Word Work/Handwriting: Next week, students will be exploring different phonograms by looking at words that look and sound similar. By noticing similar sounds and patterns, students will be able to explore, read, and spell new words! We will also practice building words with common word families and onset and rimes. By the end of the week, we will discuss how students can learn new words. We will discuss how to notice when a word does not look right and how to change a word that is spelled incorrectly by paying close attention to letter-sound relationships.
Writing: Our new writing unit, Informational Text, is a huge hit! Students have really enjoyed selecting topics to research and using different means to gather information! We visited the library during writing this week to learn how to collect information from books and “safe” websites. We introduced “World Book” to students and they have already collected many facts about their topics! We will be returning to the library next week during a couple of our writing blocks. Students will be encouraged to not only collect information, but to think of WHO and WHAT they want to teach by using their informational texts! We will also practice setting up a table of contents and dividing our information into chapters for our books. Students will take a couple of weeks to collect pieces on different topics. This is a lengthy unit with lots of attention to detail; but the end result will be amazing!
Math: Students have been working very hard on their word problems! Many of our addition and subtraction word problems have multiple pieces of information and we are working together to organize our math work and use a variety of appropriate strategies to problem solve. Next week, we will finish up our unit about story problems with an assessment on Tuesday. Before we begin unit 7, we will take a few days to review “True or False” addition and subtraction situations, fractions, and telling time to the half hour. The following week we will spend a day reviewing “unknown numbers” before moving on to unit 7.
Science: Students are very excited to create a project about their animal! Students have selected an animal to study and have started to research their animals through books and World Book online. Next week, students will use worksheets and graphic organizers to form their thoughts and organize their research. We will also be discussing the different ways in which a final project can be completed. This will be a performance-based assessment which will enable students to complete a project based on their strengths and interests. For example, some students may decide to write a paper while others may decide to create a more visual project. More information about this project will be sent home next week along with guidelines and suggestions.
Have a wonderful weekend!
~Your first grade teachers: Miss Field and Mrs. McIntire
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