Friday, May 18, 2012

Week of May 21-25


Dear Parents,

With only a few weeks left in May, we are finishing up end of the year assessments and beginning to wrap-up what we have learned this year.
                                   
A few reminders:
·         Grades 4-6 Music concert will be held in the gym at 2:30 on May 22.
·         May Sharing Assembly will be on Thursday, May 24 at 9:15 in the gym.
·         No school May 28 in honor of Memorial Day.
           
Here is a look at next week:

Reading: Students have been working very hard learning fairy tale components and started planning out their own fairy tales.  Next week, we will finish publishing our fairy tales and share our masterpieces.  We will work together to evaluate others fairy tales to ensure the main components of a fairy tale are shown.  By the end of the week, we will begin to reflect on books we have read together this year and create a list of books students recommend to the upcoming first grade class!  Students will learn how to complete a book review to share their favorites. 

Word Work/Handwriting: In Buddy Study, students are participating in the routines independently.  Students create their own spelling lists and are learning their words through a variety of activities.  Students also have been bringing home their list of words to share and practice at home.  Next week, we will begin by continuing to work with works that have two consonants sounds, like the hard /c/ in “cat” and the soft /c/ in celery.  We will have our test on Wednesday and then move into words with an ‘-ing’ ending.  Be watching for students to bring home their next spelling list to share!

Writing: We have started our new writing unit and students are thrilled to collaborate with one another during this time.  Students have started exploring their topics with their partners on the net-books and experimenting with different technology tools.  Next week, students will continue to gather information on their topics and begin organizing their information to present.  Further exploring with technology tools will occur whole class and in groups to get students ready to create their final projects.  Digital storytelling tools we will explore include blogs, Wiki’s, VoiceThreads, LittleBird Tales, Voki’s, comics, and StoryBird.  Ask your child to share some of the tools they are exploring! 

Math: Our final unit, Unit 9, focusing on 3-D Shapes, is a great success so far!  Students are very engaged and motivated to explore and build with geo-blocks.   Students are beginning to use vocabulary, attributes, and compare shapes, sizes, and orientations of 3D shapes.   Next week, we will begin with an assessment focusing on shape ‘footprints’ and then will be ready to begin drawing and building their own designs with the geo-blocks.  By the end of the week, students will be introduced to cones and cylinders where they will be able to compare their attributes and size from each other and the other geo-blocks they have been exploring. 

Social Studies: On our trip to White Memorial this week we were able to experience animal habitats in the wild and apply what we learned in Science regarding Amphibians and Reptiles.  Reflections on the field trip highlighted what they learned and how much they enjoyed the day.  This week we also had three visitors join our classrooms to share their jobs.  We learned more about the job of a police officer, Emergency Medical Technician, and a hairdresser.
Next week, we have three more visitors joining our classroom to share their jobs.  Students will generate questions for each guest beforehand and will learn about each career, what skills are needed, and how they help the community. 

Have a wonderful week!

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

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