NOVEMBER ALREADY?????
Hello everyone!
Here we are in the second nine weeks of fabulous first grade! Although November is a relatively short month for school-related activities, there is still a lot of learning going on.
Sadly, Mrs. Timbs will be leaving us November 20. We are extremely unhappy to see her go, but wish her the very best in her brand new teaching career. Some very lucky children will have her as their teacher in the near future, we're sure. Mrs. Whitson takes over all the teaching as of November 3.
You may not know about the awards your children have been racking up here at school. I want to list them for you so far so you can be as proud as they are...
**Most Sally Foster items sold in the entire school. We have a gold medal hanging outside our door!
**Most children in the Fun Run at the Fall Festival. We earned a pizza party that we celebrated October 17. Thank you PTA!
**We have received a popcorn party every month so far for great behavior in the cafeteria.
**We collected more box tops than any other class in the school...almost 1,000!!! The children get to sit on the stage to eat lunch and each receive a 50 cent school store coupon. KEEP SAVING YOUR BOX TOPS! The next drive will be a competition among grade levels. We already have some box tops in our jar for the upcoming contest.
Congratulations to you and your outstanding students!! THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING IN ALL THE PTA ACTIVITIES THAT HELP MAKE OUR SCHOOL SUCH A GREAT PLACE TO BE!!
On to the academic side of the blog! Here we go:
MATH:
This nine weeks will be concentrating on the following skills:
place value (tens and ones to 99)
adding and subtracting to 12 with new strategies such as doubles, doubles plus or minus one, counting on
greater than , less than , and equal to
fact families, or " related facts" (the adding and subtracting families such as 4,3 and 7 that can make related addition and subtraction facts)
graphing and interpreting data
skip counting by 2's, 5's and 10's
making fair trades with coins and bills
working in depth with 2- and 3-dimensional geometric shapes
We'll often work on these skills simultaneously, but will begin with geometric shapes.
SPELLING:
Week of Nov. 3: review of the words of, that, he, for, was, on, are. These Sitton spelling words are the ones the children MUST spell correctly in their work. They are expected to use the phonics and rules and strategies they are learning to spell other words as well. We have a Word Wall with frequently-used words, as well as a list of "outlaw words", those which don't follow the phonics rules we learn, such as people, you, and school.
Review of homophones, especially to, too, two; there, their, they're; and for, four
Week of November 10: words as, with, his.
Short and long vowel rules
adding -s to make plurals (also next week)
Week of November 17: with; new words at, they
Adding beginnings and ending to word familes
PHONICS/HANDWRITING: I've noticed that many of you are working with your child on their D'Nealian handwriting at home. Thank you so much. Handwriting has improved tremendously in the last few weeks. Your help is extremely appreciated.
Letters we'll be working on this month are Rr, Kk, Ee
Phonics rules: short e; short u
English rules: Capitals on proper nouns; periods after abbreviations; commas in a series; apostrophes showing possesives; correct spelling of homophones; ending punctuation.
SCIENCE: This nine weeks we will be covering magnets and sound.
SOCIAL STUDIES: We have begun Thomas Jefferson and his times, and will move into Lewis and Clark and Sacagewea. The important ideas for these historical figures include the history of the USA at the time, as well as what they were famous for.
WRITING: We have been working on writing narratives, and the children are becoming very good writers. We are concentrating on using adjectives to spice up our nouns, and having a clear beginning, middle and ending to our stories. Writing is generally connected to other things we're studying, holiday themes, or things we've read as a class. Children have been learning to write a narrative with a beginning, middle and end, using adjectives, nouns, and learned English and spelling conventions.
Specific skills we work on continuously:
commas in a series of items, and in dates, between city and state
using appropriate ending punctuation (.) (!) (?)
Using capitals at beginning of sentences, on proper nouns
reading work to self and others for self-editing of capitals and punctuation, correct spelling of high-frequency sight and spelling words, to add details, make sure writing makes sense
subject-verb agreement
READING: Because of Mrs. Timbs' departure, we will be revamping the guided reading rotation a bit. Mrs. Snook, Mrs. Druhot and I will still be 'divvying up' our classes for guided reading, and will still work with children on their specific reading levels. Guided reading groups are very fluid, and children are often moved from one group to another depending on their needs. Therefore they may have Mrs. Snook, Mrs. Druhot, or me as their guided reading teacher at any time.
A lot happens in the guided reading setting. Children read appropriately-leveled books that can pertain to any skill, including phonics, writing, math, social studies, or science. Reading both fiction and non-fiction books gives children a wide range of reading experiences, as well as many opportunities to practice the reading strategies that are essential to the goal of reading, which is comprehension. You may find that your child reads a book to you very fluently but can't remember what they read. This is very common with children at this age, and my responsibility is to assure their comprehension of text as they proceed to read more and more difficult books.
I am encouraging the children to read Accelerated Reader book and take tests. I absolutely do NOT require it, and a child will not be penalized if they don't take them. It just gives me a great way of seeing if they are comprehending what they read independently and adjusting the books they read to their appropriate level.
Each child knows what their reading level is and what range of books they should be looking to read. I also have given them a little bookmark with the "Five Finger Rule" for choosing a book they plan to read on their own. The rule tells them to turn to any page in the book they want to read and to start reading. If they come to a word they don't know, they hold up a finger. After reading the page, they decide: 0-1 fingers means the book's too easy. 2-3 fingers means the book is just right. 4-5 or more means it's too hard and to put it back, or realize someone will have to read the book to them.
OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF:
November 4th is a day off for the children. School is a polling place.
November 13 Mrs. Whitson will be out at Quarterly Training as first grade representative all day.
November 20 is our day for the Grandparents and/or Special Friends Thanksgiving luncheon. This is a BIG DEAL. If no one can come for your child, PLEASE LET ME KNOW ASAP. I can go with him/her, or we can get a sibling or Book Buddy to go with them. You'll be receiving an invitation soon. Be sure you have returned your reservation to me so I can get it to the cafeteria. They serve upwards of 1,000 meals this day, they need an accurate count. Our entertainment (!) starts at 11:10 in our classroom, lunch is from 11:35-12:05.
November 24-28 is Thanksgiving vacation. Enjoy yourself!
Get in touch if you need anything!!
Diana
