What's New in 1G

Hello.  I hope you have had a nice weekend.  It definitely felt like fall.  Let's hope we have nice fall weather this year.  Low 70s and no humidity...I could live like that year round.

It was great to see so many of you at Curriculum Night.  If you missed the sign ups (classroom helper, field trip helper or at home helper) please let me know what you are interested in.  Also, THANK YOU to those who offered to send in donations to our class.  I really appreciate it.  If you forgot what you signed up for send me an email and I can let you know.  Please send in your donation in the coming days/weeks.  I really appreciate your generosity.

Curriculum Update:

Language Arts: Our reading strategy focus for the past two weeks as been "Look for Sounds" in unknown words and Skip/Read/Go Back while reading the story the "Chick and the Duckling".  The second strategy is when you skip a word you don't know, continue reading and then to back and reread the sentence again to see if it makes sense. We also worked on distinguishing between real and make believe while reading the story "One Monday Morning"and "King Bidgood's in the Bathtub". We discussed royalty words and days of the week, along with the stories "Cookie's Week" and "A Week of Raccoons". We did several writing activities, including an opinion writing piece on our favorite day of the week. Opinion writing includes a statement of opinion, supporting reasons and a conclusion.

Word Wall Words: for, is, can, see, us, are, her, up, and, one

Grammar:  Quotation marks were introduced.  The students used macaroni to write sentences using quotations marks.  We discussed that they are used in stories to show that characters are speaking. The students learned the three sentence rules.  Using a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence, leaving spaces between words and putting a punctuation mark at the end of a sentence are the rules we are practicing.

Phonics: The students have been introduced to short o.  Later this week they will be assessed on short o and then short o and a.

Math: We continue counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s to 120 by starting at ANY number.  Please practice counting at home, in the car, on walks...to help your child develop in this skill.  We are practicing problem solving by drawing, writing equations and explaining our answers. We practice making tally marks, graphing and finding complements of 10.  Here is a great website to visit with your child to work on this very important skill.  http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=75  When math homework is given, it is always due the next day.  Starting next week, one night a week the math homework will be a problem solving activity.

Science: We have started our Weather unit. We will explore various types of weather, identify clouds and explore air and wind. We also went on a Nature walk to look for signs of Fall as the first official day of Fall arrived on Saturday. 

Here is a great site for weather. weatherwizkids.com

Social Studies: We continue working on being a good citizen at May Watts.  We are talking about problem solving.  We are practicing ways to resolve conflicts while using "I" statements.  (I feel ____ when you _______ because _________.)  The students are enjoying learing all about their classmates with their All About Me bags.  Thanks for helping your child prepare his/hers.

Upcoming Events:
Book orders due:  Friday, September 28
Applesauce Day:  Thursday, September 27 (please send in one or two diced apples)
Read In: Friday, September 28 (more information to follow this week)
Picture Day: Thursday, October 4
No School: Monday, October 8

 

I hope you have a great week!  Please let me know if you have any questions.