Anxiously Awaiting...

Friday!  Our WOW word this week is anxious and almost all of our sentences have been about being anxious for Friday because the first graders won't be at school! They are really looking forward to staying in their pajamas later than usual.

In math we have been focusing on addition and subtraction number models.  One way of doing this is the Change-to-More and Change-to-Less model.  Ask your first grader to show you how they work!

We are working to re-tell the story in literacy.  When you read with your first grader at home, ask them to retell the story (or any event!) using only the MOST important parts. We have been discussing what happened in the beginning, the middle and the end.  We have also been summarizing the story in one sentence. 

In Social Studies we have been learning about our community.  We learned that an important part of being a member of a community is being informed and active. To practice these important skills we researched two presidential candidates and compared them across three (first grade appropriate) platforms- healthcare, education, and the environment.  We learned what the candidates believe and how they think they can lead our country successfully.  We made a campaign poster for the candidate we agreed with the most and wrote why we would vote for them. The first graders did a fabulous job with this activity- you can see them in the hallway outside of our classroom!

Counting On

Today we learned a new math game called High Roller.  High Roller helps us practice counting on from the higher number.  Starting with the higher/larger number is important because it speeds up our thinking time!  Also, when you count less numbers, you're less likely to make a mistake!

We are learning all about characters, setting, problem, and solution in literacy.  We've read two funny books this week- Stop Snoring! and My Messy Room.  We filled out graphic organizers to help us track the four parts of the story.  We've also been noticing punctuation marks and using them in our own writing!  The first graders have an impressive knowledge of punctuation marks and wanted to learn about commas and apostrophes this week in addition to periods, question marks and exclamation points- they are so impressive! 

We are focusing on the vowel "u" this week and are practicing reading it, writing it, and using it all the time.  "U" can be short, long and, when combined with other vowels, make TOTALLY different sounds!  We are learning that letters can make many sounds.  Our WOW word this week is evacuate.  Many of us had family members that had to evacuate from Hurricane Matthew.  We have all practiced evacuating a building during a fire drill.

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The first graders love to write and have enjoyed reading their writing like authors to writing partners this week. 

Short "O" and Math Strategies

Our focus in word work this week is short "o" and how it comes together with other sounds to make words. We read a silly poem about hogs and dogs and a serious poem about Christopher Columbus that you'll see in your child's folder today.  We read two poems each day in Morning Meeting.  One is to practice the reading strategies we've been working on and the other is to practice learning and understanding more from a challenging text that we will have a harder time reading.  The first graders do a SUPER job each week with these poems.

Our WOW word this week is somber.  Somber means sad or serious.  It was easy to think of sentences for somber with the rainy weather this morning.

We are discussing strategies for addition and subtraction in math.  Today, we talked about using our fingers and counting on.  We realized counting on works best when you start with the larger (higher) number.  We have some impressive mathematicians in our classroom.

In writing we practiced not getting caught up in tricky words- we do our best and we just keep writing! Sharing our writing is one of our very favorite parts of the day. 

We are continuing to learn about important members of our community.  Today, we learned about dentists and how they help our community.

You will see 4 pages of math homework in you child's folder tonight.  Please do 1 page each night (or whenever is convenient for you) and have them all done by Friday!