"Peek at the Week" December 9-13

It is hard to believe we are half way through December!  My goodness where has this year gone!?  We had a wonderful week in first grade despite being cooped up with many days of indoor recess!  I hope you found some time to get outside over the weekend!

Here is a peek into our week!

Writer's Workshop

We continued learning from authors.  We are learning that authors include things in their writing to make it special and to help readers picture the story in their minds.  This week we studied Ezra Jack Keats and Cynthia Rylant.  We learned that those authors included dialogue, sound effects (onomatopoeia), and lots of details!   

Using pop out words.

Using dialogue. 

We worked with our writing partners this week.  We want to be sure we are including all the details and events in our stories.  We want our partner to be able to picture our stories in his/her mind.  We shared our stories with our partners while they closed their eyes to try and imagine it.  If it was difficult for them, they asked questions to generate more details to include in the writing.  

Next week we will be publishing a piece to put in our CLASSROOM LIBRARY!  We are so excited to be published authors and have our friends enjoy our stories over and over again!

Reader's Workshop

This week we continued our nonfiction unit.    We learned that readers must 'put on the breaks' when reading.  We learned two more things readers ask themselves:

What is this part mostly about?

What did I just learn?

We practiced putting on the breaks by jotting down something we learned on a sticky note.  Look at all the cool things we learned from our nonfiction books!

At the end of the week we learned that nonfiction readers have different paths they can choose to 'journey' through nonfiction books.  Nonfiction reader might 'dabble' through their books before they read.  This means the reader looks at the cover, the pictures, headings, diagrams, etc. before reading the main text of the story.  We practiced 'dabbling' through a book with our partner.  (This is very similar to taking a 'sneak peek' in fiction books!)

The second way we learned that nonfiction readers might choose to journey through their books is by reading EVERYTHING on the page.  This includes all text features and the main text. 

We will learn one more path that readers might choose to take next week!

Word Work

We began learning about the short and long sounds of Uu!  This is a tricky letter because the long U can really make two sounds- U as in Unicorn and U as in tube.  

We started learning the sounds by completing a picture sort.  We listened for the sounds we heard in each picture.

Math Workshop

This week we focused on the relationship between addition and subtraction.  We learned that we could write an addition and subtraction equation to represent story problems. 

We also practiced using math language to explain which part of the problem  each number represented, and which part we were trying to solve for!  I have been absolutely *amazed* at how quickly children are picking up on these concepts!  

We also learned that we can make 4 equations from math mountains- 2 addition and 2 subtraction!  All we do is switch the partners!

Children were also encouraged to identify the total in each problem.  In the example below, 7 is the total.  In the addition equations it is found at the end.  In subtraction it is found at the beginning.  We realized when subtracting we take away from the total. 

We also had some fun on Friday participating in some different math games.  We will be playing these games throughout the year during our independent practice in math. 

Base 10 Block Explorations

Subtraction BUMP!

Place Value Dominos

Dreambox Learning

YES YES YES!  This APP is now available for the ipad!!!  And the best news?!  You can download this for free to use at home!  Go to the app store and download Dreambox Learning.  Then, you will be asked for a code.  Type in:

shxn/foxpjsd

Remember, when working on this program at home children should be working independently.  The program adjusts to their needs, which is essential to their growth and learning!

Science

We finished up our study on clouds with a poem to help us remember the different types of clouds.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!
Love,

Mrs. Hogue

"Peek at the Week" December 2-6

Take a peek into our exciting week!

Writers's Workshop

This week we learned how writers make their writing special.  We learned different crafts, or techniques, from two authors we know very well. 

We know when we read books by real authors that the stories sound so special and exciting.  We thought to ourselves, hmm...I would like to try that!  We took some ideas from authors and tried them in our own writing this week!  It was fun to see children bringing their stories to life in new and exciting ways!

Using Pop Out words!

Reader's Workshop

This week we began an exciting unit- Nonfiction!!  You could literally see the excitement bursting out of these 1st graders.  Nonfiction is an exciting genre for first graders....they are so eager to learn!

We started with an exploration of many nonfiction books. 

We all got to add 2 nonfiction books to our book bins!

After we learned that all the books in front of us were nonfiction, we learned how these books were organized in our classroom library.  The books are organized by topic. The topics range from sports to animals to biographies.  As you can see, we have many nonfiction topics right in our own classroom!

As we began reading and exploring nonfiction books, we quickly realized that there were many differences between nonfiction and fiction.  Nonfiction books have text features such as photographs, table of contents, headings, and diagrams!  We searched for text features in our own books and marked them with sticky notes to share!

 

Toward the end of the week we began to learn how readers read nonfiction books. We have to read these books much differently than fiction books. 

First, we learned that nonfiction readers look at the cover.  They ask themselves 3 important questions:

1.  What do I already know about this topic?
2.  What questions do I have about this topic?

3.  What do I think I will learn about this topic?

We practiced warming our minds up by looking at the cover and asking ourselves these questions.  We recorded our thinking on sticky notes.

We also learned that nonfiction readers must 'put on the breaks' when reading nonfiction.  They need to stop and ask themselves, "What is the author trying to teach me?" By stopping and thinking readers can learn more about the topic. 

Math Workshop

We began Unit 3 this week on unknown number partners in addition and subtraction. In our last unit, students learned how to find the total when given two number partners.  In this unit, students will be given the total and one number partner in order to find the missing piece. 

We began by reviewing Math Mountains.  This is a very visual way for many children to solve missing partner problems.   Children place the total on the top and the partner on the bottom.  Then, they solve for the missing partner.

We practiced missing partner problems in many ways.  In each method of practice, students were encourage to name the total, and the partner.  This helped them organize their thinking while solving the problem.

 

 

Next week we will focus on finding the missing partner in subtraction problems!

Science

We continued learning about clouds this week. We made a fun flip book to show the three different types of clouds- cirrus, stratus, and cumulus!

Other News

Our mitten tree is blossoming with mittens!  Thank you to everyone who has donated!  We will be collecting through the end of December!  

Have a great week!

Love, Mrs. Hogue