We are officially over half way through the year!!
We celebrated the 90th day of school on Thursday. We began the day with a guest reader- Mrs. Witkov! She came and read us half of ABad Case of the Stripes in the morning.
She even dressed the part of Camillia! After reading the first half of the story, we made predictions on how the story would end.
Mrs. Witkov came back and finished the story at the end of the day. Many of us made really accurate predictions! And of course...we talked about the moral of the story which is to always be yourself :) (It is a great story- I highly recommend adding it to your collection!)
After reading the first part of the story we worked together to complete the morning message, which of course, only had half the letters!
Next, we made our half way day crowns!
Our math time was also 'half way day' themed. The kiddos completed a story about Harry and Dottie. The focus of this story was on our doubles facts.
There was also a page that had some 1/2 fractions on it which they loved!
Overall, it was a fun day and exciting to think of all we have done together this year :)
Reader's Workshop
We wrapped up our unit on 'growing stories' that took a look at all the elements that are found in fictional stories. This week we focused on the setting. We learned that the setting is the where and when of a story. Sometimes stories have more than one setting. The children recorded the setting(s) of their stories on sticky notes to share with the group:
On Friday, each student completed their own story map on a book of their choosing. Look for these to come home on Monday!
Next week we will begin a short unit on nonfiction!!
Writer's Workshop
We read another book by our mentor author this week called The Leaving Morning.
We noticed very quickly that this book had many similarities to Joshua's Nigh Whispers. One of the biggest things we noticed was that Angela Johnson repeated phrases several times. We call this comeback lines.
The comeback line holds the main idea of the story. It gives the story a soft feel as you read it. After I modeled how to figure out a comeback line for a story, the kids tried it out with sticky notes!
This wasn't an easy task! Many students realized it was quite tricky to determine a good comeback line for their story if there was no clear focus. Even so, it was a craft the kids had fun exploring with!
Math Workshop
We wrapped up Unit 5 by working with In & Out boxes. This is a rather tricky concept, but with many opportunities for practice and modeling most of the kids really caught on! In & Out boxes will continue to pop up in Everyday Math each year!
We took the Unit 5 assessment on Friday. I hope to send these home by mid week.
Our next unit is on basic addition and subtraction facts. We will also begin timed fact tests!! The goal for first graders is to complete 30 basic addition & subtraction facts with 90% accuracy in 5 minutes. Once children master this, they will move to the 2nd grade goal (60 facts in 5 minutes) and 3rd grade (100 multiplication facts in 5 minutes). I strongly encourage you to practice addition and subtraction facts each day with your child!
Flash Light Reading Celebration!
We are reading so so much in 1st grade!! To celebrate reaching our December goal, we got to read with flashlights on Friday!
I hope you had a wonderful weekend! Make sure you are getting plenty of sleep and stay healthy!
Love,
Ms. Havig
Ms. Havig
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