Hello everyone :) We have had a very busy couple of weeks in first grade!
We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday last Thursday. We invited Miss Lucas' K4 friends to our classroom to enjoy a Dr. Seuss book called Bartholomew and the Oobleck. We were very lucky to have Dr. Westfahl read the story to us!
The of course we got to make our own oobleck. It is a really simple recipe- cornstarch and water! (and of course some green food coloring to make it green!)
Reader's Workshop
Last week we focused on making text-to-text connections. We began the week by reading two stories:
In these two stories, both main characters are teased for liking to do things that aren't typical for their gender. Both characters work hard and don't give up. We were able to take what we knew from Oliver Button to make accurate predictions in Amazing Grace. We had some wonderful discussions!
Later in the week we made text-to-text connections by reading two well known Dr. Seuss books. I was amazed by the connections that we came up with!
Then I sent the kids off to work with a partner to complete their own Venn diagram comparing two Dr. Seuss books of their choosing.
This week's focus was that readers ask questions when they read. We discovered that readers ask questions before, during, and after reading. We read a story called Grandfather Twilight.
We worked together to ask questions as we read.
We realized that by asking questions our thinking became very active and we were more tuned into the story. The next several days were spent discovering where we find the answers to the questions we ask. We talked about three primary places: in the text, by inferring, and 'in our brains' (our own thinking). We noted these by the questions after reading Thunder Cakes.
By the end of the week we were ready to try this on our own. Everyone chose a book to record their own questions. I hope you found this in your child's book brief case!
Encourage your child to use sticky notes to record their questions as they read and then talk about the answers to their questions. These really lead to some great discussions!
Writer's Workshop
We are busy, busy, busy in writer's workshop! We are working hard to plan our stories with a beginning, middle, and end.
This week we began working on a concept called "Show, don't Tell!" This means to show feelings and situations through your writing rather than simply stating things. This helps us add more detail to our writing and makes it interesting to read!
Towards the end of the week we started looking at the different problems we find in realistic fiction books. Everyone worked with a partner to identify the problem found in a realistic fictin book.
Math Workshop
Last week we wrapped up our unit on geometry by learning about 3D shapes. We had a lot of fun exploring these shapes by looking at items found around our classroom!
Rectangular Prisms
Cylinders
Spheres
This week we began our next unit on fractions. You may have noticed that our homelinks did not begin with the first lesson in unit 8. (8.1) This is because we decided to take the remaining lessons on fractions and put them together in order to give these 1st graders a better understanding and opportunity to explore this difficult concept. The goal for first graders is to understand fractions to 1/2, and also relate that to telling time to the nearest half hour.
We started the week by exploring what fractions were and how to write them. Then, we began exploring fractions of a set. We worked together to figure out how many pennies we would get when divided among different numbers of friends. (this is also the beginning stages of division)
1/3 of 12 = 4
This is a GREAT activity to practice at home. For example can ask your child:
- If I make 12 rolls for dinner and we have 4 people eating, how many can each person have?
Our centers this week included:
Fractional Connect 4
2 dice + 10
Dream Box
BUMP! Making 10
My Book of Fractions
Science
This week we had the Great Dissolving Race. We explored sugar in cube form and in grain form. We made predictions about which form would dissolve faster!
Ask your child to tell you which one won!
I am looking forward to one more week together before spring break!
Have a great week!
Love,
Ms. Havig
Ms. Havig
