"Peek at the Week" January 27-31

We are officially half way through first grade! Can you believe it!? We celebrated the 88th day of school on Monday with some fun activities!

We had to solve a 'Half Way Day' morning message... half of the letters were missing! 

We also worked on a Half Way Day story. We had to figure out our doubles equations on each page! 

We had such a fun day celebrating :)

This week was also our First Grade Bedtime Story Hour! This is always one ofy favorite memories of the year. It is so fun to see all the excitement in these first graders. We were also so lucky to have so many teachers and staff volunteer to read to our friends! 

Here is a peek at the rest of our week:

Writer's Workshop

We used Henry and Mudge and the Happy Cat as a mentor text this week. We studied the things Cynthia Rylant did to make her writing so interesting and exciting to read! 

We learned how she made her writing seem real by writing about things that could really happen.  We also learned that she divided her story into 3 parts, or chapters. We tried this out too!

Next week we will wrap up our Realistic Fiction unit!

Readers's Workshop

We focused on character traits this week. We learned that readers can understand the story more by learning about the characters.  We can figure out more about our characters by thinking about the things they do and say. 

Word Work

This week we continued our study on vowels by learning that each syllable in a word needs a vowel.  We practiced this concepts with our names this week! 

Math

This week we learned how to use our number paths to add numbers! 

This week I wanted to show you what Math Workshop looks like in our classroom.   

Each day we start together for a mini lesson. The new concepts are introduced at this time and children have the opportunity to practice and apply new skills. 

Next, we move into the independent practice and small group part of our workshop. Children rotate through 3 activities each day:

Small group instruction with Mrs. Hogue:

I meet with kids in small groups and provide instruction based on the needs of each child. This instruction includes intervention, guided practice, and extension activities. The groups are flexible and often change daily depending on your child's needs. 

Independent Practice

Children complete the daily activity in their Math Expressions workbook that matches the lesson of the day. After completing this, children work in differentiated writing journals in which they solve and explain math problems. 

Computers/Games

 

Children spend time on DreamBox learning or other games to reinforce concepts for the week.  

Science 

This week we explored mixing two solids together-gravel and salt!

 

We saw that when we mixed these two solids together that nothing changed. So we decided to see if there would be any changes when we separated the two solids.

 

We learned very quickly that we are able to mix and separate solids without any changes occurring. 

We had a great week in first grade! A couple of reminders:

- Please continue to work with your child on tying his/her shoes. This continues to be a challenge for many children each day!

- Pleae continue to work on helping your child dress for the cold weather independently. This is still a challenging task for many children each day!

- Please remind your child about their lunch choice each day. With so any choices each day, it can be challenging for children to know what to choose!

I appreciate your help in moving your first grader towards more independence! 

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the Super Bowl!

Love,

Mrs. Hogue