"Peek at the Week" September 22-26

Here is a look into all the learning we did last week!

Math Workshop

We continued our focus on number partners this week. For this first unit, the lessons might appear to be rather repetitive, but this repetition is helping our young learners to gain fluency in addition facts within 10.  Working with partners in multiple ways helps children to gain automaticity in these facts before we begin learning strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems within 20!

This week we learned about partners of 8,9, and 10!

We explored switching the partners, breaking a total into 2 partners, and using 10 frames to identify partners of 10.

Some children even explored finding 3 numbers to make 9 by using 2 break apart sticks!

Next week children will be assessed on unit 1. We will then learn the expectations and routines of our math workshop model that we will begin for our next unit. This will allow children to be given additional instruction in math concepts that meet their individuals needs!

Reader's Workshop

This week we learned that readers need to get their minds ready to read. Just like runners need to stretch their legs so they don't stumble and run out of stamina, readers need to warm up so they can stay focused to read long and strong.

This week we learned three ways we warm our minds up:

1. Readers look at the cover of the book. They think about what might happen in the story.

2. Readers take a 'sneak peek'. This means readers peek at a few pages of the book and think about the characters and use the pictures to get an idea of the story. They save the last few pages for a surprise!!

3. Readers imagine how the story will go as they begin to read. This helps us to make predictions!

We practiced taking a sneak peek with our partners!

We built 16 minutes of stamina this week! We are hoping to make it to 20 next week!

Work Work

This week we learned 5 new first grade words:

play

that

in

of

me

Our goal in first grade is to be able to read AND spell our word wall words! We will be learning 5-6 new words each week through the first half of the year! 

Science 

This week we talked about wind. We read the story The Wind Blew and talked about what we knew about wind.

We are going to be tracking the speed of the wind each day! We made wind flags to help us measure how hard the wind is blowing!

We had a great week together! Please remember that we are having our evacuation and reunification drill on Tuesday afternoon.  I know there is a lot of information to read through, but I highly encourage everyone to take some time to read through it in order to get a clear understanding of this procedure. Our goal is to keep our children safe, and we need them to know the procedures if something were to ever happen. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Enjoy the rest of this beautiful Sunday!

Love,

Mrs. Hogue

"Peek at the Week" September 15-19

Here is a peek into our week!!

Math

We began the week learning how to represent and visualize the numbers 1-10 in ten frames. 

We practiced identifying the 5-group in the numbers 5-10. We can name these numbers as '5 and some more'. For example, the number 7 is '5 and 2 more'. We also practiced writing addition sentences to match!

Next, we learned about number partners for the numbers 5-7. Number partners are two numbers that work together to make a total. 

We used our stair steps to find number partners. 

We also learned about 'switching the partner'. We saw that it didn't matter what order the partners are in, we still get the same total!

For each number of focus, we apracticed breaking the total into two partners. We used our stair step to help us see this!

Next week we will learn about number partners for 8-10! 

Reader' Workshop

We built 15 minutes of reading stamina this week!!

We are so close to meeting our goal of 20 minutes!!

This week we learned about Just Right Books. These are books we love, books we choose, and books that fit. 

We started the week learning about the books we love. It was fun to see all the wonderful books our friends brought in!

Next, we learned about books that fit. We used the analogy below to discuss how choosing a book is similar to choosing a book:

Mrs. Hogue brought in a pair of Mr. Hogue's shoes. She put them on and tried to walk in them, but kept tripping and stumbling! They were too big! Shoes that are just right for Mr. Hogue are not just right for Mrs. Hogue! She needs a different size. Next, we tried on each other's shoes. 

We quickly saw that most of our friend's shoes don't fit us! We can't walk or do our first grade job if our shoe doesn't fit. This is just like books! Books that are just right for our friends and help them do their jobs might not be just right for us!

We learned that for a book to fit we need to know most of the words, understand it, and read it fluently.

On Monday, your child will bring home his/her first just right book in a book briefcase! Please look for this!

Science

We continued our study of weather by using our senses to observe the weather. We went outside and recorded what we saw, felt, heard, and smelled. 

We had such a great week together!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Love,

Mes. Hogue 

"Peek at the Week" September 8-12

It certainly feels like September this week! We had a great first full week together and enjoyed this beautiful, but chilly, fall weather! 

We spent time this week practicing The Stormonth Way. Ask your child to tell you about 'Line Basics' and 'Give Me 5'.  

Here is a peek into the rest of our week!

Reader's Workshop 

We continued working on building our stamina!  We learned how readers choose spots in the classroom to read that will keep them focused. We also learned how to handle distractions that might occur when we are reading.  

We also learned a comprehension strategy called 'Check For Understanding'. It is important for readers to stop and check that they know who is in the story and what is happening. 

We will be using a CAFE board in our classroom this year to house all our reading strategies! CAFE stands for Comprehension 

(I understand what I read)

Accuracy

(I can read the words)

Fluency

(I can read the words with expression and understand what I am reading)

Expand Vocabulary 

(I know, find, and use interesting words)

It is important that children develop all these areas as they become stronger readers!

Math Workshop 

We completed our first Math Expression lesson this week. Our first unit will focus on number partners through totals of 10. Children are encouraged to begin seeing the numbers 6-10 as a 5 group 'and some more'. For example, the number 7 is 5 and 2 more.

Word Work

We continued learning about each other through our King and Queen of the day. 

 

We also reviewed our K5 word wall words and added them to our word wall. Next wee we will start adding first grade words to our wall!

Science

Our first unit in science is weather. We talked about the types of things we like to do in each type of weather. Then, we chose our favorite type of weather and drew a picture of ourselves to add to a class graph.

 

We had 6 friends like cold weather AND hot weather! 

As you can see we had a very busy week together!! I hope you found time to relax and enjoy the weekend!

Love,

Mrs. Hogue 

'Peek at the Week' September 2-5

We had a great first week of school! We spent a lot of our week getting to know each other and learning the routines and expectations of first grade!

Here is a summary of our week written by first graders during Writer's Workshop:

First grade is fun! We read “Wemberly Worried” and our class did a project about the book with watercolors.

Some kids got to be king or queen of the day. The smartboard picks who it will be. We are trying hard at reading. Every day, we add more minutes. We got to 5 minutes. We are trying for 20!

One of my goals this year is to have children help me co-author the blog so you can learn about parts of our week through the eyes of the children!

Here is a peek at the rest of our week!

Reader's Workshop

We launched reader's workshop this week! We leaned three ways that readers can read books. 

Children then had time to practice these types of reading while we worked on building our stamina. Ask your first grader if they know what stamina means! Stamina is reading long and strong. Just like runners need to run a little bit each day before they can run a mile, readers need to practice reading for longer periods of time in order to build their reading stamina. 

We learned what a first grade reader's job is during read-to-self and what Mrs. Hogue's job is.

We kept track of our stamina each day. This week we built 5 minutes of stamina! Our goal is to get to 20!

Math Workshop

This week we explored some tools that mathematicians use to help them solve problems or represent their thinking. 

 We can use unification cubes to represent patterns, help us add and subtract, compare, and make ten groups! 

  

We can use pattern blocks to help us learn about fractions and to make new shapes by combining differnt blocks!

We also looked at base 10 blocks. We can use these math tools to help us represent 2 digit numbers and to make ten groups.

Writer's Workshop

We got to know our friends in Mrs. Armstrong's class this week! Each of us were partnered with a new friend to interview

Look for our special projects out in the hallway next week!!

Other fun activities!

Did you hear about King and Queen of the day? Each day, we will crown a new friend to be our king or queen of the day! We will get to know them better by interviewing them and learning how to write their name! And the best part...you get to wear a crown all day!! We crowned two queens this week!

We also started a fun project to go along with the story Wemberly Worried.

Wemberly worried, worried, worried about everything! There are many thing to worry about when starting a new school year, but now that we have been in first grade for a week we don't have to worry as much! 

We used our water colors to paint our own versions of the cover of this book!

The Stormonth Way

Some of you may have heard your child talking about 'boot camp' held here at Stormonth this week! We are very excited that our school is now a PBIS school. That stands for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support. Basically what this means is that our ENTIRE school will be using consist language and expectations when teaching children about our rules at school. During 'boot camp' we leaned about Line Basics, Think 2, Voice Levels, and the expectations in the cafeteria and playground. 

               Practicing Line Basics

  Learning about Think 2 in the bathroom.

 Mrs. Grimm-Nilsen will be proving more information during Parent Orientation Night!

I hope your first grader enjoyed their first week in first grade! If they were anything like me, I bet they were very tired each night :) 

Enjoy your weekend!! 

Love, 

Mrs. Hogue