"Peek at the Week" September 29- October 3

We had another great and busy week in first grade!

Math 

We wrapped up unit 1 this week. Your child should have brought home their assessment for you to see. 

We spent the rest of our week learning our math workshop routine. This will look similar to readers and writers workshop in that we will start with a mini lesson and then children will have opportunities practice skills appropriate for their individual learning needs. 

We practiced working independently and in small groups this week.

We also learned 2 new games BUMP and Shake and Spill! 

We will be starting unit 2 on Monday. This unit will focus on addition and subtraction  strategies.

Reader's Workshop

We built our reading stamina up to 20 minutes and beyond this week! We were really excited to celebrate this milestone in first grade!

We continued our focus on getting our minds ready to read by learning that readers make predictions, retell stories, and make a plan before reading. 

We learned that it is important to plan our reading so that we can keep our stamina. Readers start with familiar books first, then choose books with more challenges. This helps our minds stay focused. 

 

Word Work

We added 5 new word wall words to our word wall this week:

where

are

of

for

was

We also started the new month enjoying chicken soup with rice!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Love,

Mrs. Hogue

"Peek at the Week" October 6-10

Hi families!

I'm so sorry that last week's post did not publish! I fixed the problem so it should be posted!

First graders are really picking up on the routines and expectations of first grade. I decided to highlight the positive things we are doing through a fun app called Class Dojo. 

We have a classroom 'monster' who is keeping track of points we earn by:

Transitioning quietly

Being kind to friends

Having stamina

Following directions

We came up with these goals together as a class and also brainstormed some fun rewards for earning points! (They really wanted to earn points to get a dog class pet so I had to break some hearts with the news that it isn't possible!) We agreed on the following rewards:

7 points = new classroom cheer 

10 points= computers/iPads open during our morning book browsing 

20 points= choice time for part of an afternoon

100 points= class celebration (We will discuss this when it gets closer to the date. Some examples include pajama day, bring a stuffed animal to school, etc.)

It was really fun to create this together and to take the kids' ideas for goals to work on and appropriate rewards!  

First grade is a big transition and we want to celebrate the great things we do!

Here is a peek into our week!

Math Workshop 

This week we focused on addition strategies!  We learned that problem solvers use pictures to help solve problems. They draw the picture, include the number partners, and the total.

Next, we learned that problem solvers use simple shapes to represent their drawings.  We noticed that it takes a long time to draw castles, etc. and it is much quicker to use a simple shape. 

We also leaned about the = sign and how we can write true equations to represent story problems. We also worked in small groups on creating, sorting, and solving equations.

Reader's Workshop

This week we leanrned how readers read with a partner! 

Readers practiced sitting EEKK with their partner (Elbow to Elbow, Knee to Knee).  

Partners also learned how to read together, be fair, and talk about books. 

We built 17 minutes of partner stamina!

Word Work

We added 5 new words to our word wall this week: his, they, is, saw, with. Each week we will be learning new words as well as practicing old words!

Each week we learn the correct letter formations as we practice writing the words. 

We also practice our new words in a variety of ways. This week we did an activity called Highlight a Letter. We used a highlighter to find our word wall words in isolation and in a short story!

On Friday we practiced our word wall words during word wok centers!

iPad app called Doodle Buddy

Sand writing 

Build a word 

ZAP!

Science 

This week we leaned about thermometers and how they are used to measure temperature. We measured the temperature inside and outside! 

What a great week!

"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