"Peek at the week" October 20-24 & 27-31

Here is a peek into our past 2 weeks!

Math Workshop

We wrapped up unit 2 this week! Your child should bring his/her assessment home on Monday.

We continued solving subtraction story problems by making a proof drawing and equation. We learned that it is important to be able to prove your thinking when solving story problems. 

We then began focusing on related equations. We explored the relationship between addition and subtraction facts. 

 

Reader's Workshop

We continued our focus on word detectives. We added new strategies to our chart to help us figure out tricky words:

Is it a word wall word?

Does it look like another word you know?

Look for chunks you know.

Skip the word and go back.

Re-read. Go back and try another startegy. 

We also added another piece to our readers workshop- listen to reading! Wecan listen to stories on the iPod and on the computer.

 

Word Work

This week we added 5 new words to our word wall:

But

All

Not

Over

What

We also learned two new ways to practice our words- word wall equations and vowel/consonant writing!

Halloween 

We had a fun day together on Friday! First, we made a retelling project for the book Big Pumpkin. 

 

Next, we mad a fun treat called Frankenpudding!

Forst, we drew Frankenstein faces on a clear cup. 

Then we added vanilla pudding.

Next, we stirred on green food coloring to make the pudding green!

The last step was to smash up Oreo cookies to add to the pudding!

We loved this yummy treat!

We had so much fun dressing up for the costume parade!!  I had some very photogenic first graders that kept begging for more pictures...so here you go!!

I hope you had a fabulous weekend!

Love,

Mrs. Hogue

"Peek at the Week" October 13-16

Here is a peek into our week!

Math Workshop 

This wee we focused on two addition strategies: counting all and counting on.

 

We explored counting all first. In this strategies, we counted all the dots represented by each number to find out total. As we continued exploring this, we soon realized that this method took a long time. Many friends decided it was quicker to count on from the first number! 

We then learned that this was called counting on. 

 

In counting on, students start with one number and count on the second number. We knew this was quicker because we didn't need to count the dots we already knew were behind the diary number! Later in the week we learned that it is even faster to count on from the bigger number!

We ended the week by using our 'red count on cards' to help us master the concept of counting on! 

Reader's Workshop

This week we became detectives- word detectives that is! We learned that readers need strategies to tackle tricky words. They look for clues in their stories just like a detective does to solve mysteries!  This week we learned 4 strategies:

Reader use the pictures.

Readers think 'hmmm...what would make sense?

Readers think if the word looks right. 

Readers think if the word sounds right.

We practiced these strategies together before trying them on our own! Mrs. Hogue used the document camera to share books and had some of the words covered up. It was fun to use our detective skills to try and figure out the word! 

Word Work

We added five new words to our word wall:

For 

This

Here

Be

Have

We also learned a fun way to practice spelling these words called pyramid spelling!

 

I hope you enjoyed your weekend! 

Love, 

Mrs. Hogue

"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