News from First Grade

Upcoming Events:

*March 5 (2 Hr. Early Out)

*March 17 and 18 Conferences (4-7:30) (1 hr. early out)

*March 19, 20, 21 No School

Notes:

*Mrs. Patton from Palo Alto County Conservation Board came and talked to us about tools and other items that were used in the past and how they have changed.

*Iowa Assessments are planned for the week of April.

Things to Work on:

*Counting money with pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.

What we have been up to:

Reading: This week we read the story Olivia and talked about what makes this story a fantasy story instead of a reality story.  We learned about how /oa/ and /ow/ make the long o sound.  

Math: This week we finished unit 6 on graphs and 3-D shapes.  Students have enjoyed learning about a sphere, rectangular prism, cube, cone, and cylinder.  We have started our math assessments for the end of third quarter.

Science/ Social Studies: We started our new science unit on earth materials.  We reviewed types of landforms and bodies of water.  We colored the continents and oceans on a map of the world.

News from Mrs. Straw

Events:

-March 5 (2 hr. early out)

-March 17, 18 Conferences (1 hr. early out)

- March 19-21 No School (Spring Break)

-March 31- April 4 Iowa Assessments

What’s Happening in BUILD:

***This is week we continued the same build groups.****

B (Buddy Games)- Going for the Gold (Working on greater than and less than)

U (Using Manipulatives)- Penny, Nickel, Dime Exchange (Students roll a die and then get the corresponding amount of coins out of the bank.  When they have five pennies they trade for a nickel, and then two nickels they trade for a dime.)

I (Indpendently Working)-President’s Day packet (graphing and counting money)

L (Learning with Numbers)- Problem solving by adding specific amount of tens

D-(Doing Math)- Scootpad on laptops

What’s Happening in Daily 5:

*Listen to Reading (Bookflix and Tumblebooks)

*Read to Self

*Read to Someone

*Word Work

        -Highlight specific features in   

           Poems

        -Practice reading sight words and

          Phrases

       -Word Journeys (cut and sort words

         and write sentences with words)

Week in Review:

- We learned about /oa/ and /ow/ making the long o sound (they say o).  We practiced this skill with a smartboard sort.

-We learned what an adjective is and then described ourselves with adjectives

Notes:

-We have started practicing a reader’s theater that we will perform in front of the school on March 13 when the Irish Dignitary visits.  Next week I will send home the lines that your child will be reading for them to continue practicing at home.  I will take pictures that day and post them on my blog.

News from Mrs. Straw

Events:

-Feb. 27 Special DEAR day (Wear pajamas)

-March 5 (2 hr. early out)

-March 17, 18 Conferences

- March 19-21 No School (Spring Break)

-March 31- April 4 Iowa Assessments

What’s Happening in BUILD:

B (Buddy Games)- Going for the Gold (Working on greater than and less than)

U (Using Manipulatives)- Penny, Nickel, Dime Exchange (Students roll a die and then get the corresponding amount of coins out of the bank.  When they have five pennies they trade for a nickel, and then two nickels they trade for a dime.)

I (Indpendently Working)-President’s Day packet (graphing and counting money)

L (Learning with Numbers)- Problem solving by adding specific amount of tens

D-(Doing Math)- Scootpad on laptops

What’s Happening in Daily 5:

*Listen to Reading (Bookflix and Tumblebooks)

*Read to Self

*Read to Someone

*Word Work

        -Highlight specific features in   

           Poems

        -Practice reading sight words and

          Phrases

       -Word Journeys (cut and sort words

         and write sentences with words)

Week in Review:

- This week we played a Smartboard game to learn about the long e with the letter y. 

-We meet with our third grade buddies on Friday and practiced some games.  We worked on long and short vowels, nonsense words, and sight words.

Notes:

-Thursday, February 27 will be a special DEAR day.  We will have an all school assembly to get rejuvenated about reading at home.  On this special day we will be wearing our pajamas.  Please no slippers.

News from First Grade

Upcoming Events:

*Feb 27 Special DEAR Day (wear Pajamas)

*March 5 2 Hour Early Out

*March 17 and 18 Conferences (4-7:30)

*March 19, 20, 21 No School

Notes:

*With nice weather just around the corner please remind your child they have to wear snowpants and snowboots at recess until there is no snow on the recess equipment.

Things to Work on:

*As we are nearing conferences in March we have started assessing for third quarter.  Please review time to the hour and half hour.

What we have been up to:

Reading: This week our theme was about favorite stories.  Our spelling feature for the week is long /e/ sounds that are made by the letter y.  

Math: We have been learning about parallelogram, trapezoid, and hexagon.  Students drew these shapes and then practiced identifying them.   We have spent time this week working in on our BUILD activities.  Students are really getting the hang of Scootpad and the math games.

Science/ Social Studies:This week we finished our unit on past and present.  We learned about a timeline and compared transportation from the past to the present.  Students then sorted pictures into two categories: past or present.

News from Mrs. Straw

Events:

-Feb. 17 School Day (This is a make-up day)

-March 5 (2 hr. early out)

-March 17, 18 Conferences

- March 19-21 No School (Spring Break)

-March 31- April 4 Iowa Assessments

What’s Happening in BUILD:

**This week we continued our Olympics activities.

B (Buddy Games)- Time Speed Skating (Matching analog clocks to digital clocks)

U (Using Manipulatives)- Shreddin’ Base 10 (Working with base 10 blocks to show a two digit number)

I (Indpendently Working)-Torch Missing Numbers (Recording missing numbers on a number line)

L (Learning with Numbers)- Problem solving by adding specific amount of tens

D-(Doing Math)- Scootpad on laptops

What’s Happening in Daily 5:

*Listen to Reading (Bookflix and Tumblebooks)

*Read to Self

*Read to Someone

*Word Work

        -Highlight specific features in   

           Poems

        -Practice reading sight words and

          Phrases

       -Word Journeys (cut and sort words

         and write sentences with words)

Week in Review:

- This week we continued working on writing our persuasive paragraphs.  Students have some great topics of things they would like to persuade you about and will share them at conferences with you.

-This week we had guidance with Ms. Schiek and she has been talking about bullying. She has discussed with us what a bully is, what ways people can be bullied, and what we can do to stop a bully.

Notes:

-Thank you to all the parents who have contributed snacks, juice, plates, etc for our classroom parties this year.  Our Valentine’s Day party was our last class party for the year.

News From First Grade

Upcoming Events:

*March 17 and 18 Conferences (4-7:30)--More information to come

Notes:

*We have been focusing a lot on our first grade sight words.  Please work on these at home with your child.  

Things to Work on:

* Equality—Knowing that both sides of an equation need to be the same.  Example: 8+4=7+5

What we have been up to:

Reading: This week we work on words with ee and ea.  Our theme this week was about things that scientists do.  We learned about Jane Goodall and George Washington Carver.

Math: This week we continued our unit on graphs.  We started by graphing our favorite season.  We have been working hard at comparing three and four items in the graph by using the vocabulary more and less.  

Science/ Social Studies: We continued our study on past and present.  This week we talked about old time tools and compared them to our present day tools.  We also compared schools in the past to our present day schools.

News from Mrs. Straw

Events:

-Feb. 12 2 hr. early out

-Feb. 14 Valentine’s Day Party

-Feb. 17 School Day (This is a make-up day)

What’s Happening in BUILD:

**The next two weeks of BUILD have an Olympic theme.

B (Buddy Games)- Time Speed Skating (Matching analog clocks to digital clocks)

U (Using Manipulatives)- Shreddin’ Base 10 (Working with base 10 blocks to show a two digit number)

I (Indpendently Working)-Torch Missing Numbers (Recording missing numbers on a number line)

L (Learning with Numbers)- Problem solving by adding specific amount of tens

D-(Doing Math)- Scootpad on laptops

What’s Happening in Daily 5:

*Listen to Reading (Bookflix)

*Read to Self

(Poems: Snowflakes)

*Read to Someone

*Word Work

        -Highlight specific features in   

           Poems

        -Practice reading sight words and

          Phrases

       -Word Journeys (cut and sort words

         and write sentences with words)

*We will be using our work on writing time during our class writing block.

Week in Review:

- This week we worked with the word Olympics to see what other words we could make with the letters.

-Mrs. Saxton was a guest reader in our class during our DEAR time on Thursday.

News from First Grade

Upcoming Events:

* Feb. 12 2 hr. early out

*Feb. 14 Valentine’s Day

*Feb. 17 Snow Day make-up

Notes:

*We are doing a great job with our word journey words.  Please remember to practice these with your child at home each night.

*Our snow day from last Thursday will be made up May 23.

Things to Work on:

*Ask your child if the book that they are reading is fiction or nonfiction and have them tell you why.

What we have been up to:

Reading: This week we worked on the sounds ai and ay.  Our theme was about weather.  We will come back to this theme later in the year in science.  Monday we read a Scholastic magazine called A Home Under the Ground about groundhogs.      

Math: This week we started a new math unit on constructing picture graphs.  We worked on comparing the two items and knowing how many more/ fewer one has than the other.

Science/ Social Studies: This week we worked on finishing our United States symbols unit by making a wheel of symbols.  Students picked one symbol to write a report about.  We also just introduced our new unit on comparing past and present.