News from Mrs. Straw

Events:

-March 31- April 4 Iowa Assessments

-April 9 (2 hr. early Out)

-April 17 (1 hr. early out)

-April 18 (No School)

-April 21 (Snow Make-up day)

What’s Happening in BUILD:

**This is a repeat from last week since we were busy with the short week last week.***

B (Buddy Games)- Graphing skills

U (Using Manipulatives)- Addition math boxes

I (Indpendently Working)- St. Patrick’s Day math packet (review skills)

L (Learning with Numbers)- Completing unfinished problem solving papers from our math folders

D-(Doing Math)- Scootpad on the computers

Week in Review:

Reading:

This week in reading we continued learning about the bossy r’s.  This week we are focusing on the sound for /or/.  We practiced a game on the smartboard in which we sorted short /o/ words and words with /or/.

Math:

This week we finished unit 7.  We spent most of the days this week learning about and reviewing time to the half hour.

Social Studies:

We started a new unit on the marketplace.  We have learned about needs and wants.  Other vocabulary that we learned this week was: goods, services, jobs, business, volunteer, trade, and save.  This is a short unit so next week will start our new science unit on plants.

Notes:   

-Thank you to everyone for attending your child’s conference.  We add 100% attendance!!!

-We have reached our goal for our pizza party.  We will enjoy are pizza party on Monday. J  

News from Mrs. Straw

Events:

-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 a repeat from last week since we have been practicing our reader’s theater.***

B (Buddy Games)- Graphing skills

U (Using Manipulatives)- Addition math boxes

I (Indpendently Working)- St. Patrick’s Day math packet (review skills)

L (Learning with Numbers)- Completing unfinished problem solving papers from our math folders

D-(Doing Math)- Scootpad on the computers

Week in Review:

-This week we performed our reader’s theater for the Irish Dignitary.  Students spoke loudly and clearly.  They did an excellent job!!

Reading:

This week in reading we learned about the bossy r sound for /ar/.  We watched a short video from the Electric Company on how the bossy r works.  Then we played a game on the smartboard that showed us how anytime r is by a vowel is changes the sound.

Math:

This week in math we continued our study on ½ and ¼ .  We also learned about circle graphs. 

Science:

We finished our unit on the environment.  We learned about reduce, reuse, and recycle.  On Monday we talked about the importance of conserving our nature resources and how we can help keep them clean.

Notes:

Reminder: In the month of March we will have a special reading challenge: to increase our total minutes by 1,000.  

Irish Dignitary and Leprechaun visit

First graders performed a reader's theater for the school on Ireland.  They did an excellent job!!  To see our performance check it out on West Elementary's Facebook page.

The Irish Dignitary talked to us about Ireland and how they celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Leprechaun's visited our class. 

Celebrating Dr. Seuss

Jane Whittmore from the newspaper came and read a Dr. Seuss book to our class.  While she read we enjoyed popcorn and m&ms.

Dr. Seuss, Thing 1, and Thing 2 visited our class and dropped off some Smencils and hats.

News from Mrs. Straw

Events:

-March 9 Daylight Savings Begins

-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:

B (Buddy Games)- Graphing skills

U (Using Manipulatives)- Addition math boxes

I (Indpendently Working)- St. Patrick’s Day math packet (review skills)

L (Learning with Numbers)- Completing unfinished problem solving papers from our math folders

D-(Doing Math)- Scootpad on the computers

Week in Review:

- We learned about long i.  We learned about the silent e at the end to make the I say its name.  We also learned about how sometimes y says /i/.

-We reviewed what we learned from last week about adjectives.  We practiced by describing some snowmen on the smartboard.

-This week we celebrated Dr. Seuss’ Birthday.  We had some guest readers in the room as well as a visit from The Cat In The Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Notes:

-Our last snow make-up day will be made up April 21^st. 

-Next week will be our performance for the Irish Dignitary.  Please work on reviewing your child’s part at home.  They will be reading it with three other students.

*****In the month of March we will have a special reading challenge: to increase our total minutes by 1,000.  February we read 3, 942 minutes.  If we can reach this challenge we will have a pizza party on the last day of March.

*******Next Thursday will be another special DEAR day.  Our first grade theme will be: WEAR GREEN.

News from First Grade

Upcoming Events:

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

*March 19, 20, 21 No School

Notes:

*As we are working on our portfolios for conferences we have noticed how well our writing has grown this year.  Students are listening to their sounds when writing, writing with correct punctuation, and using complete sentences.

Things to Work on:

*Doubles (Example: 2+2=4)

What we have been up to:

Reading: This week we read a Frog and Toad story called The Kite.  Frog and Toad books are good beginning chapter books for first graders.  While we read the book we worked on visualizing what was happening in the story.  We also focused on what the problem was in the story and how the problem was solved, the solution.  Our words this week focused on –ight and –ind sounds.

Math: This week we started our new unit on fractions.  We started by learning how to double a number then we learned how to find half of a number.  

Science/ Social Studies: This week we have started a new chapter titled Caring for the Earth.  This week we learned about what it means to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  We also learned how valuable our natural resources are.  We read the story The Lorax and talked about the effects of the pollution on the animals, air, and water.