Reminders…

Please remember to send shoes for your child to change into for the classroom!

Our Holiday program will be Tuesday 12/4 at Fellowship Church.  A lot of hard work by the students and Ms. Baker has gone into this program and we hope you enjoy it!

• Please remember to keep gifts for our class gift exchange as close to $5.00 as you can. Gifts are due some time the week of 12/10. Thank you!

• Our Christmas party will be Thursday, 12/20 from 12:00 to 1:00. You are very welcome to stop in if you would like.

• Please send all outdoor gear to school with your child as winter has arrived.  Please label all of their belongings.

Reading  

This week in readers workshop we have focused on getting to know the characters in our books.  We spent time reading Frog and Toad books and discussing the characters likes and dislikes. We also talked about what kind of person the characters are and how their feelings can change from the beginning to the end of the story.

 Math

We have just started  new unit in math.  Our Unit 4 in math will focus on tens and teen numbers, place value to 100, and strategies for adding larger numbers.  We will practice counting groups of tens.

We will study the teen numbers (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19) and noticed that every teen number has a 10 hiding inside along with some extra ones.

Writing   

We have just started a new unit writing persuasive letters.  We will focus on stating our opinion to the appropriate audience, coming up with the best reasons to support our opinion, and making sure we have  a closing for our letters.

FYI

*     Please continue having your child read the WEB bag books and return them at least  2X week.

  *   Work on Extra math website to help learning math facts.

*      Library is on Tuesday.  Please help your child remember their books.

*     Thanksgiving break 11/21- 11/26.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

*.    The next early release day will be 12/14.

*     The annual Christmas music program will be Tuesday, 12/4.

*    Please keep food and winter clothing donations coming in for the food drive!   Thank you to  all who have already donated.   Also make sure your child is dressed properly for the winter weather!

 

Reading  

This week in reading we reviewed how important it is to retell stories.  We worked on retelling with the shape map, five finger retell, and read-stop-retell strategies.  When retelling stories we focus on telling with details the characters, setting, problem, events in the middle, solution, and authors message.  Next week we will begin unit 3 in readers workshop which focuses on characters.

  

Math  

Our focus for math has been solving for unknown partners or totals in story problems and equations. We are learning that there are different strategies we can use to solve for an unknown partner and that it is important to always show our work. We can show our work with an equation, math mountain, or a proof drawing.

Writing   

Our goal for this unit is to Write for Readers. We are making our stories easy for others to read and making them more interesting.  We have learned to use 5 Star sentences,  a caret to add missing words,  and to add details suing dialog or our five senses. After Thanksgiving we will begin a unit on persuasive writing.

 

Updates and Reminders:

• Thank you very much for the fantastic parents who put together the activities for the fall party.  The kids had an awesome time!
• Next week is conference week.  I look forward to meeting with you to discuss your first graders progress this year.  Double check conference day and time so we are on schedule.  Thank you!
• Your child will be bringing home a feather on Monday.  Please decorate it however you’d like with your child and return it when it is complete (by Monday November 12).
• Please make sure your child is reading at home.  Take home books should come back to school at least 2X/week.
• Library books need to be returned on Tuesdays.
• Please consider donating food items for our PE Cares food drive.  We are also collecting winter clothing for needy children as well.  Thank you for helping out people who are less fortunate!
• Thanksgiving break begins on Wednesday, November 21- 25.

 

Reading

This week in readers workshop we have been reviewing strategies to help us decode tricky words.  We can slide through the sounds of the word, think about what would make sense, and go back to the beginning and reread. We also learned to use parts of words we know like digraphs  -th     -sh    -ch    and  -wh. 

Math  

Our focus for math has been solving for unknown partners or totals in story problems and equations. We are learning that there are different strategies we can use to solve for an unknown partner and that it is important to always show our work. We can show our work with an equation, math mountain, or a proof drawing.

Writing

This unit in Writers Workshop focuses on making our stories easy for others to read. We have concentrated on stretching out words to hear and write all the sounds.  We are also using 5 star sentences, which includes neat handwriting, finger spaces between the words, and using proper punctuation.  We are also encouraging students to fill their writing booklets with more than one sentence on each page.  I hope you enjoyed reading the stories that came home recently!