I hope you are all enjoying our snow day today with plenty of outside winter fun! Tomorrow is Valentine's day and we will celebrate it in the afternoon. If your child wishes to bring in treats for the class, please make sure there is enough for all children. I sent a class list electronically last week and included the paper version in your child's Friday folder. Thank you! Let me know if you need another copy.
Writing:
We started our animal research last week. The children chose which African animal they wish to learn more about and they started writing their introductions. This writing unit nicely bridges the gap between reading and writing as the children will read books and articles to learn more about the animal they are writing about. The students will learn about the importance of finding relevant information in the books they are reading and how to effectively write it down using their own words.
It is difficult to find non-fiction books about our topic on all students' reading levels so we will rely on online resources as well. Last week, the students started using pebblego and kidinfobits ,
sites that enable the students to listen to the texts read aloud to them. If your child wants to use these sites at home, he/she can access them through our school website and the Library resources page. I also have linked multiple search engines on the wiki (under the heading search engines). Some students used kiddle last week, a terrific site that offers multiple resources for searches made. I will forward passwords to pebblego and kidsinfobits via email shortly, no passwords are required for the search engines on the wiki.
In an effort to assist the students further in their research, I am also looking for additional parent volunteers to come in and read aloud from our animal books in small groups or one-on-one. If you are interested and have time available, we would greatly appreciate the time you can offer our students.Thank you so much for considering this.
Reading:
We are almost finished with our class read aloud The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and will shortly move over to non-fiction reading. The students started reading non-fiction books in reading groups last week and will continue working on various reading skills and strategies, while learning about non-fiction elements, such as glossaries, table of content, and headings, just to name a few.
Math:
First grade mathematicians are working hard on developing number sense through the uses of number lines. They have also spent a few weeks seeing the connections between numbers and place value while connecting their understandings to the number sequence 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, and 9. Ask you child to explain how we can use number lines, or our number scrolls to figure out math equations, and finding the number before and after. February's number corner exposes the children to geoboards and 2-dimensional shapes. They are learning about congruent and non-congruent shapes. We used the ipads on Friday to further explore these shapes. Additionally, first grade mathematicians will be learning more about comparing numbers and quantities through a series of learning activities, exploring the concepts of "greater than", "less than" and "equal to." Stay tuned for more math news!
Reminders and Upcoming Events:
- Tuesday, February 14th is Valentine's Day. We will celebrate in our classroom. If you wish to bring in a small treat, such as fruits, cookies, or juice, please make sure all snacks are Tree Nut Free.
- We are scheduled for another 4 Winds class on February 16th. Please make sure your child has boots, jackets and hats for possible outside explorations. Thank you.
- We have our Winter Break from school between 2/27-3/3.
- I hope you read the information regarding the Lucky U and Basket Raffles sent out in separate emails. We hope you will support the fund-raising events at our school. Thank you.
- Parent-teacher conferences will be available in late March. I will send out more information as we approach this date.
Best,
Maria
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