Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

I hope you had a chance to enjoy the beautiful winter weather yesterday.  What a treat to see the sun again!

Reading:
The students continued their guided reading groups last week.  As a class, we also continued our work on "Mercy Watson".  The students added adjectives to our class anchor chart to describe Mercy as a character.  Please visit our class to see it!

Writing:
The students are in the final stages of publishing their small moment stories.  They are creating titles and covers for their stories.  Their narratives are terrific. Some students will publish more than one story.  They will all stay at school until our end-of-the-year writing celebration called "Reading Restaurant", which traditionally  occurs in May.  Our next unit will be a short  mini-unit on opinion writing.  We will start next week.  In this unit, the students will learn to make persuasive arguments for something they feel very strongly about.  In the past, students have argued for longer recess, longer snack-time, more PE and shorter bus rides!  Some students choose to address their parents and try to convince them to get a pet, let them stay up longer at night or have juice for breakfast! Who knows what this year's class will write about?  We will find out soon enough.....

Math:
First grade mathematicians are currently working on subtraction and subtraction facts.  Last week, we played a game called "Shark subtraction".  To help the students conceptualize subtraction, we used shark sock puppets, which would "eat" the number of objects we were taking away from our starting total.  On Friday, all first grade mathematicians in my class made their own, which they packed in their Friday folders.  If you did not see them yet, please ask your child to show you and explain how to use them at home to practice subtraction facts.  For example, your child would first choose some objects to use for this game.  It can be gold-fish, uncooked macaroni, skittles or raisins.  It can be anything that you as a parent deem appropriate for math and playing (and healthy enough for your child).  It also has to be small enough to fit in your child's hand.  Second, your child would choose a number to play with.  In class, we used numbers between 6-20.  Your child will need to count out as many objects as he/she chose.  Lastly, your child will use the shark sock puppet to grab any given number and then say, or write, the corresponding equation.  For example, if your child chose 10 raisins, and chose to grab 4, the corresponding equation would be 10-4=6.  You can see how this is fun if your child gets to eat what is taken away!!  Have fun!

Technology:
We participated in "Hour of Code" last week as well.  For the rest of the month, the students will be able to continue this work during our morning explore times.  The web-site used is https://hourofcode.com/us

Ms. Kendal's last day:
It was Ms. Kendal's last day with us on Friday and we celebrated by making slime again!  We had so much fun.  We also presented her with her own school bag, filled with picture books for her new classroom.  We will miss her so much, but she told us that she hopes to come back to visit us in April.  Good luck with your new job in Ohio, Ms. Kendal!  We will miss you.