Dear Families,
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
We continued learning about what it looks like and sounds like to be an attentive listener in class.
We listened to The Learner Song many times. Ask your child how we can use our atten-to-scope and our eyes and ears to be better listeners. Our hand puppet Snail also spent a lot of time with us. We also discussed that having quiet, calm voices help everyone learn better in our classroom.
We also continued practicing having a growth mindset throughout the whole day. The students are beginning to realize that we can do our best in any situation; in math, in reading and writing, but also at recess and during snack!
Next week, we will focus on “the Daily Six”:
Mood: Checking in with the students about their feelings
Morning Breath: practicing our breathing exercises
Mindfulness: finding calm moments every day
Growth Mindset: Practicing this throughout the day even when it gets hard
Good Will: Show kindness and help others
Gratitude: Find ways to be thankful and say thank you:
Reading:
We continued reading the books about Bink & Gollie in class. These books are by Kate DiCamillo, the author of Mercy Watson.
We also listened to some books online together. There are many fantastic online books sites. You can access these at home too. I have several sites linked on the wiki, also linked here. Mrs. Clopton also visited our classroom to teach us about SORA, another online resource for home use.. SORA is linked on the school web-portal and it has also been bookmarked on your child’s computer. SORA has hundreds of digital books to borrow online and some of them even read the books to the children. It is an amazing resource and I hope you will use it at home. Thank you, Mrs. Clopton, for showing us how to use SORA!
The students packed their own books to take home this week. They were encouraged to take home “just right” books but they also had a choice. They did a great job carefully and thoughtfully selecting books to read at home. If you notice that your child brought home the same books as he/she brought home last week, that is okay. Re-reading books strengthens young readers’ confidence and fluency. If you notice your child brought home books that might be too hard or too easy, please have a conversation with your child about his/her choices. Why are the books too hard, or too easy? What other choices could your child make next week? The ultimate goal is for your child to know himself/herself as a reader and know what books make sense to read independently. I am so proud of their efforts!
Writing:
The students are almost done with their “All About” writing pieces. We added glossaries this week and the students re-read their writing pieces using an editing rubric to help them make sure all the different components of this writing genre were represented. They did a fantastic job! We hope to celebrate with an author’s celebration in class!
First grade authors also continued working on improving their writing stamina in class. They are learning how to stay on task and how to remain productive even when writing feels hard. The students are amazing using our word walls, alphabet charts and skills learned in Fundations to get their thoughts down on paper. They are showing a growth mindset every day!
First Grade Math:
First grade mathematicians learned how to read data collection graphs this week. We focused on pictographs. We learned that pictographs represent information in pictures so we can easily and accurately understand it. We analyzed the pictographs too and looked at “how many more” and “how many fewer” when we compared data points.
First grade mathematicians also continued working on basic number sense and we learned that knowing our double facts can help us solve math problems efficiently.
First grade mathematicians also participated in an end of the unit assessment. Next week, we will start focusing more on subtraction, while continuing our work on number bonds and equations.
Technology:
We started Hour of Code this week at school. Hour of Code is a global project to encourage young children to learn how to code computers. Ms. Scott joined our classroom and we played some games before even using the computers to fully understand the complexities of sequential step-by-step directions. We had so much fun as the children had to give clear directions for two friends to walk across the classroom! We also had an opportunity to practice at home as I linked some initial games to SeeSaw. In case you missed the link, it is also here. Next week, the students will get their own accounts. Stay tuned for more information.
News and Reminders:
Thank you for helping your child come to morning meetings online no earlier than 8:20!! They all did an outstanding job this week. I was the first one on. Some children also shared they looked at the clock at the bottom of the chromebook and one child was reading a book about telling time while waiting for the meeting to start. Thank you!
Don’t forget that we have PE on Mondays and Tuesdays for the next few weeks. The students will go outside. Thank you for sending your child to school with warm winter gear! The students also have outdoor recess every day. Layers are best as it gets warm in the classroom sometimes. Don’t forget hats and mittens/gloves!
December 23rd-January 1st-No School (Winter Break)
January 18th-No School (Martin Luther King Jr. Day)
Here's a link to this week's School Bell
Have a great weekend,
Maria
No comments:
Post a Comment