Dear Families,
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
This week, Ms. Nicole and Ms. Saylor joined our class for some specific work around strategies when we experience strong emotions and are no longer available for active learning. We brainstormed strategies to help us match our emotions to the size of the problem. We acted out different scenarios when we can use them. We also practiced how we can help our friends in situations when small problems are perceived as bigger problems. The students did a great job showing empathy and compassion to each other. What a terrific group of kids we have!
We also revisited our “Active Listening Norms” for our classroom. We practiced using eyes on the speaker, ears listening, bodies still and voices off. We practiced this when our friends/peers speak too.
Reading:
We continued meeting in our new guided reading groups this week. All students have new “just right” books. They are encouraged to pack new books every Tuesday to take home to read. I hope you read them together at home.
We also continued reading on iReady this week. All students accessed their personalized reading platforms online. This is another great tool for at-home reading.
We continued reading biographies in class. This week, we learned about Katherine Johnson, a mathematician whose work helped with spaceflights. We also learned about George Washington Carver, an American inventor who created over 300 uses for peanuts. We also learned about Mae C. Jemison, the first black woman in space. All of these individuals are important to our history, and all of them showed tremendous grit, determination, perseverance, and creativity in all that they did. We can all learn so much from them.
Writing:
The students finished their opinion pieces this week. I am so proud of their hard work throughout this writing unit. We will share these writing pieces with you all at a later date. When we return from our Winter Break, we will start our animal research unit. More information will follow.
We started writing letters to our new penpals in Mrs. Benoit’s class. Each student has been matched up with a buddy from Mrs. Benoit’s class. We will periodically write letters to each other. This week, the students wrote their first letter, introducing themselves and shared something unique about themselves. They also asked their new friend a question. We decorated the letters to reflect Valentine’s Day colors and themes. We are so excited to have new friends to connect with! We exchanged these letters during our Friday Workshop time, a time when we also did “Friendship Booklets” based upon a read aloud by Ms. Nicole. Ask your child to explain what we wrote inside these “Friendship Booklets”.
First Grade Math:
We continued our work on balancing equations and practicing concepts of equality. We used unifix cubes and ten-frames to help us understand our expressions and, as always, making sense of the numbers shown. We played multiple partner games to apply our knowledge and understanding.
We also continued practicing counting forward and backwards from any number. We also practiced counting forward from any number while adding ten each time. This is called “off-decade counting”. We used rekenreks to help us see the increase in the groups of ten as we counted together.
News and Reminders:
We have noticed that many children experience problems with the microphone and the volume during our google meets on Wednesdays. They have un-muted themselves but we cannot hear them online. This can most likely be fixed by completely shutting down the chromebook and updating it. A student suggested that this could be something you do on a weekly basis on our remote learning days! What a great idea. I hope you get into the habit of updating your child’s chromebook too since it is very disappointing to your child when he/she cannot share online! Thank you.
There is no school next week due to our February Winter Break. School resumes on Monday, March 1st.
Here's a link to this week's School Bell
Have a great weekend,
Maria
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