Dear Families,
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
It was great to be back again with all the kids this week. Everybody had something to share about their February break. It sounded like they all enjoyed some extra time at home.
We created Pervererance Spinners in class this week. These spinners allow us to easily choose between different options when things get hard in school. Instead of giving up, we can now spin our spinners and choose between asking a friend for help, take a few deep breaths, try another strategy or use positive self-talk to focus our energies on the learning activity. We have many other choices. Ask your child to explain.
Reading:
We started our new unit on the Iditarod this week. Throughout this unit, the students will participate in many different interdisciplinary activities and workshops. The students will learn about the history of the race, while following the current Iditarod race, which starts on March 6th. We will follow mushers along the trail while at school, and the students are encouraged to “race alongside” these mushers while reading books.
They will take home a new Reading Log next week. The students are encouraged to read every day. For each book (chapter/pages) entered on the log, the students will advance one check-point on the Iditarod Trail map. When the reading log is returned to school the following Tuesday, the students will document their progress on their own Iditarod Map, which we keep in the classroom. I will send home an extra informational letter next Tuesday for more detailed information about this new reading event.
This year, the Iditarod Trail is different due to Covid restrictions and we will follow the official map of the race this year. The students will be able to read and earn check-points at school too. There will be prizes along the way and a special award for those who persevere and finish the entire race. We are doing this reading challenge with Mrs. Benoit’s class and our penpals. We are so excited to read and learn along with them.
Writing:
Our writing this week focused primarily on our new Iditarod reading responses to the books and chapters read in class. We all practiced writing together in school and started recording our reading on the Iditarod Trail. The students did an amazing job! We are so excited to read along with the sled dogs and the mushers!
We started looking for nonfiction text features in books and magazines this week. We were detectives, looking for nonfiction text features in old Scholastic magazines. This week, we searched for photographs and bold print. We cut out these features and glued them into our very own Booklets so we can collect all of these features. We will use these text features when we write our own nonfiction reports on polar animals.
Next week, we will start our animal reports. This year, we will study polar/Arctic animals. More information about this unit will come next week.
Technology:
The students accessed Typing Club this week with Ms. Scott. This is a terrific program and we encourage students to use it at home to develop keyboarding skills.
Logging In:
Students can access Typing Club through the CVSD website portal. or this link here http://cvsd.typingclub.com
Students can should click Sign in With Google
They will not have to type in username and password.
First Grade Math:
In March, we will learn how to tell time to the hour and half hour as part of our Number Corner activities. The students will learn how to read analog and digital clocks. They will learn how to draw the hands of an analog clock to show the time. They will also learn how to write digital time.
We will also learn about three digit numbers and how we write them. We will learn how to write these three digit numbers in an expanded form. In expanded form, we show the place value of each digit. The students will deepen their understanding of numbers greater than 100 as groups of hundreds, tens and ones.
First grade mathematicians will also continue their work on equality and balancing equations to prove if they are true or not true. We will continue using our words “the same amount as” to show how we know.
News and Reminders:
Our Essential Arts classes switched again. For the next few weeks, we have Art class on Mondays and Tuesdays, and Music class on Thursdays and Fridays. If your child has an art smock, or large T-shirt at home, please send it in so their clothing can be protected during art class. Thank you.
Please make sure your child has a water bottle and a snack every day. Extra masks are great too since they sometimes get wet and dirty. Thank you.
Here is a letter from our school nurse, Ms. Love, on how to take care of/wash our masks.
Have a great weekend,
Maria
No comments:
Post a Comment