Dear Families,
Happy Snow Day! I hope you get a chance to enjoy the outdoors today and this upcoming week when we have our Winter Break from school. I will see the students again on Monday, February 28th when we return to school. Have a fantastic break everyone!
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
We continued being “Kindness Detectives” this week. The students complimented each other and used our Kindness Challenge board to recognize each other for using kind words, helping a friend or having a positive attitude towards learning and each other.
The students learned that positive self-talk is a powerful strategy to use when things feel frustrating, especially when the learning task seems challenging. We explored different positive self-affirmations, such as “I can do this”, “I am worth it”, “I can try again”. The students chose three statements that reflected their own needs and desires. They personalized them with art-work. They are on display in our classroom and remind us of how important it is to be kind to yourself and others. They also remind us how we can use positive self-talk to calm ourselves down.
Valentine’s Day provided yet another opportunity to practice kindness in our classroom. The students exchanged their gifts and thanked each other for the thoughtful cards and gifts. Thank you all for helping your child prepare these wonderfully thoughtful gifts at home.
Ms. Clark read the book “Hooway for Wodney Wat” by Helen Lester this week too. We learned about friendship, empathy and diversity in this wonderful book.
Reading:
Our focus this week was on fluency. Fluency in first grade primarily emphasizes intonation, phrasing and prosody. In other words, we encourage children to read out loud periodically to make sure their reading “sounds like spoken language”. Reading out loud in our classroom means the students read with a whisper voice during our reading classes. Practicing fluency with your reading partner, however, means that you can read with a louder voice to check to make sure you (and your partner) reflect the punctuation and plot in your voice as you read. Students are encouraged to read out loud to an adult at home too. This helps students practice those trickier sight words/high frequency words in an effort to build familiarity and automaticity.
This week, the students also practiced reading their books using different silly voices. The students chose a random card from a bag to see how they should read their books. It was so much fun because these cards were rather silly. Some cards stated that the books should be read using your favorite zoo animal, while other cards stated that you should try to read your book using a pirate or monster voice. Perhaps your child wants to create his/her own set for fun reading at home?
Writing:
The students continued writing their opinion pieces this week with more independence and stamina. They used a graphic organizer to help plan their writing and also used a writing rubric to edit/revise their own writing before handing it in. The writing rubric reflected age-appropriate grammar conventions such as spacing between words, proper capitalization and ending punctuation. The rubric also reflected spelling strategies to encourage the students to “tap out/sound out” blends and digraphs and check for trick word spelling.
First Grade Math:
First grade mathematicians continued working on concepts of equality in math. They continued sharing their reasoning and understanding of these concepts in our daily Number Corner activities, a time when we explore new expressions and equations. They also learned many new games to practice these skills more independently. Ask your child to explain “The Rainforest Adventure Game” for example. It is a highly engaging way to learn math using the rainforest as a structural guide!
First grade mathematicians also created beautiful rainbows to show their understanding of equality.
Science:
The students participated in a series of science lessons this week learning more about sound. They learned about pitch and how sound travels. They created guitars in partnerships and played along with Ms. Clark as she played her own guitar. When we return from our February break, the students will have the opportunity to create their own musical instruments for our own classroom band! Stay tuned for more information.
News and Reminders:
We have Winter Break (no school) 2/21-2/25. Students return to school on Monday, 2/28.
Test-at-home kits were sent home earlier this week in your child’s backpack. Please read my email from the school nurse/school for further details regarding testing for Covid before returning to school. Thank you. If your child was absent when these tests were distributed, please contact the front office to arrange for pick-up. Thank you.
Have a great weekend and week off from school!
Maria
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