Dear Families,
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
This week, first graders continued practicing strategies for calming down when they experience big emotions. We listened to the Calm Down Song (linked here) and created different scenarios to practice our strategies. A favorite strategy is to use positive self-talk and to think of something that makes us happy. Some students might think of a beach or a favorite hiking place, while others think about a cozy corner at home or a stuffed animal.
We also played a game similar to freeze dance to practice listening, following rules and solving big feelings. Here is a picture of the visual poster we use to help us cope with big feelings. Perhaps this can help at home too?
Reading:
This week first grade readers continued to read nonfiction books. They participated in guided instruction groups and learned more about the purposes of the table of contents, photographs and bold print.
First grade readers also participated in a word hunt, searching for trick words and high frequency words found in magazines and books. One day, the class also tried to read as many trick words as they could in one minute. They beat the record from last year! What a terrific group of readers we have!
In partner reading this week, we continued practicing reading stamina while listening and staying engaged with our partners.
Writing:
First grade authors continued writing their animal reports this week. They worked in small groups with a teacher to better understand the content and the information provided. They practiced invented spelling, sounding out words and creating complete sentences on their own. In our small writing groups, the teacher would read a small passage out loud. The students re-voiced the information using their own words and then wrote it down in its appropriate chapter. They did an excellent job! Next week, we will start to assemble our books, add labels to our pictures and create a glossary to go along with the writing.
First grade writers also continued working on, and identifying, word endings for more fluent writing. This week, we primarily focused on the word endings -all, -am-, and -an.
The students also created a spelling bingo reflecting our nine trick words this week. Ask your child how you can easily create these bingo boards at home too.
First Grade Math:
This week, we started a new number corner calendar, reflecting the new instructional goals of the month of April. Every day, the students are presented with a number bond, or an equation, with a missing addend or subtrahend. The students are encouraged to figure out the missing part and show how they know. The students have whiteboards to show/draw their thinking. The students share their thinking verbally with each other after they have had a chance to privately work on the problem. The students are also encouraged to think deeply about what their friends say and make sense of it. They are learning how to ask clarifying questions, such as “Can you tell me more?” or “What do you mean?”
Science:
We continued our unit on animal adaptations and structures this week. We learned more about how animals use their physical traits/adaptations to help them find food, for example. The students participated in an experiment in which they used different materials to illustrate different types of bird beaks to gather food.
News and Reminders:
We are still in need of show boxes or smaller cardboard boxes for our rainforest dioramas. Please consider sending them in for this project. Thank you!
We have Spring vacation and no school the week of April 18th. Students return to school again on Monday, April 25.
Have a great weekend,
Maria and Zoe
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