Weekly Update

Dear Families,
I hope you are all finding time to go outside and enjoy this beautiful weather!  Before we know it, it will be dark and cold.

We started our year-long study of the weather a couple of weeks ago.  The students started by working together in small groups creating posters representing our 4 seasons.  We also learned why we have seasons.  Ask your child to explain.  We will continue studying different aspects of weather and climate in the next few weeks, integrating our science goals into reading and writing as well.  We will record daily weather trends as well and graph our results.

The students are in the midst of publishing in our writer's workshop now.  They have learned that good authors always carefully select their own best piece for publication.  We find our own best pieces by reading all the ones we have inside our writing folders.  After we read and select a piece, we start the revision process.  The students check finger-spacing, trick word spelling and grammatical rules.  They also check to make sure the words and the pictures match up and make sense.  The last step in our publishing process is to create a cover for our book.  The students looked at different books to get ideas what different book covers look like, but ultimately they are encouraged to use their own creative talents to create covers that make sense for their stories.

In reading, the students continued their work in their small guided reading groups, or Book Clubs as we like to call them.  Depending upon their reading need, the children receive targeted instruction helping them establish solid reading strategies.  I hope you and your child have an opportunity to read our books every night.  Thank you for your continued support reading and writing with your children.  I love reading what's written in our logs!  Don't forget to return the red homework folders (and reading logs) on Thursdays!  Thank you.

In math, first grade mathematicians focused upon chunking numbers by 5s and 10s.  We did many collaborative games and activities based upon the number line.  For example, we played a game called "Guess my number" and searched for the number before and after a particular number.  Ask your child to explain.  The students also started exploring first grade math problem solving.  We will show these at our conferences when we meet.

Thank you for signing up on the goolge doc for conferences.  Please do not hesitate to let me know if you and your family needs another time slot.  I look forward to meeting with all of you.

Lastly, I was hoping you could send in ear-buds or head-phones for your child to use at school.   It is more sanitary for the children to have their own ear-buds.  Please send in a set with your child next week.  Let me know if this is challenging for you and your family and I will help you get them.  I found excellent ear-buds at Walmart for just a few dollars.  In the past, parents have sent in ear-buds in a small ziplock bag with their child's name on it.  Thank you.

Thank you and have a great day tomorrow!

Maria