ELA/Science:
This week we will be learning all about the Life cycle of a caterpillar, and what life changes occur in nature as they progress through the process from an egg to larvae, then chrysalis and finally a butterfly in it's adult stage of life. We have some amazing visitors for a short while to help us better understand the process in a hands on approach. We have 5 new larvae (caterpillars) in our classroom to observe for the next few weeks. Thank you Willett P.T.O.! Your generosity is most appreciated and celebrated every day as we enter the classroom to see the changes that have taken place so that we can record them in our class observation journal on our big chart paper. We are very happy to have them!! MATH: We will be finishing our unit 6 lessons and completing our unit assessment as well as cumulative assessment during the course of this week. It will end with the start of unit 7 and fact ELA/SCIENCE:
This week we will be learning all about some friendly forest animals that are all preparing for the cold, dark, impending winter. Some will hibernate, others will migrate, and some will just do their best to "winter" the weather. As a focus question to help set the pace of our learning, we will keep this in mind... "How does nature change during the year." MATH: We will be focusing on equivalence, place value, and place value applications involving money. WRITING: We will be finishing up our friendly letters to Toad to explain a more "positive" approach to gardening. He was quite confused about seeds , how they germinate, and how to be a good gardener throughout the process. ELA
This week we will be reading a first grade favorite of many! Frog and Toad are very silly in the story "Frog and Toad Together!" They struggle with how to grow a garden and are up to their usual antics. In this story we will address the big question: "What changes happen in a garden." MATH We will be working on a review of our doubles facts, doubles plus 1, and understanding when to use "helper facts" to become more proficient solving math facts with mental computation. In celebration of one of the most influential authors of our time, we will also be studying about the life of Dr. Suess in a biography format. WELCOME BACK! I hope everyone had a wonderful February break! The weather certainly seemed to cooperate for us. Perhaps Mr. Groundhog was influential! :)
ELA: This week we are reading the story called, "Jan's New Home." It's a story about a little girl who encounters quite a big change and realizes that although changes can sometimes be a bit scary, they can also be a good thing that you can embrace. We are working on r controlled -or and -ore endings as well as plural -es endings. Math: Our focus this week is on time and how to recognize the time to the hour on an analog clock as well as continued math fact practice and word problem strategies. Science/Writing: We will be visiting the garden to record information about what we observe now in the later half of the winter here in New England. We will be incorporating our writing focus which is to use and author's voice in a writing piece. I am looking forward to their finish products! Read-a-Thon! All forms and collected money will need to be returned to school no later than 2/26/16. Keep reading and collecting for your final few days! Great job! I hope that everyone fared the snowstorm well and was able to remain safe, dry, and warm! I can't say that the disruption to our regular schedule hasn't been a bit of a challenge! I think I may need to have a few words with Punxsutawney Phil! He promised us an early Spring! :)
100's Day: Our celebration will be carried out on our 100th day. So our next day of school is the day we need to remember to dress like we are 100 years old! I can't wait to have a bit of fun with this project! Spelling Test: Since we missed our Friday spelling test, I will be giving the test on Tuesday morning instead. Our new words for this week will be introduced Tuesday as well with the pretest to remain on Wednesday of this week. I still believe that this is a good indication of the words you need to practice with your first grade students at home and feel it is beneficial for you to have moving toward the Friday assessment/test. ELA/Science: This week in Reading Street we will be learning about a little ducking named Ruby and how she changes as she grows from a duckling into an adult duck. It not only reinforces life cycles, but also the valuable lesson that everyone develops in their own time and not everyone is exactly the same. That is what makes us truly special. Social Studies: Our focus will be our upcoming holiday and why we celebrate it! President's Day! Math: We will be completing our Unit 5 assessment in addition to beginning our Unit 6 focus which is fact triangles, fact families, and collection boxes where children understand that numbers can be represented in a variety of different ways. These are incredibly valuable when we need to solve problems that involve multiple steps. Book Fair: We are scheduled to have our Book Fair visit on Friday of this week during our library time. If you'd like your child to buy some books, don't forget to send them in with their/your wish list and money in a labeled envelop or baggie. :) JUST A REMINDER THAT...FRIDAY FEB. 12TH IS A 1/2 DAY AND NEXT WEEK IS OUR FEBRUARY VACATION WEEK! The children just finished writing a friendly letter to a student in Mrs. Stewart's kindergarten classroom explaining what it means for them to be an important part of their school community! They truly did an amazing job!
This Tuesday, we will be inviting her class, to visit, so that we will have a chance to share our letters with her students in person. This activity has not only helped us to better understand how to write a friendly letter, but also given us a great purpose for writing and helped us to better understand our importance and highlighted our valued role as a member of our school community. It was a lot of fun sharing with our own peers. I can't wait to share them with our Willett kindergarten kiddos! We are back to our Reading Street focus with the start of Unit 3 which studies "changes" that occur over time! We will be reviewing long vowel patterns in words and the letter -y when it behaves like a vowel in addition to the review and use of action verbs in the story An Egg is an Egg! HOORAY! HOORAY! IT’S ALMOST THE 100TH DAY! This Friday, February 5th is our 100th day in first grade! I cannot believe just how fast that happened! I’m sure most of you have begun your 100’s Day Projects! We have begun ours in the Gattoni household. ;) This is just a quick reminder that they are due on the 3rd of February so that we can begin to share them and prepare for our 100’s day celebration on Friday the 5th. READ – A – THON This entire month has been dedicated to a Willett Community read-a-thon Fundraiser. It began on the 29th (This past Friday) and will continue until the 21st of February. I think this is a great way to put my 2 favorite things together…Reading and raising money to buy more iPads for our first grade students to use in their daily learning environment. The P.T.O. is encouraging family members to sponsor the students in their quest to read as many minutes as possible in this time frame. I also love that you can pledge a few cents for every minute logged or a flat rate that you are comfortable with. I started my reading pledge sheet on Friday with the class and will continue to keep reading an additional book, every day to log in on my reading pledge sheet at school. Both of my daughters agreed to give 1 cent for every minute that I read (out of our family coin collection) while my sons both agreed to donate a flat rate of $5.00. I'm still working on Mr. Gattoni's donation price. ;) The class with the most donations earns an extra recess and a chance to pick the color of Mr. Cateon's hair for a day! I think blue for Attleboro pride would be lovely!! This week we will also brainstorm some other special events that we can earn as a class to help support us in this venture. I am certainly entertaining the idea of putting a streak of the same color in my hair should our class win!!! All packets came home on Friday in your child's home to school folder. If you need another or cannot locate that one, please just let me know. RATHER THAN KEEP 2 READING LOGS...WEEKLY AND PLEDGE, I AM ASKING EVERYONE TO ONLY KEEP THE PLEDGE SHEET REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE SECURING SPONSORS. TRYING TO KEEP BOTH IS JUST EXTRA ADDED WORK ON YOUR PART. |
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