November 21st-November 23rd Newsletter

First Grade Newsletter

November 21-23rd

Literacy

Reading Street: Unit 2 Week 1

Main selection:  A Big Fish for Max

Weekly Question:  What does a family do together?
Amazing Words: chore, household, cooperation, rule, commute, subway, downtown, display
High-Frequency Words: catch, good, no, put, said, want
Phonics Target: digraphs sh, th; /ol/ sound in ball

Comprehension skills:  Sequence
Comprehension strategy: Predict; Set a purpose

Genres:  Animal Fantasy, Literary Nonfiction
Reading Street Parent Connection:

• Unit 2 Family talk letter for concept conversation starters and 6-week overview of the unit. (Sent home November 16th)
• Family Times gives various activities that can be done at home that connect to the concept we're learning this week. 
• Practice reading words (see white sheet sent home Wednesday) for Unit 2, Week 1 (first column). 

Fundations: Unit 5, Week 1

Students will learn about...

• Two new glued or welded sounds: /am/ and /an/ as in 'ham' and 'pan'. 
• Observe the form of a narrative story (character, setting, and main events) 
• Story: The Big Mess
• Sight words: from, have, do, does

Math in Focus

**Due to students needing more time to practice the concepts at the end of Chapter 4, the test will be on Tuesday, November 22nd**
Chapter 4

Subtraction Facts to 10 

Thinking Skills
- Analyzing parts and a whole

Problem Solving Strategies 
                                     - Guess and check

                               Objectives

                                                                                  - Take away to subtract
                                        - Count on OR back to subtract
                                        - Use number bonds to subtract
                                        - Write and solve subtraction sentences.
                                        - Tell subtraction

*

Science

We will not be starting a new science unit until after Thanksgiving. We will continue with some Science mini-lessons while our main focus is on Social Studies. 
Our science learning is embedded in our reading program. This week we will be focusing on observing wild animals to gather information about them.

Social Studies

Thanksgiving Unit
We will be working on developing an understanding of life as a colonist and a Wampanoag Native American. We will be learning about the chores colonist and Native American children were responsible for and the activities both groups of children did for fun.
Second Steps—We began our Empathy Unit last week with identifying feelings. This week we are learning about how a person's feelings can change about the same situation.

 Specialists

MONDAY: Music 

TUESDAY: P.E.

WEDNESDAY: Early Release

THURSDAY: NO SCHOOL

FRIDAY: NO SCHOOL

Writing Workshop

Six Traits of Writing~ Ideas

     This week we will be reading a story about a great Thanksgiving escape! Students will have to brainstorm ways to escape a Thanksgiving dinner and write sequential steps to help a feathery friend out. 

Framing Your Thoughts~ First Barebone Book
The students will be finishing their individual pages of our first class barebone book. To complete the book, we will make a cover and then have the book bound. 

This week’s mini-lessons will include…

• Use uppercase at the beginning & punctuation at the end
• Use spacing between words
• How to write an introduction and closing
• Writers reread their writing to see if it makes sense and stays on topic.

                   Parent Reminders

1. Library day was today. Please make sure you help your
child remember to bring in their
book for next Monday.
2. Early Release for Thanksgiving break on Wednesday, November 23rd at 12 noon.
3. Math—Please continue to work on number formation at home. The students are writing a lot of numbers backwards, which is confusing them when trying to solve their math problems. Thanks for your support!
4. Unit 2 Reading Street Card due on Tuesday.
5. The students will take the District GRADE Assessment (standardized comprehension test) this week.
6. Book Fair is here! Our class will have a chance to preview the fair on Tuesday, November 29th and will shop for books on Thursday, December 1st. Catalogs will go home this week.
7. Over Thanksgiving break...please continue to have your child read daily. 
8. Trick Word Test…due to the craziness of this week, we will have our trick word reading and spelling test the week of November 28th. Please have your child practice spelling and reading the trick words on the study guide I sent home last Friday.
9. It’s just about hat and glove season…please label everything, if possible. Sometimes the children have a hard time identifying their
own clothes.
10. Unit 1 Reading Street test…Overall the
students did a really good job on this test
last week. They all worked really hard and
gave their best effort. It’s amazing how
much they’ve grown already since the first
day of school! As I tell them in class before
every test, there are two reasons we take
these assessments. First it’s to give them a
chance to “show off” everything they’ve
learned so far and feel proud of themselves.
The second reason is so that I can learn
what they don’t know and still need to
practice some more. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Miss Biggar

Homework for the Week

 Daily

Reading Words (Phonics/Sight)

Reading Log (with discussion questions)
Number/Letter Formation

Monday:  Reading Log (due on Wednesday)
Tuesday: Comprehension (due on Wednesday)