October 30-November 3 Newsletter

First Grade Newsletter

October 30- November 3rd

Literacy

Reading Street: Unit 1 Week 5

Main selection:  Get the Egg!

Weekly Question:  Which wild animals live in our neighborhood?
Amazing Words: habitat, hatch, survive, chirp, croak, moist
High-Frequency Words: saw, tree, your, small
Phonics Target: Short e: e; Initial Consonant Blends (st-, bl-, pl-, gr-)

Comprehension skills:  Main idea and Details
Comprehension strategy: Important Details

Genres:  Realistic Fiction
Reading Street Parent Connection:

• Unit 1 Family Talk letter for concept conversation starters and 6 week overview of the unit. 
• Family Times gives various activities that can be done at home that connect to the concept we're learning this week.
• Practice reading phonics and sight words for Unit 1, Week 5 (fourth column only).   

Fundations: Unit 4 (Week 1 of 2)

Students will learn about...

• Bonus letter spelling rule: ff, ll, ss, and sometimes zz
• Glued sound: all
• Observe the form of a narrative story (character, setting, and main events) 
• Punctuation: exclamation point and quotation marks
• Story: The Big Mess
• Sight words: you, your, I, they

Math in Focus

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

Last week students made wonderful observations about our decomposing pumpkin. Once students recorded their observations, they made a prediction. Some students think the pumpkin will continue to grow while others think it will start to rot. The class will continue to record and predict what will happen to the pumpkin over the next couple of weeks. 
We will not be starting our new science curriculum next week on physical science. 
Our science learning is embedded in our reading program. This week we will be focusing on wild animals that live in our neighborhood.

Social Studies

Thanksgiving Unit
We will be working on developing an understanding of life as a colonist and a Wampanoag Native American. We’ll start by learning about each of their homes.
Character Education—We began our Empathy Unit last week with identifying feelings. This week This week we are learning the similarities and differences of emotional expressions and body language in specific situations.

 Specialists

MONDAY: No School! 

TUESDAY: P.E.; Halloween Parade

WEDNESDAY: Music

THURSDAY: P.E.

FRIDAY: Art, Music

Writing Workshop

Six Traits of Writing~ Ideas
     This week we will begin the first steps to writing our very first story. Each student will be looking at their heart inventory paper to find ideas of what topic they would like to write about. Once the students have a topic, they will write five important details they want to share in their story about the topic. These details will be in one or two word phrases on the Five Finger Detail organizer. By giving students the organizer, the focus will be more on five solid details about the topic than writing a proper sentence.

This week’s mini-lessons will include…

• Choose a topic 
• Use important details to tell about a topic
• Use spacing in between words 
• How to write an introduction and closing

                   Parent Reminders

1.  Scholastic Reading Club-November catalogs are due Thursday, November 9th.
2. We will not have library this week due to the day off on Monday. Please make sure you help your
child with a reminder to bring in their
book for next Monday.
3. Halloween parade was so much fun! I’m glad
so many parents could attend. The children
had a blast!
4. Ten Fram Math Game- I sent home the directions to the newest math game. Use the number symbol cards (ex: 1, 2, 3, 4..) for your child to choose from. Each child can choose what they would like to build the number with (ex: Legos, buttons, Goldfish, etc.)

Happy Halloween!

Miss Biggar

Homework for the Week

 Daily

Reading Words (Phonics/Sight)

Reading Log (with discussion questions)
Number/Letter formation

Monday:  Reading Log (due on Friday)

Tuesday: Ten Frame Math Game

Wednesday: Dialogue Journal (due on Friday)