November 20th-22nd Newsletter

First Grade Newsletter

November 20-22nd

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.

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

Light and Sound Waves
Last week we began our lesson on transparent, translucent and opaque. In this lesson, students are discussing how light can pass through some objects, but not others. We are discussing the three types of objects: transparent, translucent, and opaque. The students are learning about each word's meaning and then making predictions as to what materials that have the same characteristics as that word and then experimenting with their flashlights. This week the class will wrap up this activity and summarize their experience of predicting and experimenting.

Social Studies

Thanksgiving Unit
We are continuing to work on developing an understanding of life as a colonist and a Wampanoag Native American. We will be learning about the activities the colonist and Native American children did for fun.
Second Steps—We continued 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 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 many numbers backwards, which is confusing them when trying to solve their math problems. Thanks for your support!
4. Unit 2 Reading Street Card will be given out on Monday, November 27th to begin practicing Unit 2 words.
6. Book Fair is here! Our class will have a chance to preview the fair on Monday, November 27th at 1 p.m. 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 27th. Please have your child practice spelling and reading the trick words on the study guide I sent home today.
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 Celebration…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 celebration, 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. 

11. Homework Schedule- At the bottom of the blog, I have changed the format of the homework schedule. Instead of the days of the week by each homework assignment, I have simply listed out all of the homework that is to be turned in at the end of the week under "This week's homework". All of the homework will be given on Monday unless listed otherwise. For example, Dialogue Journals [due on Friday] - Passed out on Wednesday. I do not expect all of the homework to be done on Monday, but I do expect it all to be turned in on Friday or the last day of that week unless you have contacted me otherwise. Please feel free to schedule the homework assignments that best fits your weekly schedule. Thank you for your support!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Miss Biggar

Homework for the Week

 Daily

Reading Words (Phonics/Sight)

Reading Log (with discussion questions)
Number/Letter Formation
Sight Word Spelling & Reading List

This week's homework: 

Reading Log (due on Wednesday)
Math Game Recording Sheet (due on Wednesday)
Pilgrim Comprehension worksheet (due on Wednesday) -Passed out on Tuesday