November 27th- December 1st Newsletter

First Grade Newsletter

November 27th-December 1st

Literacy

Reading Street: Unit 2 Week 2 

Main selection:  The Farmer in the Hat

Weekly Question:  How is a school a community?
Amazing Words: group, respect, share, aquarium, borrow, lines, rehearsal, soothe
High-Frequency Words: be, could, horse, of, old, paper
Phonics Target: Long a: a_e; Consonants c /s/; g /j/

Comprehension skills: Cause and Effect
Comprehension strategy: Monitor and Clarify

Genres:  Realistic Fiction
Reading Street Parent Connection:

• Unit 2 Family talk letter for concept conversation starters and 6-week overview of the unit. (Sent home November 16th)
• Practice reading words (see green sheet sent home Monday) for Unit 2, Week 1 (first column). 

Fundations: Unit 5, Week 1

**Students will take the Unit 5 Fundations test at the end of this week.**
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
• Trick Word reading test is on Wednesday and spelling test is on Thursday. 

Math in Focus

Chapter 5

Shapes and Patterns

Thinking Skills
- Induction; Analyzing patterns and relationships

Problem Solving Strategies  
- Guess and check

                               Objectives

                                                                                  - Identify, classify, describe, and sort plane and solid shapes.
                                  - Divide shapes into two and four equal parts and describe the parts.
                                  - Describe the whole as the sum of its parts.
                                  - Combine and separate plane and solid shapes.

*                                      

Science

Light and Sound Waves
Last week students discussed how light can pass through some objects, but not others. We discussed the three types of objects: transparent, translucent, and opaque. This week students are experimenting with six different materials. They will be making predictions as to what they think the object is (transparent, translucent or opaque) and then using their flashlight to test the material. After they have tested a material, they will record the outcomes.  

Social Studies

          Jan Brett Author Study 

The Mitten

Animal Riddles: Students will come up with
animal clues and make an interactive writing
piece for others to guess their animal.
Vocabulary: admire, jostle, commotion

Second Steps— This week students will be learning about how people can have different feelings towards the same situation. 

 Specialists

MONDAY: Music; Book Fair Preview Day

TUESDAY: P.E.

WEDNESDAY: Music

THURSDAY: P.E.; Book Fair Purchase Day

FRIDAY: Art; Music

Writing Workshop

Six Traits of Writing~ Ideas

      This week students will continue to brainstorm ways to escape a Thanksgiving dinner and write sequential steps to help a feathery friend out. Students will also be learning about conferencing and I will conference with each student about their writing.

Framing Your Thoughts~ First Barebone Book
The students will be finishing their individual pages of our first class barebone book and by the end of the week, the book will be bound and published! This week the students will be introduced to another part of the Framing Your Thoughts sentence structure. The predicate expander of where allows students to add detail to their barebone sentences. Students will be practicing writing barebone sentences using all of the parts we have learned so far.

This week’s mini-lessons will include… 
Students will also learn about conferencing… 
- What a whole-class conference is 
- How to give compliments to their peers 
- How to make constructive suggestions to improve their peer’s stories

                   Parent Reminders

1. Due to the book fair, we did not have library today.
2. Book Fair is here! Our class will have a
chance to preview the fair today and
their book wish lists have gone home.
We’ll shop for books on Thursday, November 30th. Book Fair catalogs went home last week.
3. Throughout the month of December, we will
be working on an author study of Jan Brett’s
books. Before we break for the upcoming
vacation, we will have a Jan Brett celebration. Our Jan Brett Celebration will be on Wednesday, December 21st . A letter will be going home tomorrow with more information.
4. Trick Word Test- Our trick word reading and spelling test is this week on Wednesday, November 29th and Thursday, November 30th. Please have your child continue to practice spelling and reading the trick words on the study guide I sent home.

Welcome back! 

Miss Biggar

Homework for the Week

 Daily

Reading Words (Phonics/Sight)

Reading Log (with discussion questions)
Number/Letter Formation
Number Sense Math Games

Trick Word Reading and Spelling

This week's homework:
Reading Log (due on Friday)
Number Bond Math Game