November 6-10 Newsletter

First Grade Newsletter

November 6-10th

Literacy

Reading Street: Unit 1 Week 6

Main selection:  Animal Park

Weekly Question:  What can we learn about wild animals by watching them?
Amazing Words: 
High-Frequency Words: home, into, many, them
Phonics Target: Short u: u; Final Consonant Blends

Comprehension skills:  Cause and Effect
Comprehension strategy: Text Structure

Genres:  Literary Nonfiction
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 & 6 (last two columns only). I will be collecting the Reading Street Unit 1 sheets on Friday, November 17th to check-in with students for both weeks.

Fundations: Unit 4 (Week 2 of 2)

Students will learn about...

• The letter ‘a’ followed by the double ll sounds like /o/ (i.e., fall). 
• Observe the form of a narrative story (character, setting, and main events) 
• Story: The Big Mess
• Sight words: was, one, said
• Unit 4 Fundations Test on Thursday, November 9th

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

This week we will be starting our first physical science module with lessons on light. Last Friday, the class discussed what we know about 'light' and where is comes from. This week we will be doing our first hands-on activity to learn about the source of light and how it travels in a direction using a pinhole box. Students will be making observations and recording what they see in their science notebooks. 

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.
Second Steps—We began our Empathy Unit last week with identifying feelings. This week Mrs. LaBella will be coming into our class to continue discussing strategies to help us with calming our emotions. 

 Specialists

MONDAY: Music 

TUESDAY: NO SCHOOL!

WEDNESDAY: Music

THURSDAY: Early Release

FRIDAY: NO SCHOOL!

Writing Workshop

Six Traits of Writing~ Ideas

     This week we will continue the steps to writing our very first story. Each student has picked a topic and finished their Five Finger Planners. Students will be focusing on putting their five most important ideas into complete sentences. Once they have written their five sentences, they will focus on putting the sentences into a story format. Our focus when writing complete sentences is that our sentences make sense, have an uppercase at the beginning and punctuation at the end, and have spacing between words.

Framing Your Thoughts ~ Predicate Expander of Where

     This week students will be reviewing the role the connector ('and') plays in a sentence and learning about the predicate expander of where. Students will practice using these parts in a sentence during literacy centers and convention writing time. 

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. No school on Tuesday (11/7) and Friday
(11/10).
3. Unit 1 Reading Cards due NEXT
Friday (11/17).
4. Ten Frame Build Math Game— Play the ten frame game Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, please have you child record what his/her answers are when playing. This will allow me to see how your child is progressing with their number sense.
5. Homework—Due to the nature of this crazy week, all homework will be due on Thursday, November 9th. I’ll send all homework home on Monday, November 6th.
6. Just a heads up…photo retakes will be on Wednesday, November 15th.
7. Reading Phonics & Sight Word Lists (Unit 1)- Please practice Week 5 & 6 (last two columns only) of your child's Reading Street word lists. I will be collecting the Reading Street Unit 1 sheets on Friday, November 17th to check-in with students for both weeks. Thank you!
8. November Scholastic Catalog Orders are due this Thursday, November 9th!

Have a wonderful week! 

Miss Biggar

Homework for the Week

 Daily

Reading Words (Phonics/Sight)

Reading Log (with discussion questions)
Number/Letter Formation

Monday:  Reading Log (due on Thursday)
                                       Ten Frame Build Math Game (due on Thursday)
Wednesday: Dialogue Journal (due on Thursday)