December 3rd- December 7th Newsletter

First Grade Newsletter

December 3rd-7th

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 2 (second column). 

Fundations: Unit 5, Week 1

**Students will take the Unit 5 Fundations test at beginning of next 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

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 Wave Unit 
Last week students demonstrated the law of reflection through an activity using a ball, flat surface (wall) and a bin. They learned that light 'bounces back' or reflects off of surfaces at an angle. This week the students will review what they already know about how light travels and learn about the law of reflection through a series of experiments.

Social Studies

          Jan Brett Author Study 

The Hat
How is The Hat similar and different from
the story The Mitten? 
Vocabulary: ridiculous,
startled, magnificent

Second Steps—Mrs. LaBella will be coming into the class to share different ways that we can help others. 

 Specialists

MONDAY: Music 

TUESDAY: Early Release

WEDNESDAY: Music; School Assembly

THURSDAY: P.E.

FRIDAY: Art; Music

Writing Workshop

Jan Brett Author Study~ Mitten Riddle

     This week I will be conferencing with the students about their animal riddle clues. Students will move onto their final draft of their animal riddle and complete the riddle with a picture of the animal they chose. 

Six Traits of Writing~ Ideas

      This week students will conference with me about their Tom the Turkey stories and begin writing their final drafts. 

Framing Your Thoughts~ Predicate Expander of Where
This week students will begin to brainstorm winter- and holiday-themed subjects, predicates, and predicate expanders of where to begin creating our second barebone sentence book. 

This week’s mini-lessons will include… 
- What an individual conference is and includes
- Using complete thoughts
- Punctuation
- Uppercase at the beginning of a sentence and lowercase at the end

                   Parent Reminders

1. Our class went to the library today. Please remind your child to bring back their library book by next Monday, December 10th. 
2. Early Release Tuesday, December 4th at noon!
3. Scholastic Book Club catalogs will be going home
tomorrow (Tuesday, December 4th). I know we just had the book fair and I
do not want anyone to feel pressure to order
more books. I had some parent requests for the
December catalogs and thought I would just send
them to everyone. If you want any “surprise” or gift
books for your child, please let me know and I
can contact you when the books are in.) Orders
are due by Monday (Dec 10th), so the books can
be delivered before the holiday break.
(Online code—P9JVK).
4. DIBELs Winter benchmark testing will be
done with Ms. Nedde this week.
5. It’s just about hat and glove season…please label everything, if possible. Sometimes the children have a hard time identifying their
own clothes.
6. Jan Brett Celebration- 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 Thursday, December 20th . A letter went home last week. We still are in need of a couple parent volunteers. We would love to have you come and help out! If you are unable to volunteer, Katharine Worth, our room parent, will be contacting parents at the beginning of next week looking for people to donate supplies that we will need for the celebration.   

Have a fantastic week! 

Miss Biggar

Homework for the Week

 Daily

Reading Words (Phonics/Sight)

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

This week's homework:
Reading Log (due on Friday) [Passed out on Monday]
Ten Frame Sentences! Recording Sheet [Passed out on Tuesday] [Turn in on Friday]
Dialogue Journal #7 (due on Friday) [Passed out on Wednesday]
Hanukkah Comprehension Activity (due on Friday) [Passed out on Wednesday]