March 20-24, 2017

Specials

Monday - 4

Tuesday - 5

Wednesday -6

Thursday - 1

Friday - 2

Upcoming Events & Reminders
March 24 - Report Cards go home
AND Book orders are due!
April 3-7 - SPRING BREAK!
April 21 - All Pro Dad's Breakfast
April 24-28 Book Fair
April 27 - 1st grade to Cincinnati Zoo!
If you are interested in chaperoning, please make sure your background check and volunteer forms are complete! 
April 27 - Celebrate the Arts Night
April 29 - PTA Carnival 2-7pm
May 2-19 - K-PREP Testing Window. This means our schedule will be different during this time.

Spelling List

LIST A

fern
germ
burn
dirt
shirt
turn
third
purse

LIST B

verb
verse
chirp
nurse
skirt
church
purse
serve

Sight Words
Beginning this week, I will begin identifying five sight words for you to practice reading and writing at home each week. I will be choosing 2 of these words to put on our spelling test.

there
use
an
each
which

Kid-Friendly Objectives
I can read, write, and identify words with -ir, -er, -ur.
I can write to tell a fictional story.
I can identify and describe common 2-d shapes and their attributes.
I can use illustrations in a text to talk about characters, settings, and events.
I can read and correctly use compound words in a sentence.

Classroom Donations
-Do you have any gently used books at home (any level) that you are no longer using?
We would LOVE to add some more to our library. We are always looking for more chapter books and picture books :)
-Dry Erase markers
-Stickers
-Post-its

Week in Review
Thank you to everyone for your extended patience while I was out sick this week. I apologize for any difficulties in reaching me. It was hectic, to say the least.
Consequently, there are only a few pictures for this week but I am so glad to be well enough to 
share them with you!

This time of the year is so special because so many kids begin to really TAKE OFF! I came back to school on Tuesday, probably too soon, in retrospect. Because I was still not feeling up to snuff, I was able to ask sweet Madeline to read our story for the day.

You would not BELIEVE how engaged the students were. I am beyond lucky to have a class full of so many kind souls who did not even question why our story was read aloud by a peer and not their teacher. Instead, they gave her more respect than they probably even give to me while I read! (not complaining - that is so awesome!)

The story she read for us was a version of the familiar fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood.

Later in the week, we read 

All of this helped us to make some key comparisons in the experiences of the characters in each text.

We were also able to use these stories to have some great conversations about our fictional narratives! Some of our focuses this week were on being daring spellers, adding dialogue, and SHOWING details to our readers, not telling.

Can you believe these are some of the words that I found our FIRST GRADERS using in their stories?! Our pieces will be completed at the end of this week and you will be amazed with the final product. 

Our language skill this week was all about commas. We had conversations about correct and incorrect use of commas. 

We also worked in groups to build sentences and place the commas correctly.

In math, we continued with double digit subtraction (and listened while our friends taught us their strategies!)

 We also completed this SUPER number talk. This is a fun practice that we complete most days after recess. Number talks are a way for students to use mental math and EXPLAIN how they solved a problem to their peers. In this particular example, the students were completing target practice. The challenge was to use the numbers in the wheel to make the target number: 50. The examples on the board are the ways students explained their mental problem solving. WOW!!!

In our small groups, we did some riddle solving on Friday in our St. Patrick's day garb. Some of the kids asked where the leprechaun was this year but I think he might have been feeling under the weather...

Have a great and HEALTHY week!