March 13-17, 2017

Specials

Monday - 5

Tuesday - 6

Wednesday - 1

Thursday - 2

Friday - 3

Upcoming Events & Reminders
March 17th - Weather Makeup Day School is in Session
March 24 - Report Cards go home
April 3-7 - SPRING BREAK!
April 21 - All Pro Dad's Breakfast
April 24-28 Book Fair
April 27 - 1st grade to Cincinnati Zoo! We were very persuasive in our writing to convince Mrs. Strange to let us go!
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

for
cord
worn
form
soar
roar
your
tour

LIST B

board
thorn
storm
porch
sport
court
four
pour

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.

number
no
way
could
people

Kid-Friendly Objectives
I can read, write, and identify words with -or, -oar, -our.
I can write to tell a fictional story.
I can correctly subtract a multiple of 10 from a two-digit number.
I can make comparisons about the events a character experiences in two texts.
I can correctly use commas in lists and dates.

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 :)


Week in Review
We became experts at comparing two texts as a class this week. All year long, we practice making connections between the books we read and other experiences we've had. This week, we wanted to see how stories can be full of similarities to other stories we have read but can also include some MAJOR differences.
Our Fairy Tale focus this week was: The Three Little Pigs. We started out with the classic tale and identified its characters, evil characters, setting, problem, and solution. 

The next version we read was:

It certainly painted a very different picture of our beloved pigs!

So, we compared it to the original.

As the week went on, we filled up this poster with comparisons of these hilarious books:

(We had a very tough time keeping our giggles in check with this last version. Some of the sounds in this book are hysterical!)

We were able to use our reading brains to help us apply new information to our fictional narratives we have worked so hard on! We read the first page of several fairy tales and noticed how authors create STRONG beginnings. Can you believe your kids came up with all of this? At this point in the year, I get to just sit back and watch the magic. :)

We talked about how we can make our stories POP, just like a real illustrator.

You could have heard a pen drop after this lesson. They were SO focused on their pre-writing.

They were THRILLED to finally be writing inside of their books this week, too! I can't wait to share updates with you as they plow through it!

In Language, we got to talk about karate words...I mean, contractions.

We know that there are some rule breakers like didn't, can't, and I'd, but for the most part, we mastered these tricky words!

You might have heard/seen the silly trick to remember how to build a contraction:

2 words

CRASH

"Ahh!! There goes the vowel!"

apostrophe

If you aren't aware by now, I am the queen of coming up with some of the oddest looking phrases/gestures to help the new information stick!

We also worked on DOUBLE DIGIT addition this week!

In first grade, we are expected to master adding a double digit with a single digit AND a double digit with a multiple of 10. However, I typically expose them to double digit plus double digit when they are ready. We do not use the traditional algorithm (stacking the numbers, carrying the ones, etc.) We focus on strategies to gain understanding of number relationships.

Drawing Strategy

Number Line Strategy

Decomposing Strategy

Click any of the links above to watch a video of how to use certain strategies. They're brought to you straight from my In-Kitchen Studio! :-P

Here are some of the ways we practiced this week:

These friends were playing a trading game called 5-town with my super fancy coins. (Please be on the lookout for these at home! Many of mine have gone missing!)

 We played this trading game to give us a concrete understanding and experience to help us when we are ready to work on regrouping.

 We put our VIP in charge of a number talk.

 And we used a big, fancy (somehow glowing) board to play a double digit adding game.

Here are some of the fun events from the week!

We had a SUPER quick, SUPER sunny, SUPER windy lunch right before the play!

Valentine's Week! Feb.

Specials
Monday - No school!
Tuesday - 5
Wednesday - 6
Thursday - 1
Friday - 2

Upcoming Events
February 15th - No school!
February 17 - All Pro Dad's Breakfast 6:30-7:15am
March 1 - PTA Family Night at Panera
March 3 - PTA Carnival Planning Meeting 6pm
March 18 - Snow Makeup Day (School is now in session)
April 6 - Spring Pictures
April 8 - Snow Makeup Day (School is now in session)
May 14 - Spring Carnival!
May 25 - Snow Makeup Day (School is in session)

Kid-Friendly Objectives
***Language is review again this week (verbs, subject/verb, shades of meaning, etc.).***
I can write true facts about habitats.
I can solve double digit word problems with addition.
I can read, write, and identify words with ee and ea.
I can compare two topics from informational texts.

Spelling List
Please continue to practice writing your spelling words in sentences! We had SO many kiddos earn 100% this week. They were able to join me for a Lunch Bunch in the classroom with lunch and PBS Kids! :)

List A (Purple Cats, Green Frogs)

feel

deep

steer

three

team

fear

lead

beak

stream

agree

List B (Blue Dogs, Yellow Ducks)

speech

agree

sweet

between

stream

squeak

dream

grease

season

degree

Week in Review
We continued working on double digit addition this week. We are really trying hard to make ourselves ALWAYS start with the ones place. Apparently, starting in the tens place can sometimes make our answers incorrect. Nothing like a classic game of Tic Tac Toe to give you the extra motivation to get your answers correct! 

 We had fun coming up with BIG problems using dominoes. 

 Some of us even began working on addition...with REGROUPING. Here's how I introduced it...
We used a sailboat template. 
The boat is where our answers go, the mast is to help us separate our tens and ones, and the sail is where we carry our tens. 
As always, we start with our ones. "Start at the top with the ones. Add them up and let it drop!"
Here's the next rhyme/hopefully not confusing tip: "If it's 9 or less, let it drop. If it's 10 or more, sail to the shore." 
We have talked about not being able to mix our tens and ones. They are practicing sliding their pencil up the mast and writing their tens on the sail as they sail to the shore. Alternatively, some of them are going ahead and writing the total (such as 7+18=15) in the ones place. Because we are using dry erase templates, they then erase their tens (the 1) to write it on the sail, leaving only the 5. 
Next, we "go to the other side. Add the tens and let it ride!"

Unfortunately, my example below shows the incorrect order to solve the problem but I wanted to show you the method they have been practicing with me! 

Some serious thinking happening here. :)

We reviewed Shades of Meaning with some cool "shades."

We reviewed our verb tenses (past, present, future)

We also started learning about different habitats. Thus far, we've learned what habitats are, what habitats need for animals to survive (food, shelter, and a way to breathe!), and we've researched polar and desert habitats. 

Researching penguins made them completely prepared for this next unit. They are dominating it! 

 We are also working to compare the two habitats during Comprehension time. 

Then it was finally time for VALENTINES!
We wrote Valentine's Day cards to 1st graders at another school in Kentucky. This week, we got cards mailed back to us!

 Before our party began on Friday, we discussed ways we can show others that we care. Sometimes, it's as simple as giving compliments. We completed "Compli-Mats" - mats with our names, a compliment we give ourself (because that's okay, too!), and a compliment from every student in the classroom.

Every single compliment was so thoughtful. Our class cares so much about one another.
Here are pictures of our party!
Thank you SO much to everyone who donated food, supplies, and your time. 

Have another great week! :)