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!

March 6-10, 2017

Specials

Monday - 1

Tuesday - 2

Wednesday - 3

Thursday - 4

Friday - Arty Party Day

Upcoming Events & Reminders
March 7 - Family Fun Night at Sky Zone
March 8 - Field trip to EKU
**Please return your field trip permission slip ASAP or your child will not be able to attend.**
March 10 - Arty Party Day - Nonrotation
March 16th - PTA Meeting
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.

I do have video clips available to us now from our appearance on Channel 13's Character Matters! I also have the clip Channel 13 created to spotlight the first grade teachers (and students!) at Wellington. If you are interested in seeing either of these, I am more than happy to direct you to them!

Spelling List

LIST A

LIST B

Kid-Friendly Objectives
I can read, write, and identify words with -ar.
I can write to tell a fictional story.
I can tell correctly add a two digit number to a single digit number.
I can make comparisons about the events a character experiences in two texts.
I can correctly use contractions.

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 :)


Week in Review
Can you believe it? We are down to only 49 days left!
It's getting down to crunch time. But fortunately, in first grade, this is really the time of year that our learning TAKES OFF!
The other exciting part of this week was Read Across America week! 
Here are some of the fun things that happened throughout our week. :)

We worked on l blends and r blends with fun, interactive powerpoint games.

We discussed comparing and categorizing things by attributes they have in common. Can you guess what does not belong in the group below!?

 We also practiced this independently (in our jammies).

Also, on the day we wore jimmies, we all laid down to listen to a Junie B. chapter book during one of the many thunderstorms this past week.

We had a guest reader (Amber Philpott from WKYT) read to all of the first graders!

And our class had our very own special reader to share with Mrs. Long's room!

(P.S. THANK YOU!!!!!)

We continued working away on our fictional narratives. So far, we have discussed the importance of characters who match a setting, a problem, and a strong solution.

 Authors are also great storytellers. We all had the opportunity to share our stories aloud to prepare us for writing them this week.

We also continued to hone our place value skills to prepare us for double digit addition this week!

Please note: students are not taught the traditional algorithm (stacking numbers) for adding two digit numbers until about 4th grade. Please do not teach this or work on problems in this way at home. Our goal is to teach mental strategies and strong knowledge of how numbers work together, not the "steps."

The above photo shows arrow cards above 10s and 1s. This was a strategy used to teach that 94 is really 90+4 or 9 tens and one 4. Not, as kids typically assume, 9 and 4. These core understandings will help kids as they develop mental math strategies.

These boys were testing their mental strategies by finding equal and unequal equations!

Now for some of the less "academic" photos :-P

These girls were looking super WACKY!

 We had an extra teacher on hand in the classroom on Friday!

 and a NURSE!

 AND TWO MORE TEACHERS! We were in great hands. :)

 Tennis player...a firefighter...

 a popstar and a PHYSICIST!

 Another fabulous rockstar

 And a vet/dog treat baker!

 The talented singers continued to come!

 A librarian...

and one creative little girl was dressed like a teacher on the weekend! :-P

 We cracked up as we read And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street so we wrote our own pages for a class book titled And to Think that I Saw it at Wellington!

 I was also blessed to spend some guided reading time with a business man and firefighter at my back table! What a hard working group of men!

I hope you have a FABULOUS week ahead of you!