It's been another busy week in first grade. Here's a look at what we covered.
- In Reading Workshop, the kids continue to enjoy some great books and practice their reading strategies. This week, they learned how to set reading goals each day so that they can make the most of their time. They also practiced rereading sentences to "make their voice smoother". Since they are just learning how to decode unfamiliar words, the reading can be a little choppy. If the kids do the "hard work" of figuring out all of the words, and then they go back to reread it smoothly, it will help them to better understand what they read. Tomorrow, the kids will learn about scooping up words into phrases as they read.
- We also continued to review the letters and letter-sounds. We covered the letters c, g, d, s, r, p, j, l, h, k, v, and w this week. Each day, we talk about the sound the letter makes and practice letter formation with handwriting. We brainstorm words that contain the letters that we are focusing on. We've also used magnetic letter boards to build and change short vowel words. The kids really enjoy using personal white boards to practice writing words.
- Math has been a lot of fun this week. The kids practiced solving simple addition word problems with pictures and addition sentences. They also learned to find a missing addend. Today, we focused on the "counting on" strategy when adding. I'm very impressed with their number sense and the way that they dive right into new math concepts! Pretty awesome! Ask them to show you the Counting On Cheer that we did today. :)
- On Monday, Ms. Dulin and Ms. Rodgers, our guidance staff, came into class to do a lesson on whole body listening. I don't mean to brag, but the kids did such a great job that I think they could have been right up there teaching it! They are so attentive and respectful as an audience. I love it!
- They are practicing writing in a number of ways. They wrote stories about their weekends in their journals on Monday, they continued working on their "small moment" stories, they wrote notes to me in their conversation journals, and I gave them a short writing prompt about penguins on Wednesday. My goal is to keep them writing as much as I can all year. I'll talk more about it at open house next week, but writing can be the most challenging piece of the first grade curriculum.
- In preparation for the field trip to Spring Hill Farm next week, the kids have been learning a lot about pumpkins. They created a pumpkin lifecycle craft that will be hanging in the classroom for open house. We've read several books about pumpkins and watched a couple of short videos. Ask your first grader how they can tell how many seeds are in a pumpkin. Hint: It has to do with the lines on the outside of the pumpkin.
- On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to do a curriculum-based learning project with Ms. Flaherty, the art teacher. The kids created apple pinch pots out of clay. It's a perfect way to illustrate the parts of an apple that we've been learning about in class. Next time, the kids will be able to put glaze on their clay creations. Once they have been fired in the kiln, the kids can take them home. I made one, too. So much fun!
- Wednesday, 10/2: Field trip to Spring Hill Farm in Haverhill (I'll send a reminder next week)
- Thursday, 10/3: Kittredge School Open House (6:30-7:30pm)
- Wednesday, 10/9: Picture day, in-school visit to the Scholastic Book Fair, and 1:45 early release
- Monday, October 14: Schools are closed
- The kids love being creative with the materials in the Maker Bin. If you have any craft materials or clean recyclables that you would like to contribute, please send them in. We'd love to have them!
- Ms. Flaherty is also looking for empty egg cartons for a project. If you have any please send them to school and I will make sure she gets them.
Have a fantastic weekend! Thanks for sharing your great kiddos with us. As always, please get in touch with me if you have any questions or concerns.
Katie Barnett
