First, I want to thank you so much for coming in to meet with me for parent-teacher conferences. I love the opportunity to talk about all of your kiddos now that I've had 45 days in school to get to know them. What a fantastic group! They continually show me how they are kind, hard-working, and enthusiastic learners. I'm really looking forward to seeing all of the things that they will accomplish this year.
Here's a quick look at what we have covered in the past 2 weeks.
- There was a lot of celebrating last week! Between the PJ party, Pumpkin Day, and the Monster Mash, I was completed exhausted by Friday afternoon. We had a great time!
- In Reading Workshop, the kids worked on ways to make the most of reading time and time to discuss books with their partner. They played a game called "Guess The Covered Word" and they practiced introducing a book to their partner before they began reading together. I want them to have meaningful conversations about the books they are reading. This is a great way to deepen their reading comprehension skills. This week, we are continuing to learn ways to make the most of their time with their partners. Today, I reminded them that "partners don't tell, they help", and then they practiced encouraging their partners to use reading strategies to decode unfamiliar words.
- Another reading strategy that I taught last week is "try it two ways". At this point in the year, we focused primarily on short vowel sounds. However, as the kids begin to read more complex texts, they are discovering that there are many long vowel sounds in words as well. So, if a word does sound quite right with the short vowel, I am encouraging them to try reading with a long vowel sound. Just another way for the students to figure out tough words. We will be learning many of the long vowel rules as the year goes on but, for now, this can be a very useful strategy.
- On Friday, we are having an in-class Read-A-Thon to celebrate reaching our reading goals! We'll see how many books we can read as a class during Reading Workshop.
- One of the phonics rules that I taught last week is called the FLOSS rule (or sometimes referred to as the FLSZ rule). When a short-vowel word ends in F, L, S, or Z, you double the letter. Examples include: kiss, fell, fluff, and buzz. There are many of these words in the spelling list this week.
- The trick words for the past 2 weeks are: you, your, I, they, was, one, and said.
- We did a really fun lesson last week in writing where the first graders acted out their stories with their writing partners. It was adorable - they were so into it! I think we have a lot of actors and actresses on our hands. :) This helps them bring the stories to life and find ways to add more details to their writing.
- Last week, we read the story Spookly, The Square Pumpkin and the kids completed a cute craft and writing activity to accompany it. They are hanging up outside of the classroom - I hope you had a chance to peek at them when you came in for your conference.
- They also had a fun writing activity where they were able to design and describe their own monster. Most were cute, but a few were downright scary! Yikes!
- In math, the kids have been working with subtraction story problems. They are learning to write out their work in many different ways. For a single problem, they are asked to show the answer with a drawing, a number bond, and a subtraction sentence. This week, we will wrap up Module 1 of our math program. That means I will be sending home the math workbooks. They are yours to keep. We use the "Problem Set" pages for each lesson, but there are a number of other pages in the book if your child wants to work on more math at home. Completely optional, though.
- We completed a Mystery Science lesson on skulls last week, in honor of the spooky season.
- This week, the kids are learning about verbs (action words).
- The first graders also learned about the "glued" sound /all/.
Coming Soon - Thanksgiving Show
We are planning a (brief) Thanksgiving Show on the morning November 27. Families will be invited to join us. I don't have the exact time yet, but wanted to let you know with as much advance notice as possible. The kids will be sending home invitations next week.
Spelling Words
fuzz, tell, kiss, shell, off, fall, ball, you, your
Sentence: He will tell you not to fall off the wall.
Upcoming Dates
11/8 (Friday): Library
11/11 (Monday): No school, Veteran's Day
11/13 (Wednesday): Library
11/20 (Wednesday): Early release at 1:45
11/22 (Friday): Library
11/27 (Wednesday): First Grade Thanksgiving Show and 11:50 dismissal
11/28 and 11/29: No school - Thanksgiving break
As always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thanks!
Katie Barnett
