I hope that everyone had a nice break during the holiday season! I certainly did. I just wanted to take a moment to catch you up on what we've been working on in class.
- In Reading Workshop, we continued to study nonfiction texts. The kids are learning how to identify the table of contents, the glossary, bold words, and section titles in books. One day, after the kids did about 20 minutes of independent reading, we made a list of all topics that they learned about. It was pretty impressive - and I think it illustrated to the first graders how much we can learn when we read. Another day, we made a list of all the new words we encountered when reading. Then we talked about what the words mean. Reading is one of the best ways to build your vocabulary.
- The phonics skill for this week is the Bossy R (sometimes called r-controlled vowels). The students learned that when a vowel is followed by an "r", it changes the sound the vowel makes. For instance, /ar/ in "car" and /ir/ in "bird". Here's a fun Bossy R video that I showed in class this week.
- In math, the kids have been working on addition and subtraction word problems. We also discussed place value. In first grade, we will work with the tens place and the ones place (and a little bit with the hundreds place). Here's a song that was a hit with the kids: Place Value Song
- The social studies topic for the next couple of weeks is Symbols of The United States. This week, the kids learned about the Statue of Liberty (and made crowns), The White House, and the American Bald Eagle (and they made Bald Eagle paper-bag puppets).
- We wrapped up our "small moment stories" writing unit. The kids chose a story to share with their reading buddies. I'm very excited to start teaching about nonfiction writing next week. The kids will write teaching books. It dovetails really well with the the nonfiction reading unit that we are currently working on in Reading Workshop. Thanks to everyone who helped their child fill out the topic sheet that I sent home this week. It will really help them hit the ground running when we start writing next week.
- And, of course, the class had their PJ party on Tuesday. They won it for being such great helpers to me, Mr. Lambert, Mr. Miller, and to their classmates.
Upcoming Dates
- 1/15/20 (Wednesday): Library
- 1/17/20 (Friday): No school, teacher professional development
- 1/20/20 (Monday): No school, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
As always, please reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns. :)
Have a wonderful weekend!
Thanks for all that you do to support your child's learning at home!
Katie Barnett
