Mrs. Shields' Weekly Update
1st Grade Ireland Elementary
Week of February 17, 2020
Hope you all enjoyed your long weekend! This week is also a short week! We will be having our normal lesson and our spelling, reading, and math tests will be on Friday as usual.
A great big THANK YOU to all of you for the generosity and kindness shown to me for Valentine's Day! I am so humbled by all the love, gifts, kind words, and the amazing art work that your children share with me everyday. I have the best job ever! :)
Our learning goals for this week include:
- Wonders Unit 4, Lesson 3
- Read and spell words with long o sound, spelled -o, -oa, -ow, and -oe
- Read high frequency words: find, more, food, over, start, warm
- Read words with open syllables
- use verbs go and do properly
- iReady Math, Lesson 30- Sort and Compare/Data
- Math Facts 11-15
*** A word about Math Facts. Our standard for third quarter is to know our 11-15 Math Facts. In order to receive a 3 in Math Fact Fluency they should have earned both orange scoop for the third quarter. However, they should also be able to at least complete a math fact page when not timed with 90% accuracy. This score will be a factor in mastering this particular fluency standard as well as the corresponding solving real world problems standard. This will help those students who can solve the problems, but may need a little more time, or are intimidated by the timed component of the timed tests in mastering the non-timed real world problems standard. However, they should be able to complete the page in 20-25 minutes (about 1 minute per problem). I have and will continue to send some math fact pages to practice for homework as well.
This applies regardless of whether they are on the orange scoops at this time or not. They are responsible for knowing and using any strategy that they have learned this year to solve those math fact problems (ex. counting up, counting back, fingers, touch math, drawing dots, etc.) . I have heard them comment that they "aren't on these yet" or "don't know them yet." I have explained to the kiddos that it shouldn't matter because they have learned all of the strategies they need in order to solve these problems. So, we have and will continue to model and practice these strategies to solve math facts exactly the same way in class.
Decodable Reader
Each week we will be sending home a copy of that week's decodable reader for your child to practice reading. This is grade level material so all children should be able to read it. We request that you routinely read this throughout the week to increase your child's fluency and decoding ability. Repeated reading of the same text is absolutely the best method for practicing fluency at our level. If the text is easy for your child then please work on rate and prosody which is a fancy way of seeing read like a teacher and not a robot. Smooth reading, pausing for punctuation and changing inflection of voice is important in creating fluent reading. These passages also provide the extra bonus of alerting those who notice their child struggling to read the words that they may need some extra phonics practice that week. PLEASE KEEP THIS DECODABLE READER IN THEIR GREEN FOLDER EVERYDAY AS WE USE IT IN CLASS EACH DAY AS WELL.
T-Shirt Sizes
When you get a chance, please shoot me an email with your child's t-shirt size. We are collecting the sizes for a fund raising project we are working on as a school. (They will get a free t-shirt!) :)
Irish Program
Mark your calendars for Thursday, March 5th. First Grade will be performing in the Irish Program! There will be a full dress rehearsal that day beginning at 1:00 p.m. for anyone who cannot make it to the evening performance. More details to come!
Class Picture Day
March 9th is group picture day!
Cluster
Did you know that you can upload and even "steal" or download pictures from our photo sharing sight, Cluster? All of the photos that I share are available for you to download and keep! So check it out! :)
Thank you for all you do to help support your child's learning at home.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. Have a great week!
Made with Love!
Conversation Heart Math
Checking Out the Loot!
Important Dates:
Feb. 25, 2020 Field Trip Petting Zoo
Mar. 9 - Class Picture Day
Mar. 5 - Irish Program for Grades 1, 2, 5; 1:00pm and 6:30pm (DATE CHANGE!)
Mar. 18, 2020 End of Third Quarter
Mar. 23-27, 2020 Spring Break - No School
Apr. 10, 2020 Snow Make-Up Day - No School
May 22, 2020 End of Fourth Quarter and Second Semester