Grade 1, Mrs. Bell-Paolucci
Hazardville Memorial Elementary School
December 8, 2015
Hello First Grade Parents and Guardians,
I would like to thank all of you who have purchased items for our gingerbread houses in Room 12. I know this is an extremely busy time of year. This is a very exciting project for all of the children (and myself) and we so appreciate all of your support. Please join us Friday if you are able. Please send a note in the folder or email me if you can come so that I can notify the office. Thank you.
Writing
We have published a copy of our Informative Writing and will be reading these to our Room 12 friends. As a follow-up to our gingerbread houses, we will be spending the next few weeks reading and writing How-to books. We will focus on table of contents, numbering information, first, next, then and last, glossary and index, and additional information. The children will be using this information to write their How-to books.
Math
Our next math unit is Exploring Addition and Subtraction within 20. Students will represent and solve problems and word problems involving addition and subtraction, understand and apply properties of operations and the relationship between addition and subtraction, add and subtract within twenty, and work with addition and subtraction equations.
ELA
We are continuing with our non-fiction reading and adding How-to books to our selection. We will continue to pair our reading with our writing assignments. We will also read holiday book selections reviewing previously learned skills such as, retelling, character traits, setting, etc.
Spelling
We will test the December 1, spelling words on Friday, December 11. Please look for new word lists on Monday, December 14, in folders.
Science
After reading several non-fiction books about polar bears recently, we teamed with the pre-school to do an experiment showing how polar bears stay warm in icy waters due to their blubber. Students formulated experiment questions, made hypothesis (predictions) and tested their ideas. We placed plastic bags on each students hand and covered the bag with vegetable shortening. We then asked students to place this hand and their uncovered hand in ice water to test which hand felt warmer. We discussed our results and why the results were noted. The students then did an activity and read with the pre-school students. This was such a great learning experience and such a hit with the students that we hope to make it a monthly event.