News from Fantastic 1st Graders!
Mrs. Leidig's Learners - a Weekly Newsletter
A few of the skills we'll be learning this week:
MTSS (Reading Switches): This week, we'll be studying the 'ed' word ending and the sounds that it can make.
Handwriting: The countdown to Christmas continues - the kids have had fun putting a cotton ball on Santa's beard each day of school. :) This week, we will make a "wish list" and continue some fun holiday-themed "how-to" writing. Our focus (other than getting our thoughts down on paper) is to remember to use our punctuation skills, such as capitalization and end of sentence marks, in our writing.
Daily 5/Guided Reading: The students are doing a great job on their independent learning stations. In our "Work on Writing" station, we are also trying to emphasize using punctuation skills. The other area students are enjoying is "Listen to Reading", where they've been exploring a great reading app called "Raz-Kids". The kids can tell you about it. :)
Phonics: Sight words - As report card time approaches and we're working on grade card assessments, students will be considered "on target" if they are on page 2 or further. I have noticed an improvement in students' ability to decode the sight words as they are reading more books at higher levels. Nightly books - It's another short month - the kids are doing a great job earning their Book-It minutes! Phonics Skill - Our skill this week is words beginning with the blends "str, spl, and scr". As students become better at decoding bigger words, the next step is to recognize these blends in words.
Math: We will continue in our weekly math journals, as well as our "calendar math". This week, we will be learning about ones and tens and exchanging 10 ones for a group of 10.
Science/Social Studies: Last week, we learned about needs vs. wants. It was so much fun to listen to the kids' experiences in sharing with others! We will have to continue our unit next week because this week during this time, the High School Spanish students will be teaching some Spanish lessons to the kids.
Odds and Ends
Book orders: Thanks again for your orders! I hope they'll be in this week sometime. If you'd like these or the next order of books kept back as a Christmas gift or a surprise, please just let me know, and I'd be glad to hold them back for you to connect with me before or after school to pick them up. :)
Food Drive: Thanks for your donations - no school for students the Friday before Christmas break.
AIMSweb testing: Mid-year benchmarking will be taking place the week of December 15-18.
A Reason to Celebrate!
Upcoming fun: More details to come! Gingerbread houses, elementary student movie, Polar Express party, etc.! Merry Christmas! :)
LeAnn Leidig