Ms. Knight's Community 1 Newsletter
Live, Laugh, Learn, & Love First Grade
January 5-8, 2016; January 11-15
Happy New Year
Happy New Year to all of you! The end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016 have been very emotional for me. I started out anxious and nervous about working with little people again. Now, I am emotional that our school year is almost over and I am going to miss them all. So far, this has been an unforgettable school year.
Since the first semester, I have watched my learners soar. Many learners have gone from writing random words during journaling to writing stories with a beginning, middle and end. Also, they have developed a deep love for reading. You can catch many of them reading on their own and wanting to read to the class. In math, they have taken off. Learners are able to identify numbers, decompose numbers, identify greater than/less than, add, and subtract.
Just by listening to learners elaborate on their learning and hearing them say “I made a connection” rejuvenate my passion for teaching. I can truly say it is a joy to be your child’s First Grade Teacher.
Think, Innovative, Create
I love it when things happen naturally. From reading several versions of The Gingerbread Man, I realize how my learners are becoming good thinkers who are enthusiastic about learning. Some learners questioned why the Gingerbread Man didn't get caught sooner in the story. Others wondered why he trusted the “sly” fox and what would happen if he got wet. So, this lead to our study of the Gingerbread Man. Learners constructed possible endings for him using string, cardboard, tissue roles, tape, toothpicks, marshmallows, blocks, and glue. It was amazing seeing them working collaborative and gathering materials to come up with alternative ways to save the Gingerbread Man.
Nonstandard Units of Measurement
So, what better way to expand their learning by measuring life size cutouts. Learners have been working on nonstandard units of measurement since the beginning of the year. To expand their learning more, learners used snap cubes, linking logs, markers, and counters to measure life-size cutouts. They choose 2 different nonstandard units to measure. Then they went a step further and compared other learners’ cutouts using the same nonstandard unit. This led to discussions and writing word problems about how many more or less.
Ask Me About?
General Questions:
- Can you explain what you learn today? Make it interesting and use descriptive words.
- What did you write about today?
- Were you a good friend today?
- What did you have for lunch? Can you put them in ABC order?
Math Questions: Doubles
- Use objects around the house to make connections with doubles.
- For Example: Ask your child to look at his/her bike and give you a number sentence using doubles. ( the wheels 1+1=2); the legs on the kitchen table; tires on your car; knobs on dressers; look for doubles on pets
- Why are adjectives used in stories?
- Using adjectives-Ask your child to use adjectives to describe how he/she is dressed each day.
- At restaurants, ask questions that prompt the use of descriptive words.
- Encourage students to be a word detectives who looks for contractions in books, newspapers, and magazines.
- At the grocery store ask your child to place your groceries in ABC on the conveyer belt.
Theme: Ocean
- How many oceans are there?
- Tell me why the oceans are interconnected?
- What types of animals live in the Arctic Ocean?
Special Readers
We're Learning...
- Calendar/Integrated Math- Daily Graphing; Word Problems; Adding Doubles; Two-Digit Addition Without Regrouping
- Writing/Shared Reading-Journal Writing (Narrative Writing; Adjectives; Contractions)
- Sight Words & Reading Fluency
- Theme-Ocean: Arctic Ocean