We are marching on to the end of 2019. We have a busy week ahead as we get ready for our two week winter break. We are finishing up some of our units. Word Detectives are finishing their final cases during both reading and word work (phonics). Last week we talked more about "unusual" words including contractions and compound words. We are on the lookout for both types of words in the books we are reading.
In writing students are finishing up their How-To books. They will be bringing home some of their work this week. Last week students worked on steps 2, 3 and 4 in their final books and tried to stretch each step to give as many details as possible. In math we are working on fact families. Students take 2 numbers and add them together. They then show the four equations in that fact family. For example, if the numbers were 3 & 5 the final number would be 8. The equations would be 3+5 = 8, 5+3 = 8 (flip it!), 8-3 = 5 and 8-5 = 3. Speaking of families we are finishing up our families and traditions unit too. Lexia - I understand there was some misinformation for logging into Lexia. Amanda sent out a correction in the Glencoe Newsletter but here is the information again: Student Home Access for TechSmart Applications in the PPS Student Portal: Student Email: first initial + last name + last 4 digits of student ID @student.pps.net Student Password: student 2 digit birth month followed by 2 digit birth date (example: April 1st would be 0401) TechSmart Applications work best in the Chrome Browser. If using iPad, individual applications need to be downloaded. For further questions, please contact Sarah Carlson, TechSmart Coach, at Glencoe: [email protected] Lexia is a great way to keep working on skills during winter break! Announcements When we come back in January we will be working with an artist in residence - Andy from Red Yarn. Each first grad class will work on a folk song and create puppets to go along with the song. We will be needing volunteers to help with the puppet making - I will post this on Konstella. We are also ready for volunteers to come and read with students. These days and times will also be posted on Konstella. Important Dates Wednesday, December 18 Assembly - Taiko Drums, 9:30 am - 10:15 Friday, December 20 Pajama Day Friday, December 20 Flop and Read, 1:30 pm - 2:15 pm Monday, December 23 Winter Break Begins Monday, January 6 First day back in 2020
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One of this week's highlights was working with Aziza's dad to do our part for the first grade art auction project. Students worked with watercolor paint and found their inspiration to create pictures and shapes in shades of blue with other pops of color. You can see photos of the artists at work on the photos page. I can't wait to see the final project!
Our mentor text last week for our family unit was Patricia Polacco's When Lightning Comes in a Jar. The story celebrates the author's memories of family reunions and led to our conversation about family traditions. Students identified two traditions mentioned in the book and two of their own family traditions for their story response. In writing students worked on their final How To story and wrote and illustrated their introduction and the first step of their text. They are working hard to use all that they have learned to make their books. We will continue adding steps this week. A fun word work activity this week was discovering "letter twins" - words like mitten and pillow. Students practiced dividing words between the double letters and decoded and blended each part to read the words. You can see photos of this activity on the photo page as well. Students then searched for examples in their own books and were able to generalize that letter twins need to be consonants rather than vowels and that they are in words with more than one syllable. Word Detectives at work! Important Dates Tuesday, December 10 PTA Meeting, 8:15 am - 9:15 am Wednesday, December 18 Assembly - Taiko Drums, 9:30 am - 10:15 Friday, December 20 Pajama Day Friday, December 20 Flop and Read, 1:30 pm - 2:15 pm Monday, December 23 Winter Break Begins I hope everyone enjoyed a restful Thanksgiving break. It is my favorite time of year - spending time with family and having the opportunity to reflect on all I am grateful for. I am truly thankful for the opportunity to meet with you all last week to talk about some of my favorite people. I am so proud of all they have accomplished in three short months and loved having the chance to share that with you. I am also extremely thankful for the generous donations of credits to the book fair. I was able to buy 14 books for our classroom - I was excited to find some new nonfiction books and some graphic novels for younger readers. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We have a busy three weeks until winter break. Students will be writing a final How To text that they will then present to the class. In reading we will continue building our strategies and learning about more spelling patterns. Our word detectives are experts at spotting the silent e so we will keep practicing and also start noticing other vowel combinations. In math we will be exploring fact families. This is a great way for students to understand the relationship between addition and subtraction. We are still collecting family photos if you haven't had a chance to send one in. You can email me a photo and I can print it and put it on our family board. We are working with the book, The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant to make connections, practice our inferring and as a jumping off point for talking about our own family traditions. Important Dates Tuesday, December 3 1st grade Art Auction project with Aziza's dad Tuesday, December 10 PTA Meeting, 8:15 am - 9:15 am Friday, December 20 Pajama Day |
MS. SCHIADAI teach first grade in southeast Portland where every day brings a new adventure!
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