Guiding Readers

The story for next week is One Tiny Turtle by Nicola Davies.

Word Study/Spelling

We will be moving on to review VCe review. We will be reading and spelling words with the VCe pattern. This is reviewing long vowel sounds in words with the silent E. Vowels make their long sound, or say their name.

Word study examples:  use, cave, dime, froze, June. 

Sight words: were, thank, had, some, her

Writing

Everyone is doing super with opinion writing.  The kiddos enjoy writing their feelings and supporting their opinion.

Reading Assessments

I have started to assess ALL the kiddos for their current reading levels. This data will be passed on to next year’s teacher. This is the time of year when many families have stopped practicing at home and the summer slide begins. Please keep reading. 🙂

We will be working on testing for the final NWEA test for the year. I will be starting small testing groups hopefully next week.

Math

I have already administered the NWEA math test to most of the kids. There are only about 4 students they need to complete it.

We moved into Volume 2 of our math book and started working with the 120’s chart and understanding 10 more/10 less.

FYI

Friday, May 3rd is a 1/2 for students due to staff professional development in the afternoon.

Have a great weekend!! 🙂

Guiding Readers

Our book for the week is The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pazzoli.

Word Work/Sight Words

We will be moving on to learning about the grapheme nk. The nk sometimes distorts the sound of the preceding vowel. The word sank has the long vowel for a and the ink is often pronounced with a long e sound as in think. 

words like: sang, slung, song, thing, king, 

sight words: could, fly, how, take, give

Writing

We started up with opinion pieces. Thursday and Friday we wrote about our favorite day of the week. We are working towards giving 3 reasons to support our opinion. The OREO method helps us remember this.

Math

We are continuing to work on addition/subtraction, place value, 2D and 3D shapes.

Science

We have been observing our caterpillars. Looks like they may go in to their chrysalis any day.

Have a great week! Don’t forget about our first grade concert tomorrow at the Allen Park Center for the Arts. It’s going to be adorable!!

 

Guiding Readers

We did not get to Insect Detective by Steve Voake, so this will be our book for the week.

Word Work/Sight Words

We will be moving on to learning about the grapheme ng. The ng sometimes distorts the sound of the preceding vowel. The word sang has the long vowel for a. With the ending ing as in thing is often pronounced with the long e sound.

words like: song, wing, hang, stung, lung

sight words: when, going, then, walk, put

Some of the students are still struggling with when so we are practicing it again this week.

Writing

We are working on our pieces for our classroom book. We still have some work to do so I pushed out the publishing date. Thank You for the orders you have sent in. All the kids are working really hard.  We are hoping to have everything in the mail by Wednesday.

Math

We are still working on addition and subtraction, greater than/less than, and place value. We are missing Mr. Doug our math master. So don’t be surprised if the Math Facts Folder comes home next week to help with skills.  I will continue to do them at school but extra practice is essential.

Science

Our caterpillars arrived yesterday. We are keeping a small journal of their growth and changes.

Have a great weekend!!

Guiding Readers

Our story for next week will be Insect Detective by Steve Voake.

Word Work/Sight Words

We will be moving on to learning about the grapheme wh  that says /w/ and ph that says /f/.

words like: whack, whim, whisk, graph, phone

Sight words: when, from, open, after, them

Writing

We are working on our pieces for our classroom book. Our date to have it sent back to the publisher is Friday so we want to get it ready to go. Look for more information coming home next week.

Math

We are still working on addition and subtraction, greater than/less than, and place value.

Science

We did some amazing exploring of objects this week during our lesson. The first grade scientists had to decide if they could see and/or hear the object making a sound. It was a great hands on experience.

Have a great weekend!!

 

Guiding Readers

The book for the week is, City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems.

Word Study/Spelling

The word study this week will be consonant digraph review. This will include; sh, ch, th, as well ck for the sound of k.

words like: ship, shock, chip, thick, wick, check, mash. 

Sight words: any, by let, think, him

 

To Read or Not to Read

Although the end of the year is approaching quickly, that shouldn’t mean we stop reading. Reading is a life long skill that is used every day. It has no season or boundaries. Reading daily is a part of the homework requirement for 1st grade. It is expected that you and your child complete it every night. Reading every day will keep your child’s skills strong and growing. If you stop now the summer slippage that we warn families about will start now and that means your child will have to work that much harder when school resumes in September. It is my job to make sure your child is prepared for 2nd grade. I am hoping that you are working with me to make that happen. 😉

Writing

We will dig back into opinion writing.

Math

We are working with place value, simple fractions, 2D and 3D shape naes and understanding how to find perimeter. These concepts are on the 1st grade NWEA math test.  Keep working on those addition and subtraction math facts at home too. The extra practice pays off in the classroom.

Science

We are continuing to work with the unit on sound.

Have a great week!! 🙂

 

Guiding Readers

The book for the week will be Chester by Melanie Watt.

Word Study/Spelling

The entire district is receiving UFLI (University of Florida Literacy Institute) training. I was at training on Monday and Tuesday of this week. It was excellent training and I am excited to transition this into our classroom starting next week. Some of what I have done for years is similar to this program. We were provided with some great manipulatives and online resources. If you are interested it is free and accessible online if you want to check it out.

UFLI.org

 

Sight words:

We will finish up the year with the Dolch sight word list. We are moving on to the First Grade Word list. Flashcards will be coming home next week in your child’s Guided Reading bag.

Writing

We will begin opinion writing.

Math

We have been working with doubles plus 1 and doubles minus 1 as a strategy in math. This is a super strategy to arrive at answers quickly. The kids caught on fast.

Reminders

Report cards will be available tomorrow afternoon after 4:00 on Parent Connect. Please login and view  your child’s progress. I am very proud of how much they have all grown, but this is the time of year when homework takes a backseat to spring sports or other activities going on at home. We are in the home stretch and need to keep in place the practices that have worked to get your child to where they are now. This is also important during our summer break. If you want your child to avoid the summer slide, reading, writing and math practice is needed during vacations.  Use the link below for the parent portal.

Parent Portal

Spring begins Tuesday, March 19th ! 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! A day we are all Irish!!

Guiding Readers

We are still working with Growing Frogs by Vivian French.

 

Spelling/Word Work

We did not get to these blends this past week so they will be the focus for next week. They are sk, sc, sm. We will also work with some 3 letter blends. (scr, spr, str).

Some words are: skin, smug, scab, skip, smart, scoop, stripe, scrap, spray

Sight words: stop, ask, of, under, now

Writing

We will be finishing up some informational pieces before moving into opinion writing for the last trimester.

Math

We are moving around a little with addition and subtraction facts to 20, bar models, and place value. A huge Thank You to Mr. Doug for helping the kids in room 207 with their math facts. The practice with him is paying off. Almost everyone can finish all 36 problems in 5 minutes or less. So proud of their hard work!!

Reminders-Don’t Forget

Spring those clocks forward…

NO SCHOOL-Friday, March 15Th. Staff professional development.

Have a great weekend!!

Guiding Readers

Our story for next week is Growing Frogs by Vivian French.

 

Spelling/Word Work

We will be moving on to some difficult blends. The blends for the week will be sk, sc, sm. We will also work with some 3 letter blends. (scr, spr, str).

Some words are: skin, smug, scab, skip, smart, scoop, stripe, scrap, spray

Sight words: black, new, came, pretty, please

Writing

This is our last official week of informational writing since Friday is the end of the 2nd trimester. We are becoming better writers when we try our best.

Math

We are still working hard with addition and subtraction strategies. Mr. Doug, our amazing morning drive-thru helper and afternoon traffic guy, worked in our classroom several days this week and focused on the math facts with all students. We are noticing a growth with many kiddos.  The folders did not come home this week so we could have them in class for practice.

Reminders

Next Friday, March 8th is the end of our 2nd trimester. This means we still need to keep reading and working at HOME to strengthen our skills. Reading nightly is part of this practice. If students stop practicing it is noticeable in the classroom and will directly impact your student’s future success. We work hard every day to make sure that your child is supported and challenged. We need your help to make sure this also happens at home. If you need any help or suggestions feel free to reach out and I will get you what you need. 🙂

Guiding Readers

The books for next week are Pigeon Needs a Bath  and Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay up Late, by Mo Willems.

 

Spelling/Word Work

We will be moving on to learning about blends again this week. This week it will be r blends. These include:

R blend words are: prop, grab, drip, crib, brim

Sight Words: was, ate, soon, our, three

Writing

We will be working more with informational writing as we approach the end of the 2nd trimester.

Math

Watch for the math facts folder coming home this week. We have had some classroom helpers working on timing our kids individually. Some kiddos still need to work on speed.

Science

We started our unit on sound and how objects make sound and how we use sound to communicate messages.

Have a great week 🙂

 

 

Next Week

Mid-winter break is Monday, February 19th, and Tuesday, February 20th. Classes resume Wednesday.

Guiding Readers

The book for the week will be I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont.

Spelling/Word Work

We will do some more work with blends.

Words include:

No sight words for this week. We will do some review work.

Writing

Everyone is working hard with informational writing. Many of us struggle to make sure our sentences begin with a capital letter, the sentence makes sense and remembering to use the correct punctuation mark.

Math

We will work some more with counting on and counting back to find a missing number. We are moving toward working with bar models.