It is time for our first update of our class website! Throughout the school year, I will update the website about once a month with a peek into our learning from the previous month. I will always send out an email to parents when it is updated so that you know when to check it!
During the first month of school, we focused primarily on building a strong classroom community in our classroom. We read many great books about kindness, respect, trying your best, and helping others. Along with those books, we had many great discussions and students did some writing and art projects to accompany these ideas!
Beginning of the Year Projects:
My favorite book to read on the first day of school is Have you Filled a Bucket Today? It is a great book that helps students understand the importance of being kind to others. Students did some writing about how they will be a bucket filler this school year. Ask your child about what it means to be a bucket filler!
One of the books that we read was titled, The Dot. It is about a little girl who thinks that she is not an artist and she gets very frustrated in art class. She learns that determination and not giving up can turn some of the most simple ideas into the most creative ideas! We had some great discussions about trying your best and not giving up! Students got to make their own pieces of dot artwork!
Literacy:
During the first few weeks of school, we reviewed letter sounds and began working on short "a" words. We studied several word families including words that end in at, an, ap, and ad. As the year continues, we will study more short vowel word families until winter break. For the second half of the year, we will focus on long vowel word families. Many of these word families appear on the weekly spelling lists, along with 5 snap words for each week. I really appreciate the time that you take at home to work on these words. Students have the opportunity to study these words every day at school during our word work time as well.
These students are writing their words in rainbow colors!
These students are playing "word race" with their spelling words!
Brady is working on some puzzles with short "a" words.
Rhoslyn is working on building some short "a" words with magnetic letters.
A big component of our literacy time is Read to Self. In first grade, students are expected to be able to read for at least 15 uninterrupted minutes each day. At the beginning of the year, we talk about building our reading stamina. We start by reading for just 2 minutes on the first day and we slowly build to 15 minutes. Our class is currently able to read for 10 minutes without any interruptions. Students sit in comfy spots around the room and read out of their individual book bins. Once I am finished doing some reading testing with the students, I will be pulling small groups of kids for reading groups during this time as well. Here are some photos of students reading during Read to Self.
During writing time, your child began a writing portfolio during our first week of school. Each week, your child will complete a writing sample and we will collect those samples in a binder throughout the year. It is a great way to document your child's writing progress throughout first grade. We take the process very seriously on Friday mornings. Students complete the writing independently (with no help from me) so that we know what each student can truly do on their own.
Here are the writing skills that we are working on right now:
- Beginning a sentence with a capital letter. Most other letters should be lowercase (except for names or the word, I). Using upper and lowercase letters appropriately can be very challenging for some students at the beginning of the year. Please help with this skill while working on homework if you notice your child mixing upper and lowercase letters in words.
- Ending a sentence with a period
- Finger spaces between words
Math:
I like to try to keep math as interactive as possible in first grade! We will soon begin our math workshop routine. Students will complete interactive centers independently and I will have the opportunity to meet with small groups of students in math.
Here are the math skills that we focused on in September:
- Forming numbers correctly
- Drawing and counting tally marks
- Skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s
- Writing numbers that come before and after a given number
In October, we will begin learning about telling time to the hour and counting money with pennies and nickels. These are two skills that can be challenging in first grade. If possible, try to work some extra practice into your everyday lives... counting coins in a store and telling time to the hour using a clock at home!
Here are some of the activities that we completed in math over the last month!
Partner math games with dice!
Completing the first few pages in our math workbook!
Students practiced forming numbers correctly.
Number sorting games in small groups.
Counting by 5s with partners!
Practicing logging into our chromebooks. Students will get to use the chromebooks for math games when we begin math workshop!
Science:
During the first trimester, we study Air and Weather in first grade. We begin by learning about air. During our first experiment, students use simple, everyday objects to answer the question, "What can air do?" The objects that they used included a straw, a balloon pump, a balloon, a cotton ball, a feather, and a piece of paper.
Some of the things that we discovered included:
- Air can move things.
- Moving air is called wind.
- Air can inflate a balloon.
- Air can move from one object into another (from a balloon into a plastic bag).
And many more! Ask your child about some of the things that he or she learned about air!
In the coming weeks, students will learn more about air and begin to see how air affects the weather!
I hope that you enjoyed this first peek inside our classroom! Please let me know if you have any questions! Have a great day!
