Greetings All,
This week in history we have been interested in finding out how people throughout time, have used nature to help them. Making fire, metal tools, and plant medicine became the highlight of our conversations and therefore guide the initial topics of our research. We will explore these topics using prior knowledge, information from books, and i-pad research. This will be fun as we bring in actual stories and artifacts to support our science/history unit on nature.
We had an exciting time in math this week when we hosted guests for two of our blocks. The eighth grade math class came in to help us with our independent work on numbers within 40. Parent volunteers lead us in number bond math games and guided us through number building exercises using base ten blocks and tens frames. The hundredth day of school is Monday, February, 16, and we will use this day as a time to explore our classroom materials by grouping things in 5s,10s, 25s, 50s, and 100s. This experience provides us with a way of making connections with larger numbers in our base ten system.
We continue to work on sentence structure in literacy by focusing on capitals, final punctuation, spaces, penmanship, and complete thoughts. Overall we are in the midst a general leap forward in reading, writing, and comprehension. Continued practice over the Spring Break is required to sustain this growth. We will be sending this message to the students as they prepare for the upcoming weeks away from school. As always please have children practice their nightly reading for 15-20 minutes per night. At this time of the year it is appropriate for parents to sign off on the books that children can read smoothly. A quick and easy test is to have them read a few pages from each book aloud to you. If they are stumbling have them continue to practice. If they are reading the words smoothly please sign them off.
In our social/emotional training we are working with Mrs. Spence, the theatre teacher, and Mrs. Barrow to learn strategies for pro-social interactions. Through roll-playing, students practice observing, being present, giving and receiving compliments, working through the grey of social interactions, and exploring the meaning of various feelings. It is our hope that students will gain the tools needed to navigate the ever-changing waters of their social lives both inside and outside of school. These tools will help lay the foundation of their social/emotional resilience and provide them buoyancy when the waters get rough.
We look forward to meeting with you at conferences next week.
Happy Valentine's,
Grade 1 Team
This week in history we have been interested in finding out how people throughout time, have used nature to help them. Making fire, metal tools, and plant medicine became the highlight of our conversations and therefore guide the initial topics of our research. We will explore these topics using prior knowledge, information from books, and i-pad research. This will be fun as we bring in actual stories and artifacts to support our science/history unit on nature.
We had an exciting time in math this week when we hosted guests for two of our blocks. The eighth grade math class came in to help us with our independent work on numbers within 40. Parent volunteers lead us in number bond math games and guided us through number building exercises using base ten blocks and tens frames. The hundredth day of school is Monday, February, 16, and we will use this day as a time to explore our classroom materials by grouping things in 5s,10s, 25s, 50s, and 100s. This experience provides us with a way of making connections with larger numbers in our base ten system.
We continue to work on sentence structure in literacy by focusing on capitals, final punctuation, spaces, penmanship, and complete thoughts. Overall we are in the midst a general leap forward in reading, writing, and comprehension. Continued practice over the Spring Break is required to sustain this growth. We will be sending this message to the students as they prepare for the upcoming weeks away from school. As always please have children practice their nightly reading for 15-20 minutes per night. At this time of the year it is appropriate for parents to sign off on the books that children can read smoothly. A quick and easy test is to have them read a few pages from each book aloud to you. If they are stumbling have them continue to practice. If they are reading the words smoothly please sign them off.
In our social/emotional training we are working with Mrs. Spence, the theatre teacher, and Mrs. Barrow to learn strategies for pro-social interactions. Through roll-playing, students practice observing, being present, giving and receiving compliments, working through the grey of social interactions, and exploring the meaning of various feelings. It is our hope that students will gain the tools needed to navigate the ever-changing waters of their social lives both inside and outside of school. These tools will help lay the foundation of their social/emotional resilience and provide them buoyancy when the waters get rough.
We look forward to meeting with you at conferences next week.
Happy Valentine's,
Grade 1 Team