News You Can Use!

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and keeping warm! It is cold out there! This week was a very short week, but we were busy in 1-1! I am continuing to enjoy getting to know your students. Here is a look at what Mrs. Johnson's class has been working on this week.

Literacy

During this short week, first grade took the opportunity to teach a mini unit on fables and folktales. The students became familiar with the term central meaning and understand that fables are stories with a moral to the story. To begin the week, we read a version of The Lion and The Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. This is an illustration only version of the fable. As we read the pictures, the students were able to determine what was going on in the story. After reading the story, the class brainstormed some predictions about the moral of the story.

The next day, we focused on another version of The Lion and The Mouse by Gail Herman and Graham Perry. This version contained words as well as illustrations. After reading, we had a class discussion about what the moral of the story was and how it compared to our class predictions. As always, the class was able to practice giving examples from the text to provide evidence about the moral.

We are still learning all about verbs. This week, the grammar highlight was having the students depict themselves as a superhero. Each student surrounded their superhero with super verbs. What a fun way to learn about verbs!

Next week I will have the opportunity to see small literacy groups. Your students should resume taking books home to practice at some point next week.

Writing 

The students had the opportunity to write the final copy of their How-To Writing. The children were very excited to use the iPads to do this. The students became familiar with the app, Story Kit. It was so fun typing their writing on the iPad, but the real fun came when they had the opportunity to include pictures for each step. Students took turns acting out each step as a friend took their picture doing so. They were very creative and really enjoyed this step the most! The students will complete putting the finishing touches on their final copies next week. Once the How-To Writing is complete and ready to publish, you will be able to find your student's work on Mrs. Johnson's blog. Stay tuned!

Math 

The students continue to work hard on Unit 5. This week the lessons focused on strategies for solving story problems. The students were able to draw pictures, use a number line, use their fingers, as well as other strategies to help them explore which strategy is most successful for them. The students had fun determining how much more or how much less a number is. For example, the class really got a kick out of the example involving baby Brevin. I told them I would round how much he weighed up to seven pounds. Then I told them to pretend there was a baby right next to him that weighed fourteen pounds! How much more did that big baby weigh? They really enjoyed that one. To reinforce this skill, the students got to play a game pretending to use money to figure out how much more money their partner or themselves had.

The students are continuing to do a great job with Gumball Math. Once students are able to score 48, 49, or 50 addition problems correctly in three minutes, they have fact power. We are continuing to discuss that if you have not gotten fact power yet, all that means is to just keep practicing. The focus is more on how much they are improving. Keep practicing those math facts, mathematicians!

Science

We finished our science unit on magnets this week. The science unit came to an end as the students learned about magnetic fields, north and south poles of a magnet, and how a compass works. The students explored how magnets can either attract or repel each other. The students had fun with this experiment. We also watched a few short videos about how compasses work and how to make them. To close the unit, the students liked watching a video about magnets on BrainPOP Jr website.

Other

I would like to thank Mrs. Misner for coming in to facilitate an Art Appreciation lesson with the students. We sure learned a lot about Pierre Renoir! The students really liked talking about some very famous paintings by the artist, A Girl With a Watering Can and Two Sisters (On the Terrace). Each child also created their own masterpiece reminiscent  of a Renoir painting. Thank you for teaching us so much, Mrs. Misner!

Notes

I had the opportunity to meet a few of the parents this week. I have also received some very nice emails and written notes. What a lucky group of students to have such great parents. It was so nice to put a few names to faces. I look forward to working with you during the next couple of months! Enjoy the rest of your weekend and stay warm!