News You Can Use!

Happy Friday 1-1 Families! I think we were starting to get used to all of those short weeks. We had a successful full week back at school. Here is a look at what the first graders were working on this week!

Literacy

This week's close reading began with the book The Wolf's Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza. The students practiced identifying important elements of the story by recalling characters, setting, problem, and solution on a story map. We used the The Wolf's Chicken Stew to practice this skill as a whole group. The same skill was the area of focus for guided reading groups as well. The students also referred to the book to determine how the main character, Wolf, changed throughout the book. We used a large t-chart and Post-It Notes where students wrote the Wolf's changes. In addition, students proved they are able to sequence the events in the book by completing a booklet of The Wolf's Chicken Stew based on the version by Keiko Kasza. 

Later in the week, the students were excited to read a National Geographic article titled Swimming With Dolphins. This was a fantastic way for students to read a nonfiction, informational text. Before reading, the class previewed the text by locating the title, caption, and label from a picture. Furthermore, the students made inferences about why these text features are important. Students used background knowledge to form questions about what they wanted to find out. During and after reading, students answered comprehension questions and highlighted important words and page numbers. 

Writing

This week, the students began learning about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln from various resources. We read the books, A Picture Book of George Washington and A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln both written by the author David A. Adler. We also read the books Let's Read About George Washington by Kimberly Weinberger and Let's Read About Abraham Lincoln by Sonia Black. The children loved watching the Brain Pop Jr. videos about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as well. Throughout the week, students recalled the information we learned about these two important presidents. As a class, we compiled ten facts, five for each president. Because we learned so much about these two presidents, the class completed a venn diagram comparing and contrasting the two important U.S. figures. The students will use this information later to compose a short expository about either the first or sixteenth president. 

Math

First graders continue to practice their fact power with Gumball Math. Most of the students are making great improvements with their math facts. We also completed Unit 5 by learning about "Function Machines". The students were introduced to the idea of the "Function Machine" this week by using my very fancy example. It was actually a plastic bin labeled "Function Machine", but along with some machine sounding noises, I was starting to think the students believed it was an actual Function Machine. I told them to stay tuned to see if I get a newer model. It just might make an appearance! We also reviewed all of the concepts from Unit 5 by using the Mimio Vote as a tool. The students loved using this as a way to practice math. Finally, the students wrapped up the unit by taking the Unit 5 test to measure their progress. 

Social Studies

During the month of February the Social Studies unit will focus on Citizenship and U.S. Symbols. To begin the unit, each table was responsible for a different vocabulary word. These words were citizens, law, responsibility, and rights. The students activated their own prior knowledge to define the vocabulary in their own words. Then, we watched the Brain Pop Jr. video about citizenship where they learned the technical definition of each vocabulary word. The students wrote these words and definitions on stars to help decorate our corresponding U.S. Symbols bulletin board. Thanks, 1-1, for helping to make our classroom look great! Now that we know exactly what the word citizen means, the students were able to brainstorm some ideas about what being a good citizen means to them. After coming up with some amazing ideas, we read the book, We Are Citizens by Laine Falk to learn even more about good citizens. The students wrote a sloppy copy and a final copy about how they are a good citizen. Their work can be found proudly displayed outside of Mrs. Johnson's classroom. 

Birthdays

Ben celebrated a birthday this week on February 3rd! Happy Birthday, Ben! We sure do enjoy having you with us in class and hope that you had a very special day!

Other

Adrian was our Star Student this week. He did such a great job telling us a little bit more about himself. We were so lucky that Adrian's mom came in to be our Royal Reader this week as well. Thanks so much for sharing some great books with the class!

Mrs. Johnson's class had Pledge duty this week. Everyone did a wonderful job taking turns to lead the whole school in the Pledge of Allegiance. I am so proud!

We sure had a busy week! I am continuing to enjoy my time in first grade. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!