New You Can Use!

Welcome back and Happy New Year! I hope that everyone had a happy and healthy holiday season!

We had a short but busy week here in 1-1 due to our “Cold Days!” The children did a great job jumping right back in to our routines. Enjoy reading about our 3 day week below!

Literacy

This week, our close reading lessons focused on the book, The Mitten. We read two different versions, one by Alive Tresselt and the other by Jan Brett. The children worked with comparing and contrasting the two versions. They identified the characters and the setting. At the end of the week, they chose their favorite version and wrote about why it was their favorite. Then, they illustrated their favorite part and glued their two mittens together with string. Their projects are on display in the hallway.

Grammar Notebook:

The children worked with singular and plural nouns this week. The children learned that a singular noun names one thing and plural nouns name more than one. We discussed how plural nouns end in s, es, or ies. The children were surprised to learn that some plural nouns, irregular nouns are an entirely different word when in plural form (child-children, goose-geese, man-men). 

Writing:

This week, we started our new writing unit on How-To Writing. The children took turns acting out examples of how to do things in the classroom. They started by listing the materials needed and then they walked the class through the steps using transition words.

Together as a class, we wrote a How-To paper titled, How To Build A Snowman. The children brainstormed a list of materials needed to build a snowman and then using transition words they wrote down the steps. Next week, the children will come up with their own How-To writing topic. This weekend, help your child come up with some ideas of what they would like to write their How-To piece on. 

New Year’s Resolutions

The children also worked on writing New Year’s Resolutions. They came up with two or three goals they have for the new year and wrote them down. They worked very hard on their writing and came up with some wonderful resolutions!

Math 

On Monday, the children worked on telling time to the quarter-hour. The children also had to tell and record different times using pictures of a variety of analog clocks. 

On Tuesday, the children enjoyed learning about timelines. Together, we created a timeline of our school year so far. We ordered important events on the timeline. 

Science

This week, we started our new science unit on magnets. This week’s lesson, focused on exploring what happens to a magnetic object when it is placed close to a magnet. The scientists learned that a magnet causes a push or pull (force). 

Note: 

-Please continue to send your child to school each day with all their winter gear. The children will go outside to play as long as the temperature is not to cold! It also helps to label all their boots, mittens, hats, and coats. Sometimes the children have the exact same ones and it is hard for them to determine whose is whose! Thank you for your help!

Have a great rest of the weekend!