News You Can Use!

We have been very busy in 1-1. Enjoy catching up on everything we have been up to over the last few weeks!

Literacy

During readers workshop over the last two week the readers have been hard at work. They have been practicing building their reading stamina and applying the skills and strategies we have learned during our whole group lessons.

Our lessons have focused on:

-Visualizing 

-Poetry (finding rhythm and rhyme in poems)

-Learning new words 

-Using photos and illustrations to gain information 

-“Just Right Books” (Ask your child how to pick a Just Right Book and how to identify books that are Too Easy or Too Hard).

-Digging into Genres (Identifying components and features of Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction)

-Stop, Think, Write (The children worked on stopping, thinking and writing down notes about what they are reading).

Guided Reading and Daily 5: 

This week, we started our guided reading groups. During guided reading time, the other children work on independent Daily 5 work (word work, work on writing, listening station, and read to self) while I meet with small guided reading groups. Your child will bring a green book bag home at least one night a week. In their book bag you will find a book they have been working on in class. Please have your child read the book to you and send it back to school the next day. If your child brings home an organizer to go along with their book, have them share that with you as well.

Your child may also bring home a sight word sticker book. Have them practice the words that they have not earned stickers for yet. This is a way for the children to develop automaticity of sight words they will find frequently in the texts they are reading. They will move on to the next sight word sticker book when they have earned stickers for every word in their current book.

During curriculum night, I gave you handouts on reading with your child and a reading strategies bookmark. These will be helpful if you are looking for ways to help your child with reading or ideas for questions. If you have misplaced your copies please let me know - I can make you a new set! 

Making Words:

Over the last few weeks, the children were introduced to our Making Words lessons. They use letter tiles at their desks to create different words that follow our spelling pattern for the week. The children take turns coming up to the board to spell the words on our interactive pocket chart. Their favorite part of the lesson is when the get to try and figure out the “secret word.” This word uses all of the letter tiles for the day. 

Spelling:

The children have been doing a great job on their spelling tests. I am so proud of how hard they practice the words all week long. Thank you for helping your child review their words at home!

Writing

Last week, we continued working on our first writing unit, Autobiographies. The children met with a partner to share their autobiography. They took turns reading their writing to one another. After, they shared ideas for adding more detail to each others writing and illustrations. The children then returned to their seats and worked on completing their autobiography. They have now finished publishing all of their pieces, and their pages have been compiled into a book. 

This week, we started our second writing unit. The children will work on Narrative writing, zooming in on a small moment in their lives to write about.

Next week, the children will begin the process of writing their very own small moment story. You can help your child at home by talking about an event in their life that was really exciting for them: a trip, a big game, a birthday. Help them recall their favorite event in lots of detail, they will use this to write their narrative.

Math

We started unit 2 in math. A note came home via backpack mail detailing the concepts that will be taught in this unit. The children worked with the number grid to locate numbers and solve math problems. They enjoyed playing the math game, Rolling to 50. The children also worked with ten frames, labeling numbers with units, finding sums of ten, and using calculators.

Social Studies

Last week, we finished our Map unit. The children enjoyed taking a virtual trip around the world to visit different landforms. After we visited each landforms location the children wrote about it in their landforms booklet. Ask your child to teach you all about the landforms they learned.

Science

This week, we began our first science unit, Collecting and Examining Life. The children learned all about what a scientist does. We read the book, What Is a Scientist and worked together to create a chart listing everything that a scientist does. Then, the children created their own super scientist. Inside the lab jacket they wrote about what a scientist does. 

On Tuesday, the scientists did their first experiment. They had to look at three different substances, mystery substance A, mystery substance B, and salt. Using a magnifying glass they observed the substances and decided which one they thought was alive. After creating their hypothesis, the scientists added the salt to water creating a salt water solution. In one jar they placed substance A and the salt water. In another jar they placed substance B and salt water. The scientists observed the solutions in the jars and recorded what they saw in their science notebooks.

On Friday, the scientists returned to their jars. They were able to use the pro-scope to magnify the contents of each jar. The scientists realized that substance A was alive. The children had hatched Brine Shrimp. They were able to see them swimming around. They noted that substance B was not moving and it had all settled on the bottom, they learned that the substance was sand. 

The scientists were also very excited to study Crickets. They began by studying a diagram of a Cricket and discussing the different body parts. Then the scientists worked with a partner to observe their very own Cricket. Using a magnifying box, the scientists recorded information about their Cricket. They worked very hard and drew descriptive diagrams, making sure to label the parts of their Cricket.

Birthday

On Monday, we celebrated Sammy’s Birthday. Happy Birthday Sammy!

Thank You!

A special thank you to the PTA for providing freeze pops to our class as our prize for our great participation during the Just Jump challenge. Thank you to all of you for donating money to help bring wonderful programs and opportunities to the students at Dryden! We enjoyed our special treat today! Thank you Dryden PTA!!!

Notes:

-Don’t forget to read and return your purple poetry folder!

-Thank you to all of you who placed Scholastic Book orders, I sent the books home today! Happy Reading!

-Walk To School Day is Wednesday, October 7th. I will be out in front of the school and walking the field with the busers, come walk to school with me!