News You Can Use!

Hello 1-1 Families!

Enjoy a few highlights from last week!

Reading

The children are continuing to learn about poetry during our Reader's Workshop lessons. They have worked with:

-Playing with sound (rhyme, repetition, alliteration, and onomatopoeia)

-Identifying clues to find the big idea (Title, Who?, Where?, When?, Why?)

-Connecting through schema (using my prior knowledge and how I connected to the poem)

-Asking questions to help find the mood of the poem

Guided Reading Groups:

I have now had a chance to meet with all of the children one on one to do another round of running records. I am very impressed with their reading progress! Reassessing allows me to make sure that each child is receiving reading instruction that best fits their instructional reading level. Reading groups will restart this week. When your child brings their green reading bag home, please have them read the book to you. They should also practice their sight word sticker book (if they have one) and share any graphic organizers they completed. Please have your child return their book bag the next day. 

Math

In Math, the children have been working on:

-Using the Addition/Subtraction Facts table to find the sums of addition and subtraction facts.

-They were introduced to Name-Collection boxes. They used dominoes, drawings, tally marks, base-10 blocks, and addition/ subtraction facts to show equivalent names for numbers. 

-They worked with fact families. The children looked at a domino and identified the three numbers that went with it. Then they wrote two addition and two subtraction facts using the three numbers from their domino. They learned that the addition and subtraction facts make up a fact family.

-The children were introduced to Fact Triangles. Using their Fact Triangles, the children practiced their addition and subtraction facts with a partner. The children also wrote addition and subtraction number models to go along with their Fact Triangles.

Social Studies

Last week, the children learned about U.S. Symbols. Each child had the opportunity to research one U.S. Symbol. They used PebbleGo to research and then wrote two facts about their symbol. After researching, the children drew an illustration of their symbol on their facts sheet. Throughout the week, the children were able to share what they had learned with the class. We complied the slides into a slide show titled, U. S. Symbols.  

US Symbols from Melissa Johnson on Vimeo.

Today, the children completed the book, America the beautiful. The book allowed the children to revisit all the facts they learned about the different symbols this week. 

Band of Steel

On Friday, the children enjoyed a wonderful assembly by the Band of Steel. A very special thank you to the PTA for bringing this experience to Dryden! The children loved listening to the music and clapping along to the different rhythms. Thank you PTA!

Star Students and Royal Readers

Thank you to our past star students and royal readers. It was nice to learn so many new things about you! We also enjoyed hearing so many stories from our past royal readers.

Happy Birthday

We celebrated Evan's birthday last week! Happy Birthday Evan!

Notes:

-Please remember to send your child to school with their winter gear. The snow promises to continue and the playground and black top will once again be covered with snow. Please send coats, snow pants, boots, hats, and gloves. Thank you!

-We are looking for items for our school Makerspace. If you have any of the following items at home, please send them in! Thanks!

 • paper towel, wrapping paper and/or toilet paper rolls

 • yarn, ribbon and/or string

 • beads and/or buttons

 • tools

 • newspaper

 • aluminum foil, wax paper and/or saran wrap

 • various clean contains with lids (ex. yogurt, cottage cheese)

 • empty boxes (ex. cereal, pasta, or if they're bigger, flattened please!)

 • things that can be taken apart (old or broken electronics or small devices)

 • anything else along these lines that you think might fit in a Makerspace!

Happy March!

News You Can Use!

Hello 1-1 Families!

What a fun week we had! Read about it below!

100th Day & Valentine’s Day Fun!

On Wednesday, the children celebrated the 100th day of school. They looked great dressed up like they were 100! The children enjoyed participating in an assortment of 100th day activities. They created a 100th day crown showing different ways to make 100. The children heard the story, 100th Day Worries. They wrote a story about what they would do if they had 1oo dollars. In the afternoon, the children had 100th day math stations. We had a wonderful 100th day of school!

On Friday, the children celebrated Valentine’s Day. In the afternoon, the children had their valentine’s party. The children enjoyed all the delicious treats that were sent in, passed out their valentines, and heard a story.

A special thank you to our room reps, Mrs. Trudeau and Mrs. Humann for organizing the treats for our party. Also, a BIG Thank You to all the families who provided the paper products and treats. You made our party a yummy success! Thank you!

I would like to thank all of you for making my Valentine’s so special. I love all my valentines and yummy treats. Thank you so much!

Enjoy a slide show of our two special days below!

                              

Kidz Voice

Calling All Kindergarten and First Graders! Let's read all about what's on your minds! Kidz Voice, Dryden's student newsletter, needs you! We are looking for article submissions. Articles can be about current events at Dryden, in Arlington Heights, the U.S., or the world. You can write about sports, an interesting person, submit artwork, or write an opinion. It's all about making your voice heard! Articles are due to Teresa Geisler by February 26! You can e-mail them directly to her at teresageisler@gmail.com or drop a hard copy off in the office.

Have a great rest of the long weekend!

Valentine Treats Ingredient Lists

Valentine Treats Ingredient Lists

Thank you to everyone who is sending in treats for our Valentine's Party on Friday, February 12th. We appreciate you helping to make our party a special treat! Below you will find the names of the foods being served and the ingredients list for each. If you have any questions please let me know! Thank you!

Honest Kids Organic Juice

                     Oreo Cookies

Our healthy treat will be RED SEEDLESS GRAPES!

Please remember,the children are not allowed to bring in any additional edible treats! Thank you for your help in keeping the children safe! 

There is a lot of excitement in first grade as we await the return of Mrs. Johnson!  She will be returning on Wednesday, February 10, 2016.  

Here is what first grade has been working on over the past few weeks:

Reader's Workshop

We have concluded our unit on non-fiction!  The students learned about three main types of non-fiction books: literary non-fiction, biography, and reference.  They are able to to distinguish the differences between them.  Students also learned about the many different text features that are unique to non-fiction books.  The students were exited to see how many they could recall during a game we played.  They all did extremely well!  The first graders also chose non-fiction books to place in their bins to read and then some students were able to share their new found knowledge with their classmates.

This week begins our new unit on poetry.

Writing

The focus of our writing this month was How To.  As a class we created a how to make hot chocolate writing piece.  Several students then went home and used those directions to make hot chocolate at home.  They were very excited to share how good the hot chocolate was.  We also wrote about how to make a snowman.  The students were excited to add some of their own extra steps in order to create some very unique snowmen/snowgirls.  We had princess snowgirls and some karate snowmen too! As a final project, students were asked to choose their own How to topic and create a booklet.  We are in the process of finishing those this week.

This month our writing will focus on social studies and students will be writing about being a good citizen and also about the various US symbols.

Science

We have concluded our science unit on weather.  We were able to perform some interesting experiments with ice.  The students watched several weather videos and used Pebble Go to write about extreme weather conditions during library.  We learned about the differences between dew and frost and also about the three different types of clouds.  If they have not already shared this tidbit with you, ask you child how to make their own cloud.

This month the focus returns to social studies and will be on US citizens, symbols, and a few of the presidents.

Math

The first graders began unit 5 and have been working with base ten blocks to identify the tens and ones place values within numbers.  Students were also introduced to relation symbols.  We compared the weights and lengths of various animals using our animal cards.