News You Can Use!

Read all about our week!

Literacy

Treasures: 

This week, in Treasures the children worked with words containing r-blends (br, cr, fr, gr, tr).  Their stories for the week were all about pets. The children read both fiction and non-fiction pieces about different kinds of pets and the things they need and do. They made predictions both before and during reading. The children worked with identifying the setting and discussing who the characters were and what they did in the story. This week, we also worked with finding the main idea and supporting details. We continue to practice sequencing events, retelling the story in the order that it took place. 

Grammar Packets:

The children continued to work with sentence structure in our grammar packets this week. They worked with question and exclamation sentences. They are working really hard on remembering to begin their sentences with capitals and end them with either periods, questions marks, or exclamation marks.  

Super Sentences:

On Friday, the children turned into super sentence heros! Each child created their own super sentence hero mask. Using their graphic organizers from earlier in the week, they chose one telling, asking, and exciting sentence to glue onto their mask. The children had a lot of fun with this activity and enjoyed sharing their sentences with one another.  

Writing

This week, the children continued to work on their narrative writing pieces. They reread their story and worked on adding detail. The children have worked very hard to be “brave spellers” and stretch out the words that they don’t know how to spell. They also had a chance to meet with a writing partner. Each partner had the opportunity to share their story, after they discussed what they liked about each others stories and shared ideas for zooming in even further. Next week, the children will publish their small moment stories.

  

Math 

In Math, the children were introduced to change to less number stories. We started with one amount of cups, took a few away, and then ended with less cups. The children learned how to write a subtraction number model. They worked with a partner to create twelve subtraction number models. They each rolled a die, recorded both numbers (remembering to put the higher number first), then subtracted the lower number to get their answer. 

On Tuesday, the children worked with pennies and nickels to show amounts of money with the least number of coins. They also practiced adding to find the sum of 3 numbers. 

On Wednesday, the children reviewed all the concepts from Unit 2 using Mimio vote. They were very excited when our room once again turned into the set of, Math Review, Mimio Vote! The children became the contestants and played the game using their very own clickers. 

They did a great job on the math test on Thursday!

Science

The scientists continue to enjoy the hands on science lesson. They are very engaged and have wonderful discussions with one another on the different topics.This week, the scientists worked on three different science lessons. 

On Tuesday, they studied the leaves they brought in from their nature walk. We started the lesson by creating a KWL on leaves, the scientists listed all the things they already know about leaves and then generated some questions about what they want to know about leaves. We will add to the L section as we learn new things about leaves. After, the scientists worked in their table groups to sort a pile of leaves by their own chosen category. Some of the categories were color, texture, shape, size, and shine. Each scientist then chose one leaf to study on their own. They drew a detailed picture of the front and the back of their leaf, labeled it’s parts, recorded a measurement, and wrote down what else they observed about their leaf in their science journal. 

On Wednesday, the scientists went to work on comparing animals and plants. They made two collages showing plants and two different collages showing animals. Then, they discussed the characteristics of plants and animals. We ended the lesson by creating a venn diagram on animals and plants, we talked about how they are different and how they are the same. 

On Friday, the scientists were very excited to study Gold Fish. They began by focusing on how we breathe, they noted how our chest rises and falls and what parts of our body we use to breathe. The scientists then studied a diagram of a Fish and discussed the different body parts. After learning all the body parts, the scientists took turns coming up to the board and labeling the body parts on a picture of a fish. Then the scientists worked with a partner to observe their very own Gold Fish. Using a magnifying glass and ruler, the scientists recorded information about their fish. They worked very hard and drew detailed diagrams, making sure to label the parts of their fish. All the scientists wrote down additional notes on what they learned from observing their fish. The scientists had a great discussion at the end on how the fish, crickets, and brine shrimp are similar. They talked about how each of these animals breathe.

Enjoy a slide show of our science photos from this week!

Star Student

Connor was our star student this week. Thanks Connor for sharing all about you!

Royal Reader

Thank you to Connor’s Dad, he joined us this week as our Royal Reader. The children enjoyed listening to three wonderful books, The Hallo-Wiener, Where the Wild Things Are and Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. 

Notes:

• Don’t forget to read and return your purple poetry folder!
• Just a reminder to send in your field trip form and money, if you have not done so already.
• Next week is Red Ribbon/ Character Counts week. Each day we will review one of the six pillars. The children will learn that the week is about making safe and healthy choices for our minds and bodies and about treating others in a way that is safe and healthy for them, too. 
• On Tuesday, the children will learn about Caring. Please have your child wear red to show they care about the Dryden community. 
• I look forward to seeing you at Pumpkin Craving this Friday, October 26th at 1:00. Please bring a big spoon to scoop out the pumpkin seeds! 

Have a great rest of the weekend! 

News You Can Use!

Read all about our wonderful learning adventures below! Feel free to post a comment on what your favorite part of the week was. 

Literacy

Treasures: 

This week, in Treasures the children worked with short /i/ words. The stories this week, followed the theme of growing up. The children read non-fiction pieces about animals and humans growing up. Their favorite story of the week was, Growing Up. They enjoyed looking at the photographs and discussing what else they could learn about the animals from just looking at the photos. We also worked with sequencing events, the children retold the story in the order that it happened. 

Grammar Packets:

The children continued to work with sentence structure in our grammar packets this week. They had to determine if the sentences were statements. The children learned that a statement is a sentence that tells something and it has to begin with a capital and end with a period. Next week, the children will work with question and exclamation sentences. At the end of the week, they will become super sentence heros! Each child will create a project involving telling, asking, and exciting sentences. 

Writing

This week, the children continued to learn about narrative writing. We read the story, The Kissing Hand, and talked about the small moment the author focused on in the story. The children decided that the author was writing about Chester receiving his kissing hand. 

They brainstormed a list of small moments from their life. After choosing their favorite one, they zoomed in and began writing. The children will take this piece all the way through the writing process. They are currently working on their rough draft where  they sketch pictures, label, and write their story. Next week, they will reread their story and work on adding detail. The children will also go back and stretch out words that they did not know how to spell. Ask your child what their small moment is, try and help them recall the event in great detail. This will help them zoom in even further and add important details to their writing next week. 

Math 

In Math, the children explored nickels. They identified the characteristics of a nickel and learned how to write it’s value. They enjoyed learning a poem about the nickel: 

Nickel, nickel

Thick and fat

You’re worth five cents

I know that!

They also counted groups of nickels and pennies and recorded the values in cent notation. The children worked with exchanging pennies for nickels. To enhance this skill the children played, the Penny-Nickel Exchange game. 

On Thursday, the children were introduced to change to more number stories. We started with one amount of pennies, added some more, and ended with a new amount.

The children also learned how to write an addition number model. They worked with a partner to create twelve addition number models. They each rolled a die, recorded both numbers, then added them together to get an answer. 

Next week, we will wrap up Unit 2. On Wednesday, the children will review all the concepts from Unit 2 using Mimio vote. They will be very excited when our room once again turns into the set of, Math Review, Mimio Vote! The children become the contestants and play the game using their very own clickers. Our test will be on Thursday. 

Science

We have wonderful scientists in our room! They worked very hard this week learning about living things. On Tuesday, the scientists tested their hypothesis from last week by looking at the substances in jar A and B. They were very excited to observe that they were correct. Jar A held the live contents, Brine Shrimp. The scientists learned that jar B held white sand. They observed both jars using a ProScope and magnifying glasses. The scientists discovered that not only did we have Brine Shrimp, but our jars were growing algae, which is also alive. After observing the two jars the children recorded their observations in their science notebooks.  

Jar B - White Sand

Jar A - Brine Shrimps Eggs

Jar A - Brine Shrimp

Observing Jars A and B

On Wednesday, the scientists went to work on observing the contents of their nature walk bag. They had a great discussion on what was nonliving in their bags and what items had once been alive. The scientists then chose one item to photograph. Each scientist wrote a picture caption to explain what their photograph showed. They used descriptive words that we brainstormed together as a class. I have complied their pages into a class book titled, Fall Nature Walk.

On Friday, the scientists were very excited to study Crickets. They began by studying a diagram of a Cricket and discussing the different body parts. After learning all the body parts, the scientists took turns coming up to the board and labeling the body parts on a picture of a Cricket. Then the scientists worked with a partner to observe their very own Cricket. Using a magnifying box and ruler, the scientists recorded information about their Cricket. They worked very hard and drew descriptive diagrams, making sure to label the parts of their Cricket. Some of the scientists even wrote down a page worth of notes on what they learned from observing their cricket.

Thinking Skills

On Friday, Mrs. Schwarz came in for her last visit. The children worked with attribute blocks, identifying the shape, size, thickness, and color of each block. They enjoyed playing a game where one student would close their eyes and choose a block from the basket. Using their hands they would have to determine what shape the block was, if it was big or little, thick or thin, and for fun, they could try and guess the color. Then all the children compared two attributes blocks, they had to identify how many attributes the blocks had in common and how many attributes were different. This activity helped the children work on their critical thinking skills. Thanks Mrs. Schwarz, we really enjoyed your visits!

Star Student

Nate was our star student this week. Thanks Nate for sharing all about you!

Royal Reader

Thank you to Nate’s Mom, she joined us this week as our Royal Reader. The children enjoyed listening to two wonderful books, Room on the Broom and The Incredible Book-Eating Boy. 

Notes:

• Don’t forget to read and return your purple poetry folder!
• We are in need of child friendly magazines or calendars for one of our science lessons next week. A note will come home on Monday, but if you find any this weekend please send them in. We need the magazines or calendars by Wednesday, October 17th. 
• If you are interested in ordering any books from our scholastic book order, please do so by this Wednesday. I will place the order after school. Thank you to those of you who have already placed orders, you are helping to support a love of reading and earning free books for our classroom! 
• Please send in your Pumpkin Carving slips as soon as possible. Thanks! 

Have a great rest of the weekend! 

Scholastic Book Club Orders

Dear Parents,

Sometimes the right book is all it takes to nurture a child's love of reading. That's why I'm pleased that our class will be participating in Scholastic Book Clubs this school year.

The Book Club flyers I'll be sending home each month are full of just-right, affordable books and Storia™ eBooks for every age and reading level.

Our first book order will come home next week. If you would like a sneak peak you can click on the Scholastic Orders link on the right hand side of your screen. 

Follow these instructions to set up an online account:

•  REGISTER at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
•  ENTER the Class Activation Code: L9HYZ
•  CHOOSE from thousands of print titles, value packs, and Storia eBooks
•  SUBMIT the order to your child's teacher
•  EARN FREE Books for you and the classroom too!

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you for helping grow your child's love of reading and for supporting our class.

Mrs. Johnson

P.S. When you place your order online, you'll help earn FREE Books for our class and you also get a $5 FREE Book Pick Coupon to use on your next online order!

News You Can Use!

We had a short, but full week here in 1-1. Read all about it below.

Literacy

Treasures: 

This week, in Treasures the children continued to work with short /a/ words. They enjoyed reading stories about different movements. Their favorite story of the week was, From Head to Toe. The children acted out this story as I read and mirrored the movements that the animals made in the book. What a great kinesthetic learning experience! 

I Can raise my shoulders.

I can swing my arms.

I can bend my knees.

I can kick my legs.

The children also listened to the story, Stellaluna. After, they discussed what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Then they wrote their own sequencing cards, including a sentence and picture. One for the beginning, middle, and end of the story. They glued their cards to their very own Stellaluna bat. They look great hanging from our ceiling!

Grammar Packets:

The children continued to work with sentence structure in our grammar packets this week. They payed close attention to beginning capitals and periods at the end of sentences. They are becoming experts at recognizing complete and incomplete sentences.  

Writing

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. To start, they chose something that they did over the weekend and used lots of detail to describe the event. 

Later, in the week we read the book, A Chair For My Mother. The children listened to the story and then met with a partner to discuss what they thought the two small moments were from the story. When we came back together as a group the children discussed how the author described her two small moments using lots of detail. 

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 

In Math, the children worked with analog clocks. They learned that the little hand is the hour hand and the big hand is the minute hand. Using their own clocks they showed times to the hour and used approximations to say what time their clocks read, for example, just after 7, a little before 11, in between 1 and 2. 

On Wednesday, the children enjoyed explorations in math. They rotated through three stations: domino sorting ( learning that the dot patterns on dominoes represent numbers), straight line dot to dot (using rulers), and estimating relative lengths of objects (sorting objects into two groups, smaller and larger than a six inch ruler).  

Today, the children explored pennies. They identified the characteristics of a penny and learned how to write values of different groups of pennies. They enjoyed learning a poem about a penny: 

Penny, penny 

Easily spent

Copper brown

And worth one cent!

Science

This week, we started our first science unit, Collecting and Examining Life. To kick off the unit we read the book, What is a Scientist? The children learned that they are all scientists. Each child wrote about what scientists do. Then they made their very own scientists to hang up in the classroom. Their writing is hidden inside their scientist’s lab coat. 

On Wednesday, the children 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 children 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 children observed the solutions in the jars and recorded what they saw in their science notebooks. They conferred with other scientists at their table and decided that they thought jar A held the live contents. We will return to the jars next week and test our hypothesis. Will it be jar A or jar B that holds the live contents? 

Columbus Day

Today, we learned about Columbus Day in our classroom. The children watched a short video on BrainPopjr about Christopher Columbus and had a great discussion on who Christopher Columbus was. They also learned a Columbus Day song. Enjoy a video of the children singing the song below! 

Ryan had a busy week!

Ryan was our first star student. Thank you Ryan for sharing all about you!

We celebrated Ryan's birthday on October 2nd. Happy Birthday Ryan!

On Tuesday, the children enjoyed a visit from Ryan's mom. Thank you to Mrs. Shao for being a fantastic royal reader. The children loved listening to the story, The Honey Cake Mix-Up. 

Notes:

• In backpack mail, your child brought home a paper titled, October 2012 R.E.A.D. Have your child set a reading goal for the month. If they meet the goal, sign the paper and return the it to school. Your child has a chance to earn a ticket to Six Flags if they meet their reading goal every month from October - April. 
• Don’t forget to read and return your purple poetry folder!
• There is no school on Monday, October 8th because of Columbus Day.
• Friday, October 12th is a School Spirit day, wear your spirit wear or Dryden colors.

Progressive Dinner Project

Calling all parents!!! Premiering at a Progressive Dinner near you, our class tub: Cuddle up with Mom or Dad, a mug of hot cocoa, tea, or apple cider and a good book or maybe write your own story! You get a hand painted galvanized tub by Mrs. Johnson's 1st graders containing, 2 clear glass mugs, hot cocoa, chamomile tea, apple cider, 5 early reader Halloween themed books, a white board, other writing materials, and a book of personal suggestions for using the tub by each child in our class.

Get your hands on it before it's gone!

A special thank you to Mrs. Topps and Mrs. Rabe for organizing this wonderful project! The children had a lot of fun participating.

Have a great long weekend!