We began our Making Words activity this week. Daily, we are given letters and we practice blending them to make new words. We change initial, medial and final sounds and practice our rhyming and word families through this activity. The students really enjoy trying to figure out the words too.
Another phonics activity that we began this week was word families. We worked on the "at" word family by making the words in a pocket chart.
We read a book with lots of "at" words in it and then played a riddle game.
Then we made a word family folder so that we will have a collection of our word families to help us as a reference throughout the year.
We also practiced the same thing with the "an" word family this week.
We read the book Animal Alphabet as a review of our letters and sounds. We also reviewed our kindergarten sight words.
We began our handwriting program this week. We use Handwriting Without Tears throughout the school. We worked on pencil grip and correct posture. We practiced our "frog jump" letters and played a mystery alphabet game.
During Reader's Workshop this week, we learned about Elbow Partners. Elbow Partners are classmates that are sitting near us (they touch our elbows when we put them on our hips). Each student was assigned an elbow partner to engage them in book talks. We started by creating an anchor chart to set the foundation for our talks.
We practiced Turn and Talk (when we need to answer a longer response) and Lean and Tell (when we respond with a short answer). The students enjoyed practicing and talking about their favorite characters or favorite part of a story. Here they are practicing Turn and Talk.
We read the book, Maybe a Bear Ate It to remind us how to care for our books.
We read Noisy Nora to remind us to be patient when Mrs. Langham is working with other students and to remind us to keep our voices down.
We practiced reading to ourselves, the first part of Daily 5. We read the book Reading Makes You Feel Good, to help set the tone for reading. We learned that we can read all by ourselves and we can read anywhere. We enjoyed being able to choose a spot to read in the classroom while Mrs. Langham is working with students.
We learned about the different parts of a book and we made an anchor chart to help us learn them.
We learned about characters in a book.
Mrs. Langham read us the book, The Two of Them and we identified the characters in the story. Mrs. Langham had a good cry while reading this story about a grandfather who takes care of his granddaughter and later on the granddaughter takes care of a dying grandfather in the same way that he had cared for her. I guess it hit a little too close to home now that I'm a grandma. After crying, we talked about how really good authors tell stories from their hearts and how sometimes, really good stories can make you cry.
We talked about what a setting is.
We read the book, Canoe Days and identified the setting in this story.
We tied all of these things together (character, setting and parts of a book) by learning a song called "Parts of a Story". Click on the link below to go to a video of this song.
Parts of a Story Link
Another book we read to help us learn that when writing stories, it is better to write about our own experiences and what we like or know about was exhibited in the book, Mr. Putter and Tabby Write the Book. Mr. Putter wanted to write a book about the mystery at lighthouse cove, but he didn't know anything about it. He ended up writing about familiar things and wrote a very good story.
Another great example of a book that shows you should write from the heart is The Best Story Ever. After being told by several people about the kind of story she should write, the main character ends up writing a story about things that SHE likes. We practiced writing stories about things from our heart and we have some really great authors already in first grade!
On Monday, I will be sending home book bags with each student. Your child will bring home one book on their instructional reading level each night (Monday-Thursday). They should practice reading the book several times to you to gain fluency and master reading this book. The book is to be returned the next day in the book bag so that your child can bring home a new book. Thank you for being careful with these books and reminding your child to return these daily.
Here is a look at our "Can Do" list for Mathematics choices. Before we begin we always check our Work in Progress Folders and complete any unfinished assignments.
This week we played Roll and Record. We rolled two dot cubes, added the pips, and then recorded the sum. The next step will be comparing our results.
Collect 20 is a game that we can play with a partner. We roll a dot cube and get that many counters. Our partner rolls and adds that amount. We keep playing until we have 20 counters. We had a discussion about the many ways we can keep track of how many counters we have. Some of us recount the pile with each toss. Others keep the last total in their mind and count up. Still others count by 2's. All of us then used a twenty frame as a tool to keep track and found that it really sped the game up! Some pairs finished the game in less than 47 seconds! Math tools make our work easier.
Domino Parking Lot is a game we can play with a partner. We turned over a domino, counted the pips, and then placed it on the correct parking space on the game mat. We had a discussion about how we get to the total. Some of us count by 1's or 2's. Others put the biggest amount in their mind and count up. There are so many ways we can get to the same answer.
Quick Images is a new activity where we look at an array of dots and then record what we saw. This helps our brains see parts that connect to the whole. (The mathematical term is subitizing.) Also, this week we filled out a Back to School graph that told more about us. We solved and shared story problems. We chose the numbers that were in the problems. The books we read in Mathematics this week all showed us how important it is to have a plan in order to solve a problem. Sometimes plans work and sometimes we need to change them.
In Science we explored the many tools a scientist uses to make their work easier and then talked about how we can be safe using the tools. In our Logs we wrote three rules for Science that we all agreed to:
* listen to the teacher
* use tools correctly
* be careful
We heard a funny book that is all about being safe.
In Social Studies we talked about our names and how important they are. We made colorful patterns with our names. One of our favorite books of the week is about a girl with a v-e-r-y long name!
We also revisited one of our favorite friends Pete the Cat. This time he was rockin' in his school shoes. He reminds us that no matter what, "it's all good". We completed a diagram (scientists use them) that showed what listening on the carpet looks like.
You can visit Pete below.
Pete the Cat
The highlight of the week was going to the library. We really like books and we love our library! First graders get to check out two books for two weeks. We are so responsible.
Thanks again for coming to Back to School Night. Remember to click on the post to your homeroom "conference schedule" that is at the top of our blog homepage and email us your preferred time. We will send you a confirmation. Be on the look out for the Scholastic Book Club orders coming home Monday! Yippee!
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