We worked on reading strategies this week. We started with the anchor chart, "How Can I Read Words?". When we know our sight words, it makes reading easier and we can read some words fast. Speaking of sight words, our sight words this week were come, down, pull and good.
The next reading strategy that we learned was looking at pictures to help us figure out the words.
Sometimes, pictures are not enough and we also have to look at the first letter of the word. If you look closely at the pocket chart, you will see that some pictures might have two choices for words, so it is important to look at the letters and match them to the pictures.
Beanie Babies help us remember the reading strategies. Stretchy the Snakes reminds us to stretch out the sounds in the words and then put them back together.
Eagle Eye reminds us to look at the pictures to help us know what the word is.
Lips the Fish teaches us to get our lips ready and say the first sound of the word. Then we read to the end. We go back to the beginning and reread to see if we can put a word in that would make sense.
Chunky Monkey reminds us to look for chunks in big words to help us to break the word down to smaller parts. We will continue with more reading strategies next week.
We worked on l blends this week. Some of the ones we focused on were bl, cl, pl, fl, gl and sl. We practiced by matching pictures to sounds in the pocket chart and also applying them to worksheets.
Nouns are people, places, things or animals. Verbs are action words. We sorted nouns and verbs in our pocket chart and talked about what makes up a sentence. We practiced finding nouns and verbs in the books we read.
After learning about parts of a sentence, we worked on writing sentences. We brainstormed a list of nouns (or the who part of our sentence) and added the what (or the action part of the sentence). Each student wrote a who/what that they created on a sentence strip. Some of them were very creative.
Each day, we added a new part to our chart and to our sentence strip. We added the where and the when. A culminating activity was to write a personal narrative using all four of these in a story. Students received a point for each one that the incorporated into the story. We have some very good writers in first grade.
Here are some of the books we enjoyed this week. We practiced making predictions, patterns in books, descriptive words, vowels, surprise endings/twists and things we need to do to become good readers.
We added two more poems to our poetry folder and learned actions that go along with some of them too. Here we are reading "I'm a Constant Learner".
A highlight of the week was our Traveling Tuesday science lessons. We switch classes with Mrs. Langham, Mrs. Hobbs and Mrs. Clark every Tuesday and get to learn 3 different science lessons. Mrs. Langham discussed the physical properties of solids. Mrs. Hobbs talked about molecules in solids, liquids and gases. Mrs. Clark talked about the physical properties of different liquids.
In Science this week, we continued to learn about matter. We made predictions and observations about what happens when you put water drops on different kinds of paper products. The water drops sat on top of the wax paper, but the water was absorbed by the others.
We also read the clues from our homework assignment and guessed the solid that was described. In our Logs, we sorted liquid and solid words. Here is what we did in Mrs. Hobbs' rotation for Traveling Tuesday.
In Social Studies this week, we read books about families from around the world. We talked about how even though we may speak a different language, eat different kinds of food, or wear different clothes, we have much in common.
We also read books about how technology, games, toys, and schools have changed. We got to play with some toys that have been around a l-o-n-g time.
We also cut out our leaves from the "Fall Senses" homework page and glued them to construction paper that we decorated. These beautiful poems are decorating our hallway. We read a funny innovation of a classic story.
In Mathematics, we played some new games that focused on making number combinations. When we learn a new game we always use smaller numbers, that way we focus on "how" to play. The next time we play the game we can choose the numbers to use. This week we played Three Towers & Heads and Tails. Before we used the pennies, we used our observation skills.
We also found number combinations using dot cube pips. This was a brain booster.
We also solved Math story problems. One was about flowers and the other was about cookies. We heard a funny story about a tough cookie.
When we complete our assignments, we check our Work in Progress. If we have none, we get to choose what to do.
We are working hard and having fun in first grade!
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