Butterfly House Field Trip

Butterfly House Field Trip

Literacy Night

irst Grade Literacy Night
                               Wednesday, Oct. 4th

          6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

 First Grade students are developing their enthusiasm for reading. As they continue to grow as readers, we are inviting all 16-17 first grade families to be a part of a special night about reading at home with your child. At Literacy Night, we will discuss just-right books, reading strategies, and introduce the take-home library. You might even see some super reading heroes in action!

Wydown Reading Buddies

On Early Release days the students wear community team shirts and meet in teams throughout the building. We work on learning about each other and finding our similarities. These teams or "families" provide opportunities for students to make cross grade level connections and work on character activities together.

In addition, we had some Wydown Middle School students come to read with our first grade students. The Middle school students will come every Early Release day for the rest of the year and the students will work on literacy activities.

Reading Bags

Reading Book Bags

Starting Monday, September 25, your child will begin bringing home a book to read each night that she or he has chosen from their book box. I check in with everyone quickly to see their choices. Usually, students choose books they can read, knowing most of the words.

We keep a Parent Communication Sheet in the reading bag, so that if you can communicate with me to share your observations and comments. Please don’t feel the need to comment daily, just now and then, or as needed.

The reading book bags are blue. Books should come home each night and be returned the next day.

Thank you for helping us build joy and stamina around reading books!

First Grade Literacy Night

Wednesday, October 4,

6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Captain Library

First Grade is a time when we guide children to develop a love for reading. Captain's first grade students and parents are invited to a special night about reading at home with your child - Literacy Night. We will discuss just-right books, reading strategies, and introduce the take-home book bags. You might even see some super reading heroes in action!

Tricky Word Strategies

Many parents tell kids to "sound it out", but kids don't know what that means. If adults use more specific prompts,  then children will be able to use all they know to figure out the word.
Try these Tricky Word Strategies to help kids figure out unknown words.

Adding on Games

Students are playing games to help them learn addition facts. We roll two dice and add the numbers together. The students are practicing saying the bigger number and then counting up. For example the students rolls a six(6) and three(3). He/she would say 6 then say 7, 8, 9.  The answer is 9. I have them do this so they can see/hear that 6 and 3 more are 9.
We played Race to 20 by rolling and adding two dice. Learning to take turns and deciding who goes first is a skill many students are still working on in first grade.
Next, we played on a Candy Land game board.  The students rolled two dice and moved their plastic dinosaur that many spots. Counting on from a spot is still hard for many students as they want to count the spot they are on before they move forward. We talked about how moving a piece forward is like walking forward.   For example, if my piece is already on 7 and my dice shows 6 + 3 = 9 then I move my piece forward starting at number 8. I don't count the number my piece is already on.

Mealworm Playtime

Today we got out our mealworms and played with them. We gave them another carrot and made sure they were comfy. We found out that they wiggle, tickle and move fast.

Counselor Visits

We will have Mrs. Crystal Taylor come to our class to do lessons on How to get along and be an advocate for our feelings and needs this year. One main take away from today's lesson is fixing the problem that one creates.  We are teaching that it is not enough to just say, "I'm sorry" when we hurt our friends. We also have to ask, "How can I fix it?" One student today said that she needed for the person to say something nice that they like about her to make her feel okay along with saying "I'm Sorry."  This goes right along with our work on Filling Each Others Buckets. Please see August newsletter post.

Word Work

Students have been working on beginning letter consonant sounds and letters Bb and Dd. These two letters are often reversed in writing and confused. We used poetry, songs, handwriting and word work to refresh our memories about these two tricky letters.  In the coming weeks, we will work on the hard Cc and the Ss letters/sounds followed by the Jj and Gg letter/sounds before we start short vowel Aa.

Discovery Time

During Discovery Time from 8:40 to 9:00 on A, B, and D days the students were able to create with Legos or draw. At the end of each session the students are able to do a gallery walk. They look at each others work and ask questions and give complements. The language the students use to share, negotiate and praise each other is wonderful! In Addition, Students are working on wonderfully frustrating puzzles like square by square and Traffic Jam from Think Fun.  Next week, I will add shape by shape and Q-Bits from Think-Fun. Growing our brains and learning persistance helps develop a growth mindset!

Mealworms

Mealworm

In Science we are learning about insects. The first insect we are studying is the Mealworm. Mealworms are the larva of beetles. Mealworms go through 4 life stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult beetle. The eat meal such as wheat meal, oat meal, or rye meal. The get their water through plants like potatoes and carrots. Mealworms burrow in their food and do not like light. Each student will get a habitat on his or her desk and is in charge of taking care of the mealworm. Usually, many children will even name their mealworms!

August Newsletter

School Day 13:      Thursday,  August 31, 2017

Routines:
We have had a terrific beginning of the year. We have been spending time establishing our norms and first grade routines. The children are learning how important it is to transition quietly and  to speak in a low tone of voice to help create a calm learning environment with our open classrooms. We are trying to fill each others buckets with kindness. All of the children are doing a great job.
Literacy:
We are starting to practice our routines for Reading Workshop in the
morning. Our morning consists of:
A. Opening:  Attendance, lunch count, kids "shopping" for new books to read
B. Morning Meeting/Calendar
C. Reading Workshop
1. Reading mini-lesson
2. *Independent reading-  teacher is conferring with students or pulling a reading group
3. Partner reading- teacher is conferring
4. Share out our good work and story
5. Handwriting
6. Work-work (spelling patterns)

*We have been building our stamina for independent reading.  Just like running a marathon, the children have been practicing so they can build up their stamina. Our goal for the Fall is to read for 20 minutes quietly each day in first grade while the teacher confers with students. By spring the goal is 45 minutes of independent reading.*

Word Work/Spelling- Children learn the spelling patterns in first grade to better help them understand how words work and apply this knowledge to their writing. We are beginning our work with tricky consonant sounds like d versus b. We read poems, sing songs and sort picture cards to help train the ear to hear the sound. Next we will learn the difference between hard c and s.
Please have your child practice reading and spelling correctly sight words:
the, is, was, and, they

Handwriting- Legible handwriting is our goal in first grade. We will practice handwriting everyday the first quarter. Please, encourage your child to use correct letter formations and good handwriting on homework, too!

Math: Math in Focus is the curriculum in all elementary schools in Clayton.
We started Chapter 2: Number Bonds up to 10  this week.  Number bonds is a way for students to visualize numbers and decompose (break apart) and compose (make) numbers.

Being able to visualize numbers is the key, and giving the students a graphic like the number bound is one way to help them do this.









Another way for students to think about numbers is to play “Bears in a Cave” If I have 5 bears (cubes or beans) and 2 are outside the cup (cave) how many went in to the cup/cave? (3)

Did you know that all children have access to Think Central the Math in Focus website?
https://www-k6.thinkcentral.com/ePC/start.do
This website has lots of resources for you or your child to help with math.
 Just login using your child’s name:
firstnamelastname and the password: cgmcgm11.



Social Studies: We will finish our first unit How Do We Get Along  this week. So far we learned how important it is to follow rules, be kind and solve problems peacefully.

We will talk about "filling some one's bucket" which means being kind to someone. If we forget, then we talk about how the other person feels- usually bad or sad. Plus, we talk about how we feel when we are not nice- usually bad or sad. Developing empathy in our students allows them to understand how the other person is feeling.

Books about Bucket Filling

Next Up: Science!!! We will study the life cycle of mealworms (beetles),  butterflies and plants for our insect unit.

Look for Scholastic Book Orders to come home.  
Scholastic Book orders are DUE:  next Friday, Sept. 15th

If you order, there are 2 ways to pay:
A) Return order sheet and a check made out to Scholastic.
B) Online order with your credit card.
1. go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
2. use my class activation code: fmr3g
3. shop and pay.

We read lots of books this week on what it means to do our best in school and how to behave.  The students learned that some rules are the same for everyone at our school. The students then made their own class norms and signed the "contract". These are suggested rules that they needed in order to learn. They came up with:

Be Nice

Listen

Share

Silent and walk  in Halls

Raise our hands

 Next, we made a school rules sheet to help parents know our norms at Captain.