September Newsletter

LITERACY:
In Reading Workshop we have finished our first unit, Readers Build Good Habits. The students learned how to decode tricky words with many different strategies.
Tricky Word Strategies
1. Look at the Picture
2. Get your mouth ready for the beginning sound
3. Look through the word to the end...
4. Go back to the beginning of the sentences and Get a running Start....
5. Read around the word, "What would make sense?"
6. Look for Chunks you know.
Students have been working on stamina (reading long and strong) with their books. Your child should be bringing home a book or two almost daily in the Blue Reading Bag. Having a just right book to read at home helps build fluency and comprehension.  Be sure to ask your child to retell the story when they are finished reading. You could ask other comprehension questions after reading such as: Where is the setting?, What was your favorite part? Why? or Why did the character do that?
Understanding the story and Making Meaning is the key to reading!

SPELLING: We just started learning about and practicing the short vowel A.   Many activities focus on the sound of the letter, how the words look in text and application in their writing.
LOOK FOR in October: Students will start bringing home sight words to learn and be tested. 
We will continue this for the first semester.
First Set of Words:   the, was, and, it

WRITING: We are writing true small moment stories. We are learning all stories have a beginning, middle and an ending. We are learning to start our stories with: One day, Over the weekend, Last Night, Yesterday, One day, etc. We are learning to end our stories with what we think, feel or dialogue. We are writing a lot of details stretching out the story bit by bit. Next, we will help the characters come alive by writing with action and dialogue.

Partner Work: 
We continue to practice our listening and sharing skills on the carpet during teaching and in partner work. Learning to value others ideas, listen to another and share thinking is important for success in school.  These partners are used for reading, writing and math. We do change partners every few weeks so students learn to work with more then just their friends. We get new partners about every 2-3 weeks so by the end of the year every child has had every student in the class as his or her partner.
Partners sit next to one another in a group of 4 desks.

MATH:
We finished Chapter 3 Addition up to ten and will finish Chapter 4, Subtraction up to 10 next week. October 6th. Being able to compose (make) and decompose (take away) numbers up to ten fluently helps students as they work on harder math skills. The goal is to be able to visualize the numbers in their heads and move between addition and subtraction with ease.  Many websites are available to help with this skill. One we use in school is:

http://gregtangmath.com/games.html

www.prodigygame.com   Class code: F9A683


SCIENCE:
We have been waiting for  our meal worms grow from larvas to pupas and then into beetles. Next week, we will get our Painted Lady Butterfly caterpillars.  Learning about the life cycle of living things is fascinating to the children. IN Addition, we  planted brassica(fast plant). These plants allow the students to see the complete life cycle in an efficient timeline. We will study about pumpkins and apples to go along with plant life cycle at the end of October.

Upcoming Dates:
Wednesday, October 3rd- Faust Park/Butterfly House Field Trip 9 a.m
Friday, October 5th,- 8:45 a.m. CHS Band to celebrate Homecoming
Thursday, October 11th- Picture Retake Day
Thursday, October 11th- Scholastic book Orders Due
Friday, October 12th No School- Teacher Prep. for Conferences
Monday, Oct. 15 through Thursday, Oct. 18- Parent Teacher Conferences
Thursday, October 18th- Early Release
Friday, October 19th- No School
Wednesday, October 31st, Halloween Party and Parade starting at 1:30

Scholastic Book Orders will be coming home. Orders are due: Thursday, October 11th.

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.

Addition and Subtraction Strategies

Most students can memorize the addition and subtraction math fact.
However, knowing how they got the answer and being able to apply that knowledge to harder math problems helps them in the upper grades and beyond.
Here are some strategies that we teach in class:

Literacy Night

Mrs. Cavett Counseling Lessons

Mrs. Cavettt comes to our class throughout the year to talk about how special we are. Her goals are for students to recognize they are special and diversity is to be celebrated.

Literacy Night

First Grade Literacy Night
                               Monday, Sept. 17th

          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 18-19 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!

Poet visit- Joe Mohr

Poet and Author Joe Mohr visited our classroom today.  He is a Clayton parent, published author and is in a band.  http://www.joemohr.com/

To see the video of Joe's Song. Superfluous

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!

We have the first pupa.

The mealworm sheds its skin to reveal it is a pupa now.

Number Bonds

Number bonds is a way for students  to visualize numbers and compose/decompose 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 9 bears (cubes or beans)  and 6 are outside the cup (cave) how many went in to the cup/cave? "(3)

Students can access gregtangmath.com for great math games. 

These are the games that are perfect for first grade students right now.