Reaction to Door Decoration Winning

Unfortunately the Halloween celebration schedule wasn't decided/shared until after Parent-Teacher conferences were scheduled so I was in a conference when the winners were announced but thanks to the PTA volunteers we can see the student's excited reactions:

Week 9 - Egg Drop and Halloween

Halloween!

First grade worked very hard to decorate the spookiest Halloween door. Ms. Shirai made a sky and ground backdrop and put up spider web then the students brainstormed what might be found in a Halloween scene. They came up with ideas like jack-o-lantern, cat on broomstick, gravestones, haunted houses, monsters, and bats. Then they all got to work making things to put in the scene. We are so proud of what we created!

Before (Ms. Shirai sets the scene with a student-made moon):

After (all student made!)

And....we won the door decorating contest!

Our texture monsters where we explored the elements of line, pattern and texture enhanced our Halloween mood.

Us!

Egg Drop

This week the students did the egg drop STEM challenge!

Skills:

• define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool
• develop a simple sketch to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem

Problem:

To create a container that will prevent a raw egg from cracking when dropped from a high place. 

  

Steps

1. Design your own egg protector.
2. Put your designs together as a group to create a group design.
3. Write about how you used the materials and possible problems.
4. Build!
5. Look at each device and predict which will protect the egg and which might not. Write why.
6. Drop!
7. Inspect and note which predictions were correct and which weren't. Think and talk about why.

This challenge is to get our brains beginning to think about our next Unit of Inquiry: How The World Works. 

Home Learning

A common question during reading conferences was how to structure the 20 minutes of reading time every day. I suggest choosing 2 ways to read from below and doing about 10 minutes of each:

• independent reading
• listening to reading 
• reading together with a parent or older sibling (if possible)
• reading to a younger sibling

Some options for listening to reading:

Kids A-Z

EPIC has a 30 day free trial

Storyline has celebrities reading picture books.

Audio books can be found at Storynory

International Children’s Digital Library: "A library for the world's children," this site contains thousands of books in more than 60 languages.

Don't forget to check out the blog post on the weekly Word Study homework routine please!

Have a wonderful Fall Break!

Word Study

On Tuesday every week, First Graders will be bringing home a collection of spelling words that have been introduced in class. These are developmentally appropriate and specific to your child. The program is called Words Their Way. Each night of the week they are expected to do a different activity to ensure that these words and the spelling principles they represent are mastered. For example, if the student can spell CAT or BAT they can also spell SAT, MAT, RAT, THAT, PAT, etc. The sort is modeled on Tuesday in class so your student knows how to do it. 

Tuesday: Do the word sort they did in class again at home and glue it into their book. The sort should be cut and in the bag at the back of their blue Word Study notebook. Group word families (words that rhyme).  

Wednesday - Friday: Pick one of the six activities from the Choice Board in the front cover of their Word Study notebook to practice with each night. 

Monday: Return your notebook to Ms. Shirai.

Thank you for taking the time to work with your child! 

Halloween Celebration Friday!

We will be celebrating Halloween on let last day in October before the break - this Friday!

Our stellar PTA will be coming around to classrooms to give treats and there will be an in-classroom vote for spookiest and coolest costume so please dress up if you can!

First grade has their extended PE block that afternoon, so if the costume is difficult to be active in, please bring some gym clothes to change into at lunch recess. 

Week 8 - Wrapping Up Our Who We Are Unit on Senses

First grade has been wrapping up our unit on the senses by thinking about how we might live in the world without one or more of our senses. We learned a little about Helen Keller, Ray Charles, and Louis Braille. We were also introduced to Frank Morris and his guide dog Buddy. We have been singing the song "Make New Friends" with sign language and practiced the ASL alphabet by learning how to spell our own names. 

It has been exciting to hear about the actions students are taking at home. Some have told me about noticing the guides at train station or guide dogs for helping the visually impaired. Many have told me about using their taste and sense of touch to explore foods. To help wrap up the line of inquiry about how we can live without one or more of the senses, the home learning this weekend is for students to notice and either photograph or draw braille, signals with sound and other things that help people who have lost one or more of their senses. 

In literacy we have been working on our spelling through word sorts, writing personal narratives in Writer's Workshop, and practicing talking with our reading partners about characters and settings in Reader's Workshop.

In maths we continued our exploration of 2D shapes by identifying, naming, describing, and comparing triangles, hexagons and trapezoids using their attributes (sides, vertices). We created composite shapes by composing 2D shapes.

In arts, we are learning elements of lines and patterns to create "texture monsters".  

Week 7 - How We Care for Our Senses

First Grade honed their skills of Communication and Self-Management by creating a skit to teach others how to care for their senses! We learned how each person in a group has a job to do that helps the whole group.

In maths, along with our usual number sense practice, we used our sense of sight to sort 2D shapes and describe the attributes of a shape using the language of geometry. We inquired, "What is a rectangle?" and after initially describing a shape with 4 sides and 4 corners, I drew a trapezoid. Then they realized they had to use more specific language. We finally concluded a rectangle had 4 corners and 4 parallel lines, 2 that were the same and 2 that were longer. 

In writers workshop, we continued our small moments narrative writing learning that writers stay in the moment even at the end of their book and beginning our writing partnerships. In readers workshop, we practiced more ways to partner read (choral and see-saw). 

This week we also learned the fifth Life Skill to keep us and others safe: 

Be respectful: I treat others how I want to be treated.
Our Question: Are you being polite or rude?

Here’s your family mission:

As a family, begin to look for how your family is polite. Record three ways your family practices being respectful. 

TIP:

The difference between being respectful and careful is that being careful is a physical action whereas being respectful also occurs in speech.

Friday we celebrated a bit of Oktoberfest! We celebrated by making Alpine hats and eating pretzels provided by the PTA. 

Parent Teacher Conferences

19th - 23rd October

Online

You will receive invitations for our PTCs shortly, when you will be able to meet with your homeroom teacher and see how your child has settled into the new school year. 

Please note - we will hold all meetings online. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Week 6 - Safe Pockets

This week in first grade we started to learn about 5 life skills that keep us and everyone around us safe:

This week we talked about being helpful, careful, patient, and responsible. Next week we will talk about the last skill: being respectful. 

Every day we look for students displaying these 5 skills and make it the basis of conversations we have about keeping ourselves and others safe. When a student cannot make appropriate choices, then their kangaroo will leave their safe pocket and go into mine. It stays there until I see that child making the right choices.

For example, I might see a child grab a paper from another child’s hand. “Riley, is that polite or rude? Grabbing another person’s work is disrespectful. Jamie has worked hard on that paper. Move your kangaroo into my Safe Pocket.”

After the student moves their kangaroo, I require a right act. I acknowledge the right choice and the kangaroo goes back into their safe pocket quickly.

The Safe Pocket is based on teaching children new life skills and gives new chances in every moment to self-­correct. 

Home Connections:

Being Helpful

My words and actions help not hurt others. Our Question: Are you being helpful or hurtful?

Family Mission:
Discuss the importance as a family to be helpful to one another. “Catch” your child being helpful in words or actions.

Being Careful

I treat friends and things in a gentle way. Are you being gentle or rough?

Family Mission:
Discuss the importance of being careful with your belongings and your family members.

“Catch” your child being careful with household belongings and their toys.

Being Responsible

I do the right thing and can be trusted to do what needs to be done.

Our question: Are you being trustworthy or careless?

Family mission: 

Discuss the importance of being trustworthy and doing what needs to be done even if no one is looking or telling you to. For example, bringing dishes to the kitchen when they are finished eating or picking up something they see on the floor and putting it away instead of walking past or stepping on it.

Alternative: Give your child a "job" to do at home each day and track/reward them for doing their job!

Continuing our unit on Who We Are, the students tried out what it might be like to lose one of their senses. We also started to put everything together by asking ourselves What [have we learned?]? So what [seems important here]? Now what [should we do with what we've learned]?

In language, we have been building our knowledge of spelling through Word Sorts at our just right level. In readers workshop we are learning different ways to partner read. In Writer's Workshop, we are starting to practice taking a big watermelon idea and turning it into a seed idea. 

In maths, we are practicing:

• solving addition story problems with sums to 20 with situations of adding to and putting together, with unknowns in all positions
• using strategies to add with sums to 20
• solve for the unknown in an addition equation involving 3 whole numbers
• modeling with mathematics
• using appropriate tools strategically

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend!