Current Month

December 14-18th

Math Report: We have started exploring place value and played a new game that focused on unitizing. Unitizing is understanding that numbers can be arranged in groups and that these groups can then in turn be counted as individual units. For example, five fingers can be grouped together to make a hand. Then hands can be counted such that three hands can be counted to be the equivalent of fifteen fingers. When the groups contain ten items we can use them as the basis of the ten-based counting system which provides the foundation for place value. We also explored place value through place value snowflakes! We had a great week and enjoyed our time together.

Reading and Writing Report: We worked on reading books like The Story of Snow by Mark Cassino and Jon Nelson to continue our nonfiction reading unit. In writing we read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats to inspire snow stories and to think about the upcoming winter break!

Thematic Unit Report: We concluded our Wild Weather Unit! We explored cold weather and reflected on what we learned as a class during the unit as a whole.

Recess Fun!

December 7th-11th

Math Report: This week we created math comics and explored Book Creator. It was great fun and they beautifully represented their understanding of addition and subtraction problems both with unknown totals and unknown partners. Unit 3 came to a conclusion and we began Unit 4. Unit 4 begins place value and I am thrilled to see that so many of the first graders are experts already! We will be breezing through this unit. We played new games, we worked together and independently and we demonstrated great math understanding!

Reading and Writing Report: Our biggest highlight in reading workshop this week was celebrating all of our accomplishments with a reading party. We pretended to be grownups at a tea party and got really fancy. We talked about our books that we are reading. The topics circled through gems, fossils, ancient cultures, museums, mysteries about ancient cultures, how ancient Egyptians worshipped cats, how many of us love cats, and there are so many different breeds of cats and dogs...all from our nonfiction unit in first grade! In writing, we continued our work with small moments and practiced perfecting our endings to keep it within a small moment. We read Salt Hands by Jane Chelsea Aragon for inspiration--many of the first graders said it was a beautiful story.

Thematic Unit Report: Learning about how to measure weather was our task this week. We learned how to create and read a thermometer. We explored rain gauges and learned how important it is to keep data and make our own rain gauges. We also learned about different ways to measure the wind and made our own wind socks!

Some Fun Pictures From the Home! It has been so nice to see some beautiful first grade smiles!