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Week 13: November 15th-19th, 2021

Math Report: Number comparisons and story problems filled our math days this week! We solved "Put Together/Take Apart" story problems with unknowns in different positions, and solved problems that used number comparisons to find the difference. Difference was our new math vocabulary word this week. We practiced matching addition and subtraction equations to story problems, and we wrote our own equations to match. We were encouraged to write more than one equation for each story problem. We took time to practice our addition and subtraction fluency with games like Capture Squares, What's Behind My Back, and Shake and Spill. We learned a new version of Capture Squares to find the difference, rather than add. We ended the week with defending our thinking and representing our understanding through making posters to demonstrate how we matched equations to pictures. Sometimes, it was noticed, that multiple equations worked for one story problem! The flexibility in mathematical thinking is outstanding!

Language Arts Report: The week began with a dive into a beautiful story of The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. In this story, a little house is the main character and undergoes lots of change. It maps out her feelings throughout. We were asked to reflect on our own homes, and wonder what we do to support our space, appreciate where we are, and demonstrate empathy towards others. We thought about our integrated unit project of building our homes. We thought about how we could add the warmth, character, and love of our homes to our building. The results are beautiful! The rest of the week we focused on building new strategies for solving hard words (breaking them apart and crashing them together). We learned that readers never give up, just like in the story, The Little Engine That Could. It was also a focus to use tools like writing to understand the words. We ended with a fun partner game of guessing a covered word. In writing workshop, we focused on fixing up our writing, or editing. Book Creator was introduced as a new tool to publish stories. We also reviewed that writing can take many forms and read the Frog and Toad story The List, by Arnold Lobel. We also enjoyed another author visit! We listened to the story, Dream Street by Tricia Elam Walker & Ekua Holmes. We learned how they worked together to craft an incredibly beautiful story--a story that resonated with the first grade experience.

Integrated Unit: Homes, homes, homes! We read more stories to inspire us to think about our homes' characters, and kept on building. We read Windows by Julia Denos, and Home by Carson Ellis. We talked about what makes our home special to us and how we can represent that to others. The author visit, and read aloud of Dream Street, was a perfect addition to our unit. We will be putting the homes all together to make a map over the next two days!

Lego Club: We read Jon Klassen's, I Want My Hat Back, and were challenged to make our own hats! So much fun!

P.E. Report: We played Defend the Pin!

More Fun!

Week 12: November 8th-12th, 2021

Math Report: In our math lessons, we interpreted and solved problems that compared quantities for the first time. Comparing problems were a bit tricky because until now, we have only interpreted subtraction as taking apart or taking from. These problems required us to find the difference between quantities. For example, we compared the number of connecting cubes in two towers, so we could see the difference as we added or subtracted cubes to make both towers have the same number of cubes. We also worked on comparisons within word or story problems. To practice understanding the language and fully comprehend the questions being asked, we carefully analyzed the story problem and read it multiple times. This practice allowed us to answer "what if.." or "I wonder..." statements. We also spent some time revisiting data collecting and answered questions about comparing the numbers using words like "more," "most," "fewer," and "fewest." Finally, we explored addition and subtraction by finding two equations that match a story problem and describe how each equation relates to the story problem.

Language Arts Report: In reading this week, we read with partners, groups, and on our own. We worked on talking about books, learning how to discuss characters, relate stories to our own lives, and connect with each other about our likes and dislikes of the written word. We also learned more strategies to use meaning to figure out tricky words by looking at the sentence as a whole, using the picture and other context cues, and to think about what the story is about. Furthermore, we then always need to double-check our understanding and practice asking reflecting questions about the reading work. We worked on learning digraphs, sentence structure, and tapping out sounds to make sure we are using our phonemic awareness to spell every day! In writing workshop, we learned that writing is not just writing stories. Writing is everywhere! We use writing for different tasks. Sometimes we write lists to remind ourselves or others about necessities, sometimes we write letters to friends and family, sometimes we write a quick note to someone we love to share how much we love them, sometimes we write long stories, true stories, fantasy stories, short stories, and we can even use writing to share what we did in school all week (the Griffin Gazette); the possibilities are endless. We touched on the variety together as a class by using a story we had already written and found new ways to express or thinking. We enjoyed a literature rich week with lots of read alouds as well which are pictured below. Be sure to ask your first-grader for a quick summary!

Integrated Unit Report: We are building up a storm! We have boxes galore in the classroom to build our houses and homes and public spaces. We will come away from this project understanding that together we create a community. A community consists of individuals with families who practice unique rituals and customs, who can come together with all our differences to find commonalities and to enjoy one another. We all play important roles in our community. We will map out our homes to more fully understand the relationship between our spaces. We are building a foundational understanding of how maps are used, and why, we are understanding how maps can be represented in a multitude of ways. This project also enhances our ability to problem-solve, make mistakes, and practice thinking about ourselves in relation to others.

Lego Club and More Fun: In Lego Club, we continued our understanding of maps and various interpretations of maps. We read Laura Carlin's A World of Your Own, which talks about ways to create unique maps that indulge our fantasy. We worked on building our own worlds. Perhaps we wanted to improve what our school looked like, or our homes, or our neighborhoods. We thought about ways to be creative within the confines of a real space we know something about. We also enjoyed our recess time, some free drawing time, and enjoyed one another.

P.E. Report: In P.E. this week, we played hula-hoop knock out with second grade, took turns leading warm-ups, and we played Build Your Score, where we had to use our addition skills! We added up our points from each completed "pass and catch" in a hula-hoop. We also practiced our rhythm and movement and played a game called bucket ball.

Week 11: November 1st-5th, 2021

Math Report: Our big work this week has been composing and decomposing numbers in more than one way and representing these decompositions with fingers, manipulatives, drawings, and equations. We examined unknown addends and totals, we looked at "put-together" and "take-apart" math equations in games and story problems. This stretched our brains to explore the different places the total can be represented in an equation, which strengthened our understanding of the equal sign. One game was called "Shake and Spill, Cover." This was tons of fun and reminded many students of the game "What's Behind My Back?" We ended the week with a spectacular game called Capture Squares. This practiced our math fluency skills, but also challenged us to use strategy to capture more squares. It was a great way to end a busy week! We also read some math stories including, Mouse Count by Ellen Walsh!

Language Arts Report: This week started with examining a tough subject through the reading of The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson. This book focuses on how a friendship can emerge despite the unjust and cruel world of racial inequality. We then discussed how the characters may have felt when grown-ups told them they couldn't play together, and what it means to be treated unfairly and unjustly based on your skin color. More importantly, we ended with how first-graders should engage with the world around them--to speak up when they may see this type of inequality, to always be kind and never exclude, and to ask questions! We also were lucky to participate in a virtual author visit! It was so exciting to see the author Phillip C. Stead talk about his new book and learn about his family and their artistic process. So many personal connections were made! We also worked on reading strategies in Reading Workshop to look at all the parts of the words. This was modeled with our favorite characters, Gossie and Gertie. Tapping out the sounds will help readers decode, read smoothly, and enunciate words clearly. We even learned that our partners can be teachers too to help us remember reading habits. In writing workshop, we talked about doing similar work! It is always exciting when our lessons are integrated and connected. We focused on spelling the best we can, using the sounds we know and hear, and doing the best we can, so we can get our stories out for the world to hear. It was certainly a busy literature week, but it was great fun.

Integrated Unit: Maps, Maps, Maps! We are starting out neighborhood building project! We took a walk around the Roycemore neighborhood to notice things and buildings that might support a community. We will work on creating a blueprint next week! The book, Look Where We Live! By Scot Ritchie was a great introduction to community helpers and community building.

Lego Club: The book we read was Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. It is such a beautiful story about a child's energy and imagination. We used this to launch our challenge of playing musical chairs, but with monster creations. Each child was asked to build a monster while the music played, but when the music stopped they had to pass their monster creation to the next person in their group.

P.E. Report: First Graders continued their rhythm and movement practice in PE this week. It was so much fun!

More Excitement: We had a lot of fun on Thursday with a visit from Roycemore parents to facilitate a Diwali celebration with read alouds, dance moves, and arts and crafts. We also enjoyed recess outside this week.