April
Week of 4/22-4/26
This week we read:
Snail Crossing
Thank You, Earth
The Secret Shortcut
Something Incredible Inside of You
In ELA we:
Reviewed long vowels.
Built and wrote words with vowel-consonant-e patterns and a suffix -s.
Reviewed trick words.
Wrote about what we can do to help the Earth.
Wrote about our favorite U.S. symbol and gave reasons to support our opinion.
In Math we:
Reviewed doubles and doubles plus or minus one facts.
Reviewed several different addition strategies: doubles (6+6), doubles plus or minus one (6+7), add ten (10+4), add nine (9+4), and make a ten (7+3). Students determined what type of strategy could be used to solve different equations. We made a chart with examples of the different strategies.
Reviewed and played our previously learned work places.
Learned a new work place where students had to solve an equation with a missing addend or subtrahend.
Continued to discuss symmetry in Number Corner.
Continued to collect popsicle sticks and use tally marks to find the total for the week.
Practiced identifying ten more and ten less than a given number in Number Corner.
In Science we:
Learned about Earth Day! We had a presentation by the Wayland Rotary Club where we learned about trees and each student received an arborvitae seedling.
In Social Studies we:
Learned about visible and invisible identities. We read Something Incredible Inside of You and watched a video made by Ms. Charton and other Claypit staff members about their visible and invisible identities. Students were very thoughtful and reflective while making their own identity cards. Many students were eager to share some or all of their identity card and we learned some new things about each other.
Week of 4/8-4/12
This week we read:
The Very Impatient Caterpillar
The Little Butterfly that Could
Goodnight Butterfly
The Gecko and the Echo
Mount Rushmore
The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
Should I Share My Ice Cream read by Hannah's brother!
In ELA we:
Reviewed the vowel-consonant-e pattern and practiced building, reading, and writing these words.
Reviewed our trick words.
Worked on sentence building with emphasis on punctuation and capitalization.
Worked on our All About books. Many students put the finishing touches on their books this week! Students who were finished with their All About books also wrote Weekend News and wrote facts about another animal after looking at an informational book.
In Math we:
Learned the subtraction strategies take away, count up, and working from an addition fact. Having different strategies for different subtraction problems helps us become more flexible and efficient.
Worked with dot cards and picture cards to make fact families up to 20.
Played with our work places.
Continued to look for symmetry in shapes in Number Corner.
Continued to collect popsicle sticks in Number Corner and track the weekly total with tallies.
Used a 120 grid to examine patterns and practice identifying more and less.
In Science we:
Learned about the Solar Eclipse. We made a solar eclipse craft to illustrate the eclipse.
In Social Studies we:
Read about Mount Rushmore and The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and added these to our U.S. symbol notebook.
Week of 4/1-4/5
This week we read:
The Goose Egg
Don’t Touch that Flower
The Statue of Liberty
Ruby Finds a Worry
In ELA we:
Learned the trick words none and nothing. We mapped them on our whiteboard.
Reviewed our trick words from last week: friend, other, another.
Reviewed long vowel sounds and practiced reading, building, and writing vowel-consonant-e words.
Reviewed suffix -ed and -ing.
Made our table of contents for our All About books.
Enjoyed the author visit with Jarrett Lerner!
In Math we:
Practiced solving story problems to ten and adding a single digit to ten.
Solved missing addend and missing whole addition number sentences and stories.
Came up with many ways to add and subtract to 10.
Learned a new workplace called Spin to Win Bingo where we practiced adding with 9 or 10 as an addend.
Reviewed strategies to help us add when 9 is an addend.
Matched digital and analog clocks together.
Completed the 13th decade day activity in our workbooks.
Looked at symmetry in Number Corner. We attempted to fold shapes into congruent parts. We observed lines of symmetry within the shape.
Collected Popsicle Sticks and kept track with tally marks. This week we collected 21 popsicle sticks. We will compare this to next week’s total.
In Science we:
Made an opaque, translucent, and transparent art project with our fifth grade friends!
In Social Studies we:
Read about The Statue of Liberty and completed the page in our U.S. symbols notebook.
For SEL we:
Read Ruby Finds A Worry and discussed that one way to deal with a worry is to talk about it with someone.
March
Week of 3/25-3/28
This week we read:
Malala’s Magic Pencil
She Persisted in Sports: American Olympians Who Changed the Game
The Liberty Bell
Light and Shadows
In ELA we:
Learned about vowel-consonant-e syllables.
Learned new sound cards to help remember vowel-consonant-e vowel sounds: long a as in safe, long i as in pine, long o as in home, long e as in Pete, long u as in mule or rule.
Practiced reading, building, and writing words with the vowel-consonant-e pattern.
Learned the trick words other, another, friend.
Wrote dedication pages for our All About book.
Illustrated the cover of our All About book.
In Math we:
Finished our fractions and geometry assessment.
Answered shape riddles.
Learned two new work places. One workplace was called Triangular Prism Predictions. Students had to look at a net of polydrons and predict whether or not it would make a triangular prism when built. Then, students built the pyramid and compared the result to their prediction. Another workplace encouraged students to sort shapes by a category of their choosing.
Continued to tell time to the hour and half hour on digital and analog clocks in Number Corner.
Continued to practice the make a ten strategy when adding with 9 as an addend.
Matched analog and digital clocks in Number Corner.
In Science we:
Read a book about opaque, translucent, and transparent materials and wrote in our notebooks about what we learned. Next week we will do a fun opaque, translucent, and transparent craft!
In Social Studies we:
Learned about the Liberty Bell. We illustrated this page in our social studies notebooks.
For SEL we:
Practiced role playing scenarios of first grade problems and how we can solve them. We used think alouds to model the thought process we can use when solving problems.
Week of 3/18-3/22
This week we read:
The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read
Tiny T. Rex and the Grand Ta-Da
Spring
Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring
In ELA we:
Practiced dictation activities with words with five sounds and suffix -ed and suffix -ing endings.
Practiced writing sentences with learned phonics concepts with punctuation and proper casing.
Wrote about what we like to do in spring.
Wrote our glossary section for our All About book.
Started our About the Author section for our All About book.
In Math we:
Cut squares into halves and quarters.
Cut circles into halves, thirds, and quarters.
Played fraction bingo and practiced shading in fractions or writing fractions to match the bingo cards.
Partitioned circles and rectangles into halves and quarters. We also practiced identifying fractions.
Played our Unit 5 work place games.
Continued to collect time to the hour and half hour on digital and analog clocks in Number Corner.
Continued to collect dimes, nickels, and pennies in Number Corner. We found the total value of all the coins we’ve collected over three weeks.
Learned the Make a Ten strategy in Number Corner when adding with a 9. When we have an equation where 9 is an addend, like 9+6 for example, we can rearrange this equation to 10+5, which helps us solve more efficiently.
In Science we:
Used flashlights to find objects around the room that were opaque, translucent, or transparent.
Read about spring and the seasonal changes that occur from winter to spring. We wrote and illustrated about a change in our science notebooks.
For SEL we:
Continued to talk about problem solving. We discussed that after we calm down, our next step is to think about possible ways to solve this problem. We can eliminate options that would be an unsafe choice. Once we consider which option might be best, we can try to solve the problem that way.
Role played solving a problem where someone cuts the lunch line. We also did a think aloud to show our thought process in this situation.
Week of 3/11-3/15
This week we read:
Dinosaur Lady
Mae Among the Stars
Bloom
The Washington Monument
The Bald Eagle
In ELA we:
Reviewed vowel teams and learned two new ones: au as in August and aw as in saw.
Learned two new suffixes: -ed and -ing. We discussed that there are a few sounds that suffix -ed can make but in Fundations we will focus on sounds where -ed says /id/, like trusted and drifted. We practiced reading, building, and writing words with five sounds and a suffix -ed or -ing.
Practiced writing sentences with learned phonics concepts.
Made several word chains with current unit words.
Learned the trick words: out, about, our. Knowing the vowel team -ou helps us read these words.
Used PebbleGo to research what our animal eats or its habitat and drew a picture with a caption to illustrate the information.
Wrote a Fun Facts page about our animal for our All About book.
In Math we:
Made a drawing out of pattern blocks. Then we counted how many of each type of pattern block we used. Students made crabs, butterflies, turtles, and many other creative designs!
Did a checkpoint about 2-D and 3-D shapes.
Learned a new work place called Pyramid Predictions. Students had to look at a net of polydrons and predict whether or not it would make a pyramid when built. Then, students built the pyramid and compared the result to their prediction.
Explored all our work places.
Continued to read time to the hour and half hour on analog and digital clocks in Number Corner.
Continued to collect dimes, nickels, and pennies in Number Corner.
In Science we:
Planted seeds with Ms. Kirkwood for the garden.
In Social Studies we:
Learned about the Washington Monument and the bald eagle as U.S. symbols. We added these to our U.S. Symbol notebook.
Read Dinosaur Lady and Mae Among the Stars for Women’s History Month. We learned about Mary Anning and Mae Jemison. We observed that these women persevered even when others thought they couldn’t achieve their goals.
Week of 3/4-3/8
This week we read:
The Smart Cookie
The U.S. Capitol
The White House
Little Blue Truck Makes a Friend
In ELA we:
Reviewed vowel teams and learned two new ones: ew as in chew, and ue as in glue or rescue.
Practiced reading and building words with five sounds. We also practiced adding suffix -s to words with five sounds.
Learned the trick words: how, now, and down. Knowing vowel teams helps us read these words.
Practiced writing sentences with uppercase letters and punctuation.
Used our animal research from PebbleGo to write an informational paragraph about an animal’s appearance for our All About book.
Used PebbleGo to make an accurate diagram of our animal for our All About book.
In Math we:
Used what we know about attributes to guess a hidden 2-D shape. We asked questions like “does your shape have three sides” to help us narrow down the shape.
Reviewed 3-D figures such as cube, sphere, rectangular prism, and cylinder. We introduced the figures cone, triangular prism, and pyramid. We discussed the attributes of these shapes.
Searched around the room looking for real-world examples of these figures. Students noticed the container of wipes, glue sticks, and markers were cylinders and game boxes and boxes of tissues were rectangular prisms. We also had several students pull out their Rubik’s Cubes to put in the cube pile!
Were shape detectives to guess 3-D shapes based on clues about their attributes. I also sorted 3-D figures into two categories and students had to guess what the attribute categories were.
Went on the 3-D shape hunt around the school! Students loved identifying 3-D figures around the building.
Learned a new work place called Cube Predictions. Students used square polydron nets to predict if it would make a cube. Then they used square polydrons to build the shape and test their predictions.
Reviewed time to the hour in Number Corner.
Introduced time to the half hour in Number Corner.
Reviewed the value of dimes, nickels, and pennies. This month we will be collecting these coins in Number Corner.
In Science we:
Started our unit on light. We answered the focus question, “what makes a shadow?”. We used flashlights and objects around the classroom to answer the question. We observed that we needed a light source and an object to block the light to make a shadow. We added that other sources of light could be the sun or lights in the room.
Wrote and illustrated about how to make a shadow in our science notebooks.
Watched a Brainpop Jr. video about light.
In Social Studies we:
Read The U.S. Capitol and The White House. We illustrated these buildings in our U.S. Symbols notebook.
For SEL we:
Introduced Open Circle’s problem solving steps. We discussed what problems we might have in first grade. Then we compared problem solving to a traffic light. The first step to a problem is to stop and calm down. We practiced using I feel _____ because _____ statements for different situations. Students observed that after using these statements, many times the problem doesn’t seem as big.
February
Week of 2/26-3/1
This week we read:
Perfectly Pegasus
The Sour Grape
Imogene’s Last Stand
The U.S. Flag
The Lincoln Memorial
I’ll Wait Mr. Panda
In ELA we:
Reviewed closed syllables.
Reviewed blends and introduced reading and building words with 5 sounds like blast, shrimp, etc.
Reviewed vowel teams and learned several new ones: oa as in boat, oe as in toe, ow as in snow or as in plow, ou as in trout or as in soup and oo as in school or as in book.
Learned the trick words any and many.
Practiced writing sentences with trick words and words that apply our phonics concepts. We reviewed that the first letter in a sentence gets an uppercase letter. We also reviewed punctuation and differentiated between question marks and periods.
Introduced our informational writing project. We will be writing a book all about an animal of our choice. We brainstormed animals we were interested in and did research on PebbleGo to help us choose our animal.
Learned how to take notes while doing research. We also learned that we are not copying exactly from the PebbleGo site and we have to put the sentence into our own words.
Practiced as a class taking out important information from the PebbleGo site and turning it into our own words.
In Math we:
Reviewed addition and subtraction on the number line within 100.
Reviewed doubles and near doubles facts.
Started our geometry unit. We introduced attributes (size, color, shape, number of corners, number of parallel lines, number of right angles) of 2-D shapes and practiced sorting shapes by different attributes.
Discussed defining and non-defining attributes of 2-D shapes.
Learned two new work places that practice geometry skills, strategy, and problem solving.
Practiced finding friendly numbers to help add a series of numbers together in Number Corner.
Continued to identify congruent and non-congruent shapes in Number Corner.
Introduced our March Number Corner calendar. Each card shows a different time on a digital or analog clock.
Continued to collect unifix cubes. We found the weekly total of cubes and compared this week's total to two other weeks in February using greater than, less than, and equal to signs. We also found the total number of cubes we collected over the month. We had collected 26 cubes the first week, 24 the next week, and 24 this week. Students used a variety of strategies to help them add 26+24+24.
In Social Studies we:
Began our unit on U.S. Symbols. We read Imogene’s Last Stand to introduce studying history.
Watched a Brainpop Jr. to introduce our U.S. symbols. We learned that a heart stands for love, a peace sign stands for peace, and a four leaf clover stands for good luck. Brainpop Jr. used these known symbols to introduce U.S. symbols, like the American flag or the bald eagle.
Read The American Flag and The Lincoln Memorial. We illustrated these symbols in our U.S. Symbol notebook.
For SEL we:
Discussed positive leadership and role played scenarios to practice being a leader and solving problems.
Week of 2/12-2/16
This week we read:
My Fantastic Elastic Brain
Click Clack Moo I Love You
Love Monster
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose
In ELA we:
Reviewed closed syllables and practiced identifying and marking closed syllables.
Reviewed our recent trick words.
Reviewed vowel teams and r-controlled vowels.
Did dictation activities to practice writing words and sentences with learned concepts.
Wrote about things that we love. Many students wrote about their families, nature, sports, and school.
Practiced writing a story about our stuffed animals. Students had fun thinking of a problem for their stuffed animal to solve in the story!
In Math we:
Assembled measuring strips and used it to measure ourselves in inches.
Learned about the Rockhopper and King penguins. We learned that the Rockhopper is about 18 inches long and the King penguin is 36 inches long.
Measured and cut string to visualize the heights of the Rockhopper and King penguins.
Compared the heights of the Rockhopper and King penguins. We also calculated how much taller the King penguin is than the Rockhopper.
Continued to identify congruent and non-congruent shapes in Number Corner.
Continued to collect unifix cubes and find friendly numbers to help us add several numbers together in Number Corner.
Practiced counting forwards and backwards between 100-109.
Practiced putting numbers in order from least to greatest and greatest to least.
In Science we:
Completed our unit on sound. We made xylophones to learn about pitch. We observed that the longest bars have the lowest pitch and the shortest bars have the highest pitch. Students put the bars in order from lowest pitch to highest pitch.
Played a digital guitar to notice that string length, thickness, and tension changes the way the string vibrates and therefore changes the pitch.
Watched a Brainpop Jr. video about pitch.
Made a distinction between pitch and volume. We learned that we can hit the mallet harder or softer to change the volume on the xylophones.
For SEL we:
Had Mrs. Alvarez, the first grade counselor, come in to do a lesson on growth mindset. She read Your Fantastic Elastic Brain and we learned that you can “stretch” your brain when you learn new things. When you practice a new skill, it becomes easier with time. During our Closing Circles, we’ve been sharing how we’ve “stretched” our brains each day.
Week of 2/5-2/9
Wow! What a week! We started off the week with a classmate earning second place in the bookmark contest! Then, we had a very special 100th day of school! Students were excited to see all the creative ways we collected and displayed 100 items. I also loved seeing so many student scientists at the Science Fair on Wednesday night. Finally, we had a lovely Open House on Thursday morning. Thank you for joining us. Students were thrilled to share their work with you.
This week we read:
Miss Mingo and the 100th Day of School
Rocket’s 100th Day of School
Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas
The Little Red Fort
A Sweet New Year for Ren
Bringing in the New Year
Dolphins
How a Hawk Hunts
Sing a Song: How Lift Every Voice and Sing Inspired Generations
In ELA we:
Reviewed blends, digraphs, and digraph blends. We also reviewed that when we tap out words with blends we have to be sure to tap out each sound.
Reviewed r-controlled vowels.
Introduced vowel teams. We learned several vowel teams: ai as in bait, ay as in play, ee as in jeep, ea as in eat, ey as in key, oi as in coin, and oy as in boy.
Reviewed closed and open syllables. We did a closed syllable hunt to practice finding and identifying closed syllables.
Learned new trick words: see, each, between. Knowing vowel teams helps us read these words!
Wrote about what we want to do in our lives before we turn 100 years old! Students were dreaming big!
Discussed different features of informational text. We made a chart to help us remember important features, such as table of contents, headings, captions, diagrams, glossary, etc. We will incorporate some of these features into our informational writing.
In Math we:
Finished an assessment where we practiced counting forward and backward by 10s with different starting points (4, 7, 87, etc.) We also used a number line to solve equations within 100 and story problems within 50.
Played several work place games!
Did a special 100th day math activity.
Continued to identify congruent and non-congruent shapes in Number Corner.
Collected unifix cubes. We practiced finding “friendly” numbers to help us add multiple numbers together. For example, our total was 6+4+9+3+4 and students noticed that 6+4 make ten so those would be two numbers that are easy to add together. Finding friendly numbers makes adding several numbers together easier.
In Science we:
Participated in the PTO Ocean Odyssey! Students had a blast learning about ocean layers and matching creatures to their ocean layer. Thank you to the volunteers for coming in to help our class with this project!
In Social Studies we:
Listened to a read aloud of Sing a Song: How Lift Every Voice and Sing Inspired Generations. We also discussed Black History Month in our All School Meeting.
Read Bringing in the New Year and A Sweet New Year for Ren to learn about Lunar New Year. Happy Lunar New Year to all who celebrate!
January
Week of 1/29-2/2
This week we read:
Mr. Lucky Straw
Same, Same But Different
I Talk in Different Ways
Eddie the Elephant has Something to Say
Bears
I See Trees
Groundhogs
Groundhug Day
In ELA we:
Reviewed blends and digraph blends.
Did word and sentence dictation activities with learned phonics concepts.
Learned about closed syllables. A closed syllable is a syllable with only one vowel and a consonant that comes after the vowel. When a syllable is closed the vowel makes a short sound. We practiced identifying whether or not words had closed syllables.
Learned two vowel teams: ai as in bait, and ay as in play. We noted that ai is often found in the middle of words and ay is found at the end of the word.
Learned the trick words say and says. We observed that we can tap out the word say with the new vowel team we’ve learned, but the -ay in says doesn’t follow that rule. We have to remember that the -ay in says sounds like /e/ instead of a long a sound.
Read Bears and drew an illustration of a fact about bears and wrote a caption to match our illustration.
Read I See Trees to learn facts about trees. We noticed the writing in the text was very simple and we wanted to expand it. The book said “Trees have roots.” As a class we practiced describing what the roots looked like and what their function was in order to expand the writing. Our writing turned into “Trees have roots that look like veins and grow into the ground. These branch-like parts suck up moisture and water for the tree.” We are trying to add descriptive detail in our informational writing, while also maintaining the facts.
Read Groundhogs and wrote an informational paragraph with facts about groundhogs.
In Math we:
Practiced jumping on the number line to 100 by 5s or 10s.
Solved story problems on the number line to 100.
Practiced skip counting by 10’s starting at different numbers, such as 4 and 7. We used towers of ten unifix cubes and loose ones to illustrate each number as we counted on. Students practiced identifying how many tens and ones were in each number (i.e. 54 has 5 tens and 4 ones). We observed that as we counted by tens the tens place changed by one and the ones place stayed the same (i.e. 4, 14, 24, 34, etc.)
Played a game where we raced to 50 on a number line. We used a spinner with 1’s, 5’s, and 10’s to know how many spaces to hop each time. We modeled our numbers with bundles of 10 popsicle sticks and loose popsicle sticks to help us know where we should land. Students noticed that when we had ten loose popsicle sticks, we could combine them into a new bundle. This further helped draw their attention to the number of tens and ones in each number.
Learned a new work place where players race to reach a target number on the number line.
Explored our unit 4 work places.
Started a new Number Corner calendar and collection. This month our calendar cards show shapes on a geoboard. We introduced the word congruent and students are determining if the two shapes on the geoboard are congruent.
Started collecting unifix cubes in Number Corner. Each day we will spin a 1-10 spinner and collect that number of cubes. At the end of the week we will find our total number of collected cubes.
In Science we:
Reviewed that vibrations cause sound and that sound waves can travel across strings. We used this information to make a partner STEAM project. Students had to design and build string telephones. Many students started with wire and adjusted their telephones to use string when they had trouble hearing their partner.
In Social Studies we:
Read Same, Same But Different and discussed mirrors and windows.
Had Ms. Hochberger, a speech pathologist at Claypit, came into the classroom to do a lesson about communication devices. She read I Talk in Different Ways and we listened to the story Eddie the Elephant Has Something to Say. We explored a demonstration communication device. Then, we each drew our own talkers.
For SEL we:
Had an Open Circle about responding to annoying behaviors. We discussed that you need to name the behavior that you want someone to stop doing. For example, we are encouraging students to say “Stop copying me” vs. “STOP”.
Week of 1/22-1/26
This week we read:
Interrupting Chicken: Cookies for Breakfast
Eyes that Kiss in the Corner
Eyes that Speak to the Stars
The Proudest Blue
Little Red Gliding Hood
Monkeys
Frogs
In ELA we:
Reviewed - ng and -nk glued sounds.
Practiced reading words with digraph blends (the shr- in shrub or the -nch in lunch).
Practiced adding suffix -s to words with blends.
Learned the trick words: would, could, should, her, over, number.
Did dictation activities with current unit words and sentences.
Read Frogs and Monkeys and wrote about facts we heard in the story. We also practiced drawing a matching diagram with labels.
In Math we:
Practiced adding and subtracting on a number to 100.
Practiced adding and subtracting multiples of 10.
Learned a new work place called Super Frogs, where we practiced adding and subtracting multiples of 10 on a number line to 100. We also made corresponding number stories to match our equations.
Practiced filling in missing numbers on a number line and writing missing numbers up to 120.
Continued to solve missing addend, subtrahend, and minuend problems in Number Corner. We used number trees, pictures, and related facts to solve these problems.
Celebrated the 9th decade day.
Played Guess My Number and students had to use greater than and less than clues to guess my number.
In Social Studies we:
Read Eyes that Kiss in the Corners, Eyes that Speak to the Stars, and The Proudest Blue and discussed windows and mirrors.
For SEL we:
Had an Open Circle about dangerous and destructive behaviors. We discussed that in this situation, we can get an adult to solve the problem.
Discussed situations and whether they were dangerous, destructive, or annoying. We added that we can try to solve annoying behaviors ourselves first. We will continue to discuss responding to annoying behavior next week.
Week of 1/16-1/19
This week we read:
The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark
Interrupting Chicken
Federico and the Wolf
One Green Apple
The Empty Pot
Feathers for Peacock and The Seven Silly Eaters read by Vivian's mom and sister!
In ELA we:
Added suffix -s to words with -ng and -nk glued sounds and practiced reading these words.
Learned the trick words come and some.
Made word chains with current unit words.
Did dictation activities with current unit words and sentences.
Reviewed that informational texts have a topic with supporting facts and details. We worked together to sort details by topic and sorting facts from main ideas.
Began learning about various features of informational texts. We discussed that some informational texts have diagrams with labels to give the reader more information. We looked at a photograph of a dolphin from an informational text and drew our own diagrams with labels.
Compared Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark to the original Three Little Pigs story.
In Math we:
Explored the number line to 120.
Practiced identifying the value of missing numbers on a number line to 120.
Completed the iReady diagnostic and explored our paths on iReady.
Practiced solving equations with missing addends, subtrahends and practiced using related facts to solve the equation.
Continued collecting pennies and dimes. At the end of the week we found the total that we collected this week and compared our collections of the first three weeks of January. We sorted the collections in order from greatest value of coins to least value of coins. We also sorted the coins in order from least to greatest.
In Social Studies we:
Introduced our windows and mirrors unit. We learned that books can be mirrors and reflect our lives or experiences that we have had. Books can also be windows that provide insight into experiences that others may have had. We added that it’s important to read both windows and mirrors because reading a “mirror” book validates your own experience and reading a “window” book can teach empathy towards other experiences.
Read One Green Apple and discussed whether the book was a window or a mirror for us.
For SEL we:
Had an Open Circle on expressing angry feelings. We shared times that we’ve been angry and strategies we used. We added that our brains have a hard time thinking clearly when we have big feelings, so it is best to try to calm down and then try to think about how to proceed.
Read The Empty Pot and discussed the importance of honesty.
Week of 1/8-1/12
This week we read:
The Three Little Pigs
The Three Little Superpigs
The Three Little Superpigs and Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Martin Luther King Jr.: Civil Rights Leader
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Sounds All Around Us
Elephants
Bagel King read by Ms. Charton for our All School Meeting
In ELA we:
Reviewed -ng glued sounds.
Learned -nk glued sounds: ank as in bank, ink as in pink, onk as in honk, and unk as in junk.
Practiced reading, building, and writing words with glued sounds.
Learned the trick words: put, two, too, also, very.
Practiced adding suffix -s to words with -ng and -nk glued sounds.
Did dictation activities with learned phonics concepts.
Wrote about a tradition we do on our birthday every year.
Looked at the covers of various informational texts and reviewed characteristics of informational and narrative texts.
Examined the informational writing pillar from Empowering Writers and learned that informational paragraphs have a topic, facts, details, and a conclusion.
We read the book, Elephants, from National Geographic to practice identifying the topic and supporting details in an informational text.
In Math we:
Made a life-sized number line and practiced placing numbers to 20 in the correct places and identifying missing numbers on a number line to 20.
Introduced how add and subtract using a number line within 10.
Learned a work place to practice adding and subtracting on a number line within 10.
Practiced relating addition and subtraction facts. For example, 5+3=8 and 8-3=5 might look the same on the number line if you don’t circle where you end. We practiced identifying related facts.
Used related facts to solve our daily number sentences in Number Corner.
Collected dimes and pennies and compared the total number of coins and their values with greater than and less than symbols.
Celebrated the 8th decade day.
In Science we:
Read Sounds All Around Us and watched a brainpop jr. about sound. We learned that vibration causes sound.
Had a visit from the Discovery Museum! Students learned more about vibration and sound and did several fun experiments! Students used vibrating tuning forks to make water splash or make a ping pong ball bounce. Students made gongs out of household objects like spoons, coathangers, springs, etc.
In Social Studies we:
Read about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Martin Luther King Day. We filled out a graphic organizer about Martin Luther King Jr.
For SEL we:
Listened to The Bagel King and discussed how the characters spread kindness.
Wrote a kindness pledge to go along with our Kindness all school meeting. Every student in the school wrote a pledge and the pledges are on display in the hallways!
Week of 1/2-1/5
This week we read:
My Mouth is a Volcano
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Curlilocks and the Three Pink Pandas
Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution
How to be a Friend
What If Everybody Did That
Does the Sun Sleep? Noticing Sun, Moon, and Sky Patterns
In ELA we:
Reviewed our expectations for reading centers.
Reviewed bonus letters, glued sounds -am, -an, -all, and suffix -s.
Reviewed previously learned trick words.
Learned -ng glued sounds like -ang as in fang, -ing as in ring, -ong as in song, and -ung as in lung.
Learned trick words why, by, my, try. We learned that y can act as a vowel at the end of words. When y acts as a vowel in a one syllable word, it says a long i sound. When y acts as a long vowel in a two syllable word, it makes a long e sound. Knowing this rule, we can decode these trick words.
Did dictation words and sentences with previously learned phonics concepts.
Read Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution and wrote about our resolutions for 2024.
Wrote vacation news and focused on using correct punctuation.
Started reading and discussing characteristics of fairy tales.
In Math we:
Reviewed our work places and work place expectations
Made combinations of 6, 7, 9, 10 using two or three addends.
Discussed the meaning of the equal sign and practiced balancing equations. For example we noticed that 5+1=1=3+4.
Practiced creating and identifying balanced equations.
Discussed true and false equations (ex. 3+2=4+1 is a true equation, but 6+1=4+0 would be false.)
Solved missing addend, subtrahend, and minuend equations in Number Corner.
Collected pennies and dimes and compared the total number of coins and the value of the coins with <,>, or = symbols.
In Science we:
Continued to learn about patterns in the sky after reading Does the Sun Sleep? section about stars in the sky. We learned that stars appear to move across the sky from east to west.
Watched a Mystery Science video asking why we only we stars at night. We made constellation cups and used a flashlight to make the Big Dipper appear on our desks. When we put more light on the stars, we couldn’t see the Big Dipper anymore. Students connected this to the Sun and realized that the stars are still in the sky, but we can’t see them during the day because the Sun is too bright.
For SEL we:
Read How to Help a Friend, What If Everybody Did That, and Rosie Revere Engineer to review the school values of practicing empathy, acting responsibly, and working hard. We discussed what we can do to practice empathy, act responsibly, and work hard. We will continue to discuss our core values next week!
Reviewed our class promise. We split up into groups and became experts on what part of our class promise. We wrote and drew what we could do to show that promise. Then we shared our ideas with the class.
December
Week of 12/18-12/22
This week we read:
Be Brave Little Penguin
A Loud Winter’s Nap
Harold Loves His Wooly Hat
Cozy
4 Seasons: Winter
Winter Solstice
In ELA we:
Learned the trick words where, there, and here.
Review suffix -s for plurals and action words.
Did dictation activities with learned phonics concepts.
Finished writing our narrative story about the mouse looking for cheese. Students are now making covers, writing a dedication and about the author page before we publish our stories!
In Math we:
Reviewed the game 50 or Bust! This became a new work place this week.
Completed our unit 3 assessment.
Worked on winter math coloring sheets.
Completed various unit 3 work places.
Celebrated the 7th decade day.
Collected the 24th hour during Number Corner.
Continued to identify real world objects as 3-D figures.
Played a fun game where a student picked a 3-D figure and hid it from the group. The student had to describe the attributes (number of faces, vertices, curved sides, etc.) so that the class could guess the figure.
In Science we:
Read Winter and Winter Solstice to discuss the seasonal changes that occur in winter. We compared winter to fall. We wrote about seasonal changes in our science notebooks.
Completed a STEAM activity. Students had to build a tool to test if it was windy outside using cups, popsicle sticks, string, streamers, tin foil, fabric, wax paper and tape. Students brainstormed designs and drew a model of their design. Later, students built and tested their design. Many students analyzed their designs and tried to redesign to improve upon their first design.
In Social Studies we:
Finished sharing our posters. Students loved learning about traditions that are new to them as well finding connections with other traditions.
For SEL we:
Had an Open Circle about cooperation. We shared times that we cooperated with others and played a few cooperative games.
Met with our fifth grade friends and discussed how it feels when we are kind and brainstormed kind actions. We wrote those feelings and actions on a kindness snowman craft.
Week of 12/11-12/15
This week we read:
Does the Sun Sleep: Noticing Sun, Moon, and Star Patterns
Bloop
In ELA we:
Learned the trick words who, what, when, are, and were.
Reviewed suffix s and practiced reading, building, and writing words with suffix s. We also compared action words that end in s vs. plural s (shuts vs. rugs).
Practiced identifying whether a word was a plural s or an action word s.
Reviewed sentence structure and wrote sentences using learned phonics concepts.
Worked on our stories about the mouse trying to get a piece of cheese from the kitchen. We discussed writing the main event of the story. Students observed that in real stories the author doesn’t solve the problem right away as that wouldn’t be very interesting. Students had their mouse character attempt to get the cheese and fail at least once before getting the cheese to add excitement to their story.
Discussed extended endings in our narratives by wrapping up the action and ending with a feeling or a wish. These stories are coming along great and I can’t wait to share them!
In Math we:
Solved missing addend problems to 10 and 20.
Learned a new work place called Cats and Mice where students practice adding numbers and comparing which sum is greater and by how many.
Played a fun game where students had to guess my number using greater than and less than clues.
Worked on identifying teen numbers as a group of ten and some more (eg. 13=10+3). We used this to review place value of the tens place and ones place.
Played a fun game called 50 or bust. We played students vs. teacher and picked cards to get closest to 50 without going over. There was some strategy involved because the cards ranged from 10-20, so students had to decide if it was worth it to take another turn.
Reviewed attributes of 3-D figures. We played a fun game where a student reached into a bag and chose a 3-D solid block. Before students unveiled the solid, they answered quetions about the attributes (eg. it has 6 flat faces, 8 vertices, all sides are the same length) and students would guess what solid they had in the bag.
Identified real world objects as 3-D figures (eg. a can of soup is a cylinder).
Collected hours on the clock for our calendar collector routine.
In Math we:
Read the next chapter in Does the Sun Sleep: Noticing Sun, Moon, and Star Patterns about the moon. We also watched a clip from Peep and the Big Wide World and a Brainpop Jr. video about the moon. We learned that the moon doesn’t have its own light and instead the light from the sun illuminates the moon. We also learned that the moon appears to change each night. We emphasized that the size of the moon itself isn’t changing, just the part that is illuminated from our perspective.
Examined a calendar of the moon phase each night in November 2023 and observed that it takes about a month to complete the cycle. We wrote about how the moon changes throughout the month in our science journal.
Made a craft to explore what the moon looks like throughout the month. Students do not need to identify the names of the phases, they just need to recognize patterns in the sky.
For Social Studies we:
Started sharing our family traditions posters! Thank you for sending these in.
Students have loved learning about new traditions or finding connections with peers about similar traditions!
Week of 12/4-12/8
This week we read:
Maybe You Might
Does the Sun Sleep: Noticing Sun, Moon, and Star Patterns
Snowmen at Night
In ELA we:
Learned the trick words do and does. We practiced reading and writing these words in isolation and in sentences.
Reviewed the glued sounds -all, -am, -an. We practiced building, reading, and writing words with these sounds.
Reviewed sentence structure. We put out sentence frames to build the sentence: Does Sam have a rash? We discussed when to use uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as when to use a period or question mark.
Learned about base words and suffix -s. We discussed that when you add the letter -s to a baseword, it changes the meaning to mean more than one (plural). We observed that sometimes suffix s says /s/ as in snake, and sometimes suffix s says /z/ as in bugs.
Continued to work on our narrative story about a hungry mouse who wants a piece of cheese left on the counter. We are writing an entertaining beginning.
Celebrated the first snow flurry of the year by reading the book Snowmen at Night. We wrote about what we would do if we were a snowman at night! See some examples of our writing below!
In Math we:
Learned a new work place called Tower Race, where we practiced our addition skills.
Worked on solving addition problems within 10.
Practiced identifying numbers to 20 on a number rack quickly.
Practiced combinations of ten (3+7, 5+5, etc.)
Learned about cylinders, rectangular prisms, cubes, and spheres in Number Corner. We discussed the attributes of each and practiced identifying real world objects as figures. For example, we noticed a crayon box is a rectangular prism.
Celebrated our 6th decade day.
Practiced doubles facts greater than 10.
In Science we:
Read the first section in Does the Sun Sleep: Noticing Sun, Moon, and Star Patterns and watched a clip from Peep in the Big Wide World where he notices patterns in the sky.
Students wrote in their science notebooks about a change they see in the sky from day to night. Students wrote about how in the morning the sun rises, at noon it is high in the sky, and the sun sets. Students noticed the apparent movement of the sun across the sky.
Did an activity from Mystery Science to show how the sun appears to move across the sky over the course of a day.
For SEL we:
Listened to Mrs. Charton read Maybe You Might and discussed our core value of working hard. We also discussed this at our All School Meeting.
Some of our Snowmen at Night inspired writing!
Week of 11/27-12/1
This week we read:
Applesauce Day
The Magician’s Hat
Speak Up
In ELA we:
Learned the glued sounds am as in ham and an as in fan. We practiced reading, building, and writing words with these glued sounds, as well as the -all glued sound.
Learned the trick words have and from.
Completed dictation activities to apply learned sounds in words and sentences.
Read Applesauce Day and noticed how the author used sound effects to make the story interesting. We used sound effects to write an entertaining first sentence in a story.
Discussed the topic for our narrative writing assignment. We are taking on the perspective of a hungry mouse and writing a story about an adventure to find some cheese that was left on the counter. We brainstormed elements to use in the beginning of the story like sound effects, descriptions of the kitchen, and our worries and wonderings. We will work on our own graphic organizers next week.
In Math we:
Reviewed doubles facts and introduced near doubles facts. Knowing our doubles facts can help us solve our near doubles facts efficiently. For example, if we know 5+5=10, we can solve 5+6 easily.
Introduced three new work places: Drop the Beans, Make the Sum, and Doubles Plus or Minus One. These work places practice adding within 10.
Worked with our number racks to solve number sentences and story problems.
Continued to review wholes, halves, and fourths in Number Corner.
Continued collecting hours on an analog clock in Number Corner.
Played a game in Number Corner where we collected fourths and raced to be the first team to fill in five whole circles.
Introduced our December Number Corner calendar, where we will collect 3-D figures. We introduced the word, cylinder.
In Science we:
Learned about cirrus, cumulus, and stratus clouds. We made a cloud flip book that illustrates and describes these three types of clouds.
Played a cloud catcher game to practice identifying the types of clouds.
In Social Studies we:
Read Applesauce Day and discussed the traditions in the story.
For SEL we:
Discussed how it feels when we are included or excluded. We role-played how we could include others in different scenarios.
Started the book, Speak Up and discussed the importance of speaking up when something is wrong. We will continue reading and discussing this next week.
November
Week of 11/20-11/22
This week we read:
The Big Cheese
Our Favorite Day of the Year
Turkey Trouble
Fry Bread
Bear Says Thanks
In ELA we:
Reviewed bonus letters and the glued sound, -all.
Learned the trick words was and one.
Read Turkey Trouble. In the book, a turkey was trying to disguise himself before Thanksgiving. We drew a disguise for a turkey and used details to describe the disguise. At the end we revealed our disguises. Some disguises were bunnies, foxes, Mario, Peter Pan, and a carved pumpkin. See pictures below for a few of our disguises!
In Math we:
Reviewed fact families and made a fact family turkey.
Played addition bump within 10 or 20.
Continued to collect hours on the clock during Number Corner. We have collected the first 12 hours in a day. When we collected the 13th hour, we used a new clock. We know noticed that the thirteenth hour of the day is called 1:00.
Continued to make number stories with wholes, halves, and fourths during Number Corner.
Celebrated the 5th decade day and did different math activities with the number 50.
In Science we:
Looked at the temperatures in Wayland this year during the months of February, April, July, and October. We used our thermometers to see the temperatures and identify what describing words (freezing, cold, cool, warm, hot) matched each day. We observed that February was mostly cold, April was mostly cool, July was mostly hot, and October was mostly cool. We looked back at December 2022 and noticed that December was mostly cold again. We made observations about how the temperature changes throughout the year.
In Social Studies we:
Read Our Favorite Day of the Year and Fry Bread and discussed the traditions in each book.
For SEL we:
Discussed positive self-talk. We shared times where we used positive self-talk to work through a challenging situation.
Here are some examples of our disguised turkeys!
Week of 11/13-11/17
This week we read:
I am Invited to a Party
The Scarecrow
Every Friday
Simply Thankful
Sweep
Saturday
In ELA we:
Learned about bonus letters. When a one syllable word ends with f, l, or s after a short vowel, we double the last letter (eg. mess, hill, cuff). We also talked about exceptions to this rule such as bus and yes.
Practiced building, reading, and writing words with bonus letters.
Learned the trick words you and your.
Learned that when the letters -all are next to each other, it sounds like “ol” as in ball. We practiced reading and writing words with -all glued sound.
Continued working on our writing about an animal in the mitten.
Read Simply Thankful and wrote and illustrated what we are thankful for and displayed them in the classroom.
Learned about entertaining beginnings when writing narrative stories. We can entertain the reader by starting the story with a sound, dialogue, question, or action. We examined beginnings in different stories to hear different choices.
In Math we:
Introduced the dime and learned a song to help remember the value. We reviewed the values of nickels and pennies.
Played games called Who Has More Nickels and Pennies, and Who Has More Dimes, Nickels, and Pennies. We played student vs. teacher and raced to see who could collect 40 and 100 pennies.
Continued with work places to practice adding, subtracting, comparing, or using doubles facts.
Continued to collect hours on the analog clock.
Continued to work with whole, half, and fourths during Number Corner.
In Science we:
Learned about temperature and thermometers. We learned words to describe different temperatures such as hot, warm, cool, cold, and freezing.
Made model thermometers and determined what words we could use to describe different temperatures.
Identified the temperature and answered questions about the weather.
In Social Studies we:
Read Every Friday and Saturday to begin talking about family traditions. In addition to reading about family traditions, we sent home the family traditions poster project. Please see the handout your child brought home on Friday or this link for more information. We look forward to learning about what traditions are special to our classmates!
For SEL we:
Had an Open Circle about body language.
Read Sweep and discussed the size of the problem vs. the size of our reaction. If we have a small problem, we can have a small reaction. We also discussed dangerous and destructive behaviors.
Week of 11/6-11/9
This week we read:
A Little Bit Brave
The Roll Away Pumpkin
Duck for President
My Teacher for President
Grace for President
Veteran’s Day read by Ms. Conaway
The Mitten
In ELA we:
Learned the trick words or, for. We learned that the letter r can change the way a vowel sounds. We learned that or makes the sound that you hear in the word, horn. Knowing this rule helps us remember how to read these words.
Learned that the digraph -ck comes at the end of one syllable words, after a short vowel, as in rock, sock, luck, etc. We practiced building and writing words with -ck.
Reviewed when to use uppercase letters in sentences.
Practiced adding suspense to our writing. Students chose a mystery object to “hide” in a bag. Students described the object with some detail and some suspense so that the reader could guess the object after a few clues.
Read The Mitten and started working on a corresponding writing activity. In the book, several animals found shelter inside a lost mitten on the ground. Students chose an animal and used sensory details to write about finding a mitten with their animal inside. Similar to the hidden object writing activity, students didn’t say what animal was in the mitten until the very end so the reader could guess the animal based on their descriptions.
In Math we:
Learned a new work place called Spin and Subtract to practice counting back when subtracting with smaller numbers.
Practiced adding with dominoes, solving doubles facts, and creating fact family number sentences.
Finished our unit 2 assessment.
Introduced the fraction, ¼, in Number Corner. We came up with number stories to match the pictures on the cards, such as, “there was one cookie split into 4 equal parts. 4 mice wanted a piece of the cookie. Each mouse had ¼ of the cookie.”
Continued to collect hours on our analog clock. We are practicing reading time to the hour on a digital and analog clocks.
Celebrated our fourth decade day.
In Social Studies we:
Continued to discuss leadership. We learned that some groups elect leaders, like presidents. We read Duck for President, My Teacher for President, and Grace for President. Then, we went to voting booths in the classroom and cast our votes on a ballot. We tallied the votes and the winner was Grace! See below for a few pictures of our book character election day!
Students shared what qualities they thought a leader should have.
Mrs. Conaway joined our classroom to read about Veteran’s Day.
For SEL we:
Talked about recognizing and naming our feelings. We discussed different scenarios and what feelings we would have in those situations. We discussed that some feelings can be comfortable or uncomfortable in our bodies. We noticed that when we feel angry our bodies often become tense and tight. Naming our uncomfortable feelings can help us figure out what tools we can use to feel better.
Voting booths for our class election!
October
Week of 10/30-11/3
This week we read:
Brave Dave
How I Feel
Sofia Valdez, Future Pres
How to Catch a Dinosaur
Eraser
In ELA we:
Reviewed digraphs and practiced writing and building words with digraphs.
Learned the following trick words: to, into, we, he, she, be, me.
Reviewed sentence structure and practiced writing sentences that use learned phonics sounds.
Continued working on our paragraph about our magical bike.
Chose an emotion and used details to describe the emotion and what our faces look like when we feel that way. Then, we had others try to guess what emotion we wrote about. For example, students described happy as having a big smile and eyes that are squinting, and being sad as having watery eyes and a frown.
Continued with our reading centers.
In Math we:
Continued to practice fact families.
Used dominoes to write and solve addition problems and comparison problems.
Introduced doubles facts problems. Doubles facts are when the two addends are the same (4+4, 6+6, etc.) Knowing our doubles facts can help us become more automatic with our facts. We also introduced a new work place called, Double It to practice doubles facts.
Learned a new work place called Spin and Add. This work place encourages us to count on from the larger number when adding with numbers like 1, 2, or 3.
Introduced time to the hour and fractions (½) in our number corner. We’ll introduce ¼ next week.
In Science we:
Introduced weather. We discussed that there are different weather conditions that we can mention when talking about the weather. We could discuss the temperature, whether it’s sunny or cloudy, whether or not it’s windy, or whether it’s raining or snowing. We discussed that there might be a combination of conditions like a cold, sunny day or a warm, rainy day.
In Social Studies we:
Read Brave Dave and discussed the importance of being yourself.
Introduced our unit on leadership. We discussed what it means to be part of a group and that sometimes we have different roles in a group. One role in a group is a leader. A leader may make decisions for the group, influence others’ behavior, or make changes to make things better for the group.
Read Sophia Valdez, Future Pres and discussed how she was a leader.
For SEL we:
Practiced listening skills. First, we used whole body listening while I read a passage about a dog. Every time I said the word, dog, students had to raise their hands. Then we tried it again with a group of students having a conversation while I read the passage. The students in the side conversation group noticed that they didn’t hear the word dog at all because they were so focused on their side conversation. Others who sat near the side conversation group reported that it was difficult for them to listen to the passage because they started listening to the conversation. We stressed the importance of keeping our voices off while a speaker is talking because it helps everyone do their best listening.
Week of 10/23-10/27
This week we read:
The Very Last Leaf
Strictly No Elephants
I’m Like You and You’re Like Me
Red
Whole Body Listening
In ELA we:
Did dictation activities with sounds, words, and sentences.
Introduced the digraphs sh, th, wh, and ch. Digraphs are when two letters come together to make one sound, as in ship, chin, whistle, and thumb.
Practiced tapping out to build, read, and write cvc words and words with digraphs (ccvc or cvcc).
Worked on an elaborative detail writing project about a magical bike. We started with a graphic organizer that helped us plan out how big our magical bike is, what colors it is, how it’s decorated, what the seat is made of, what sounds it makes, and what makes it magical. We worked on turning the graphic organizer into a written paragraph with some sentence starters.
Continued with our reading centers.
In Math we:
Discussed addition strategies and their advantages and disadvantages. For example, one strategy is counting to add. An advantage might be that it is easy but a disadvantage could be that it takes a long time, you can run out of fingers, and you might make mistakes.
Practiced solving addition problems with Magic Domino Squares.
Worked on solving fact family number sentences. For example, if we looked at a domino with 4 dots on one side and 2 dots on another side, the fact family number sentences would be: 4+2=6, 2+4=6, 6-4=2, and 6-2=4.
Introduced a new workplace called, Sort the Sum. Students chose dominoes, found the sum, and earned a point if their sum was available on the game board.
Continued with our Number Corner workouts.
In Social Studies we:
Read Red to continue our belonging unit. We emphasized that we can have differences and still belong in the group and should still be treated with respect.
Read I’m Like You and You’re Like Me and discussed that even though we might have several differences, we also can have a lot in common with others.
Played the game Just Like Me to find commonalities with our classmates.
For SEL we:
Read and discussed the book, Whole Body Listening. We are practicing whole body listening in the classroom.
Read the book Strictly No Elephants and connected it to our core value of practicing empathy.
Discussed what our bodies feel like when we are calm and when we aren't calm. We revisited some breathing strategies to help us feel calm.
Learned a strategy called Color Search to help us shift our brains when we are feeling worried or losing some control. We can look around the room and find five objects in one color, four objects in another, and so on down to one object in a different color.
Week of 10/16-10/20
This week we read:
Howard the Average Gecko
The Leaf Thief
Surprise!
The Ugly Vegetables
Little Unicorn is Angry
Domino Addition
In ELA we:
Continued tapping out to read, build, or write cvc words.
Did dictation activities with sounds, words, and sentences. We reviewed sentence formation. I wrote a sentence with errors (lowercase letter to start sentence, incorrect letter formation, missing punctuation and finger spaces, etc.) and students identified and corrected my errors.
Learned the trick words: a, and, the, is, his, of.
Learned that some letters can change the way the letter “a” sounds in words, specifically, the letter “n”. We learned that we can glue -an together to say /an/ as in fan. We used this knowledge to help us tap out our new trick word: and.
Learned that the letter s can say /z/ at the end of a word. Knowing this helps us read the words is and his.
Looked at a picture of popcorn and collaborated to describe sensory details to match the photo.
Discussed elaborative detail. I showed a picture of three different dogs and told students that I was thinking of an awesome dog. I asked students which dog I was thinking of and they learned that I didn’t have enough detail describe the dog. They asked me questions to learn more descriptive details about the dog. Finally, we put our details together to describe the dog in a paragraph. Students then practiced describing another dog with elaborative details. Some details included soft and silky fur, curly and fluffy fur, caramel brown fur, floppy ears, pointy ears, etc.
Visited the Book Fair. Thank you for your donations and to those who volunteered! Students definitely felt the magic of books this week!
In Math we:
Started our next unit on adding and subtracting strategies within 10. Currently, we are using dominoes to help us add.
Read Domino Addition to help see different combinations of dots on dominoes and turning them into number sentences.
Played Domino Top Draw! Students laid dominoes dot-side down. Then, they each picked a domino. Students added to find the total of dots on their domino, and the partner with the larger total of dots got to keep both dominoes.
Reviewed <, >, and = symbols.
Playing Domino Add and Compare. This game is similar to Domino Top Draw, except students recorded the number sentence, their partners number sentence, and used terms greater than, less than, and equal to, to describe their totals.
Continued with our Number Corner workouts.
Met with our fifth grade friends and did a leaf rubbing! We built upon the measuring skills we practiced last week by using unifix cubes to measure our leaf!
In Science we:
Investigated how water can be used to show that air takes up space. We put a crumpled paper towel in a vial and submerged the vial upside down into a basin of water. When we removed the vial from the water, the paper towel was still dry. Later, when we submerged and tilted the vial, the air escaped from the vial and we saw air bubbles. Water rushed into the vial and the paper towel was wet. We also had a styrofoam ball that floated on the surface of the water. When we put the vial on top of the ball and submerged the vial, the ball sank to the bottom of the basin. Both demonstrations illustrated how air took up space in the vial. It was a reminder that even though we couldn’t see the air in the vial, we knew it was there because it took up space. We practiced making predictions and discussing observations. We also answered the focus question in our science journals.
In Social Studies we:
Read The Ugly Vegetables and discussed the importance of appreciating differences.
For SEL we:
Read Little Unicorn is Angry and discussed another breathing strategy. We discussed how we can make a “toolbox” of strategies to use when we feel angry, sad, or frustrated, to help us feel better.
Week of 10/10-10/13
This week we read:
Little Elliot Fall Friends
Strega Nona
The Squirrels Who Squabbled
In ELA we:
Started our reading centers including reading, word work, lexia, and teacher groups.
Started tapping out words to help us read and build cvc words.
Started doing dictation of sounds and cvc words on whiteboards.
Read Strega Nona and identified the character, the setting, and the story critical object.
Discussed the 5 senses and practiced using sensory details to describe a food we ate at lunch or snack.
In math we:
Practiced identifying missing values and writing matching missing addend number sentences.
Measured objects around the room with towers of ten unifix cubes or our feet. We noticed when we measure the rug with our feet we had different measurements. Students noticed that if our feet are different sizes, we will get different measurements.
Identified numbers that come before and after target numbers.
Continued with our Number Corner workouts.
In science we:
Built parachutes! We observed that air pushes up on the canopy and makes it fall slowly. We wrote about our parachutes in our science notebook.
In SEL we:
Started to talk about engine speeds and Zones of Regulation. We discussed that we can think of our body as an engine that needs to run at different speeds based on our activity. Our engine would need to run faster for recess or P.E. than it would at independent reading. If our engine speed matches the speed required for our activity, we are in the Green Zone. We feel focused, calm, and ready to learn. If our engine speed is too slow for our activity we are in the Blue Zone. We may feel tired, bored, sluggish, or sad. If our engine speed is running slightly faster than what’s required for our activity, we’re in the Yellow Zone. We might feel silly, frustrated, nervous, wiggly, and lose some control. If someone in the Yellow Zone doesn’t make a change to slow their engine down, they may end up in the Red Zone where their engine is running too fast and they are out of control. They might also be angry, yelling, and mad.
Discussed that all feelings are okay- it’s natural to feel mad sometimes. However, the choices that we make while mad are important eg. doing something destructive would not be an acceptable choice, but choosing a tool to calm down would be a good option.
Started to discuss tools for each zone. We will revisit this soon to come up with tools we can use when we are in different zones. We highlighted that tools that work best for one person, might not work for another so we may need to try out several.
Week of 10/2-10/6
This week we read:
Not Quite Narwhal
The Invisible Boy
The Group Plan
Have You Filled a Bucket Today?
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves
Jabari Jumps
We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt
In ELA we:
Reviewed the letter name, sound, and lowercase formation for the following letters: v, w,x,y, q, and z.
Reviewed alphabetical order.
Read The Invisible Boy and wrote about what we could do to include others.
Discussed that narrative stories have a beginning, middle, and an end. We noticed that the middle is generally the longest part and has the most action.
Discussed that narrative stories can be character-problem-solution stories or personal experience stories. We read Jabari Jumps and discussed the characters, the problem, and the solution. We also discussed the events of the beginning, middle, and end.
Read We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt and filled out a personal experience narrative worksheet.
In Math we:
Played a game called Show Me the Numbers. One partner built a number with cubes on a ten frame and the other partner identified how many cubes there were and how many spaces on the ten frame were missing.
Learned a new workplace where we used a spinner to graph nickels and pennies.
Worked with number lines that counted by 10s from 0-100.
Practiced identifying numbers 0-20 on the number rack.
Measured our hands and other objects around the room with popsicle sticks.
Made observations about our new calendar cards for October. So far, we’ve had combinations of green apples and red apples, as well as leaves in and out of a basket. We are turning these pictures into number stories and equations.
Started collecting and graphing pattern blocks for the month of October. We use a spinner to see how many pattern blocks to grab from our mystery container. Then, we graph what kinds of pattern blocks we picked. The pattern blocks we are using are: trapezoid, rhombus, triangle, and hexagon.
In Science we:
Explored air! We used straws and paper towel squares to investigate the question “what can air do?” We learned that air can make things move and pick things up. We wrote and illustrated this in our science notebooks.
For SEL we:
Read The Group Plan and discussed how others feel when you choose to follow your own plan instead of the group plan. We reviewed the expectation that we follow the group plan while at school.
Listened to Mrs. Charton read Hey, Little Ant to discuss our core value of practicing empathy. We discussed that if we were in the ant’s shoes we wouldn’t want to be squished, so we shouldn’t squish the ant.
Watched a video about empathy and connected what we learned to the books, The Invisible Boy and Hey, Little Ant.
Had our first All School Meeting and celebrated our school community.
Discussed how others feel when we include them.
Read Have You Filled a Bucket Today and discussed that when we are kind to someone it “fills their bucket” and makes them feel good. Making others feel good fills our bucket as well. However, if we do something unkind, it dips into someone else’s bucket. When we dip into someone else’s bucket, we dip into our own bucket as well. We are striving to be bucket fillers in first grade.
September
Week of 9/26-9/29
It was great to meet you at Curriculum Night! Here is a link to the slides I shared if you’d like to take another look.
This week we read:
Lacey Walker Nonstop Talker
Giraffes Can’t Dance
Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse
Suki’s Kimono
How to Be a Giraffe
In ELA we:
Reviewed the letter name, sound, and lowercase formation for the following letters: d, s, e, r, p, j, l, h, k.
Designed a book cover for a narrative text. We answered questions such as what was the problem in the story, what was the solution, and what was the author’s purpose. For the narrative cover, we drew our own illustrations. For the informational cover last week, we printed a real photograph for the covers.
Read Giraffes Can’t Dance and discussed growth mindset. We wrote about something we couldn’t do before and now we can since we’ve practiced.
Continued to practice independent work for reading centers.
In Math we:
Introduced a new workplace to practice our number formation skills.
Continued to practice using number racks to identify numbers.
Used number racks to solve story problems.
Matched teen numbers to a corresponding number sentence (i.e. 16 would match with 10+6=16).
Continued with our Number Corner “workouts”. Make sure to see the picture below to see one of our favorite "workouts" in action.
Played Ten and More Bingo.
In Science we:
Watched a video about how scientists learn by making observations, asking questions, and exploring. We discussed that this year we will be scientists and practice these skills.
Learned about the ABCD’s of Modeling. When we draw scientific models we want to make sure they are accurate, big, colorful, and detailed with labels. We practiced by drawing a model of a house and labeling parts such as roof, windows, door, chimney, etc. Students will draw scientific models of our experiments this year.
In Social Studies we:
Read Suki’s Kimono and discussed the importance of being yourself. We also discussed the importance of being respectful of others' clothing, languages, and experiences when they are different from your own.
For SEL we:
Finished sharing our posters about the people and places that are important to us.
Finished reading Thinking Thoughts and Feeling Feelings. We discussed how our thoughts and feelings can influence our actions. Sometimes these actions can impact other people.
One of our Number Corner "workouts" in action. Students LOVE finding different equations to match the number of days in school. I challenged them to create equations with more than one addend and they continue to surprise me with what they come up with!
Week of 9/18-9/22
Please save the date for Curriculum Night- Thursday, 9/28 at 5:30. I look forward to meeting you, sharing some work your students have completed, and going over the first grade curriculum.
This week we read:
Seasons
Fall
Clifford the Big Red Dog
Dogs
Thinking Thoughts and Feeling Feelings
Whoever You Are
In ELA we:
Practiced having different reading centers to build up our independent working stamina. We had Lexia, a word work center, or reading activity. We will slowly increase the amount of time we spend working on our centers.
Reviewed the letter name, sound, and lowercase formation for the following letters: t,b,f,n,m,i,u,c,o,a,g. We practiced writing these letters in our handwriting notebooks.
Continued to compare narrative and informational texts. We read Clifford the Big Red Dog and Dogs. As a class we made a book cover to match each book and answered questions such as the topic of the informational text, the author’s purpose of the informational text, the problem in the narrative text, the solution in the narrative text, and the author’s purpose. Students then chose a topic they know a lot about and made their own “informational” book cover. They answered questions about the topic and the purpose of their “book” as well. Next week, we will create a book cover for a narrative book on a similar topic and compare our book covers!
In Math we:
Worked on the fall iReady diagnostic.
Made our own number racks and worked on showing ways to make numbers between 0-10 on our number racks.
Used our number racks to solve a story problem.
Practiced counting by 10’s to 100
Continued with our number corner “workouts” of updating the calendar, making observations, and collecting coins.
Celebrated our first decade day on the 10th day of school. We started counting forward and backwards from 10-19.
Created different number sentences to match the number of days in school such as 10+4, 9+5, 5+5+4 to show 14 on the 14th day of school. Students love coming up with as many different ways as possible.
Matched ten frame models with corresponding number sentences. For example, if a picture had a full ten frame and 3 more, it would match with 10+3=13.
Explored the following work places: unifix cubes, dominoes, pattern blocks, polydrons, and geoboards.
In Science we:
Read the books, Seasons and Fall. We discussed the seasonal changes that happen between summer and fall.
In Social Studies we:
Read and discussed the book, Whoever You Are. We discussed that people have many differences such as coming from different places, speaking different languages, etc., and still have many things in common.
For SEL we:
Started reading Thinking Thoughts and Feeling Feelings. We are beginning to discuss how our thoughts and feelings are connected. Next week, we will discuss how our thoughts and feelings can have an impact on others around us.
Read a social story about staying on task before starting our reading centers. We also discussed what independent work should look and sound like. We will continue to review our expectations throughout the year.
Revisited our hopes and dreams for first grade and wrote them down and illustrated them for a display in the classroom.
Continued to build our community through morning meetings and closing circles.
Week of 9/11-9/15
We had another great week of school. This week we continued to practice routines, get to know each other, and dive into some academics. A highlight of each day is our morning meeting and closing circle. Students loved the 1,2,3 Pop greeting this week. During closing circle, we’ve started to share “celebrations and shout outs” and students have been giving shout outs to the whole class for being kind and great classmates. It’s such a sweet group! Read below for more details about our week:
This week we read:
Big Al
How Rocket Learned to Read
Chrysanthemum
Ways to Welcome
The Someone New
Clark the Shark
Look, a Shark!
I Promise
We Will Rock Our Classmates
Routines we learned:
Using whiteboards
Transitioning between different activities
Responding to the chime
In ELA we:
Started our Empowering Writers curriculum through read alouds to introduce different kinds of texts. We discussed narrative (fiction) stories and informational (non-fiction) texts. We discussed the characteristics of each, the author's purpose, and practiced identifying different texts. We read Big Al and The Someone New to look at narrative texts.
Read Clark the Shark and Look, a Shark! to look at the difference between a narrative text about sharks and an informational text about sharks. We noticed differences on the covers as well as in the content and structure.
Worked on a “Guess Who” activity where students wrote three facts about themselves using sentence starters such as “I like to play ___”, “I like to eat____”. “My favorite color is ____”, “My favorite special is ___”, and “I love ____”.
Read How Rocket Learned to Read and discussed that we will work on reading a lot this year.
In Math we:
Continued to practice counting forwards and backwards within 40. We also practiced skip counting to 20.
Practiced identifying tallies from 1-20 and representing numbers as tally marks.
Worked on previous work places: unifix cubes, pattern blocks, dominoes.
We also introduced new work places: geoboards and square and triangle polydrons. Students continued to explore with these new manipulatives.
Continued our number corner math “workouts”.
For SEL we:
Discussed our hopes and dreams for first grade. We made a list of goals that everyone wants to accomplish this year. Many students shared that they wanted to learn to read, learn to solve more math problems, or make new friends.
We used our hopes and dreams to draft a list of class rules and expectations. We want to make our classroom a place where everyone can achieve their hopes and dreams so we need certain rules in place to make that possible. We made a long list and pared down to main ideas for our Class Promise. We agreed to: try our best, be safe, be respectful of others and our materials, listen to others and follow the group plan.
Each student traced their handprint, wrote their name on it, and attached it to our Class Promise. This will be displayed in the classroom and be used as a guideline for behavior throughout the year. We also connected our class promise to the book, I Promise.
Shared our posters of the people and places that are important to us.
Week of 9/5-9/8
We had a great first week of school! We spent a lot of time learning our routines and getting to know each other. This is such a lovely group of first graders and I’m looking forward to our year together! Read below for more details about our week!
This week we read:
First Day Jitters
A Letter from Your Teacher on the First Day of School
All Are Welcome
Pig the Winner
Library Mouse read by Ms. Conaway, our new first grade reading specialist!
We Don’t Eat Our Classmates
Routines we learned:
Arrival
Choice time
Transition Song
Lining Up
Using the code word
Stack and Pack
Desk Clean
In ELA we:
Listened to and discussed many read alouds!
In Math we:
Started our new math curriculum, Bridges! We practiced skip counting and representing data on a graph.
Started Number Corner. Number Corner is a daily math routine where we look at the calendar and do various math “workouts”. This month we’re observing patterns of tallies, popsicle sticks, and ten frames, tracking the days in school, collecting pennies and nickels, and working with a number line!
Introduced “work places”- a component of the Bridges curriculum. Work places are independent math activities. This week, our workplaces involved exploring unifix cubes, pattern blocks, and dominoes.
For SEL we:
Started sharing our posters of the people and places that are important to us. Students have loved learning about each other and making connections with their peers.
Read Pig the Winner and discussed winning, losing, and playing kindly with friends. We used this book to launch choice time activities. Students are working together and playing respectfully with each other. It’s been great to see!
Mrs. Brigham, our assistant principal, came in to introduce our new core values and led a discussion about how we can follow the core values on the bus.
Read We’re All Wonders and discussed how we are all different and those differences make us special and unique!
Played Find A Friend Who… games to learn more about our interests.
Played a Stand Up, Sit Down game. We asked questions like Stand up if you like the snow and students could look around and make connections with their peers.
Played Four Corners with ice breaker questions and with silly questions. Some silly questions included “if you could fill a swimming pool with something, would you choose… gold coins, chocolate syrup, ball pit balls, or jelly.
Had morning meetings and closing circles to build our community. Building community is the focus for the next several weeks. We will learn best when we feel comfortable and safe in our classroom community!