Friday, September 11th Newsletter

Reading Workshop

 This week in reading workshop we explored four ways in which first graders enjoy a book.  Using three favorite mentor texts of mine, I modeled for the class how pictures, rhyme and repetition and words we know enable us to understand a story.  After each lesson, students practiced these three strategies using their own collection of texts.  Next week we will get to “WORK” and learn how to use decoding strategies to read with accuracy.

Writing Workshop

In our writing workshop this week we brought a summer memory to life.  Using one memory as inspiration for our writing, we began with an introductory sentence.  Next, we added a second sentence to share one detail from our memory.  This first writing will be an integral part of each student's writing portfolio.  At the end of the year your child can reflect upon his/her writing progress throughout first grade.

Math

Our math instruction this week focused on two concepts; using tallies to count and record numbers and solving math word problems.  We began the week with a review of tallies and how we record them accurately.  We made connections between our skip counting by multiples of five and counting bundles of five tallies.  We then learned how tallies can help us record information when completing a survey or gathering data.  We completed our own “Favorite Recess Activity” class survey.  We wrapped up our math instruction with word problems.  We learned how to isolate key words to figure out the numbers needed to solve the problem and identify the operation needed.  We will return to both of these concepts throughout the school year. 

Science/Social Studies

Classroom scientists were thrilled to observe our pumpkin sprouts.  We identified the parts of the plant including the roots, stem and leaf.  We used our magnifying glasses to observe the thin, delicate roots.

In social studies we focused on building the foundation of our kind classroom.  We read through our first Scholastic News magazine about friendship and discussed the book, Enemy Pie.