Week 8  September 26 - 30, 2016

Please note parents there is NO SCHOOL next Friday September 30th - so the READING GROUPS will be cancelled also!

I am looking forward to beginning our groups this next Wednesday.  Check the sign-up genius for times and designations.

Thank you for bringing back the book bags on Monday!  Of course, chapter book students just return when they need a new book.

Parents, I am starting to give back the student's spelling tests on Monday.  You will find them in their planner on Monday so you may check and see early in the week what they need to focus on for the week.

Also, we did not get to the recitation of the Pasteur poem on Friday, so your children have one more weekend to work on them.  I will test them on Monday.

This week in 1B:

Literature – This week we are continuing Owl at Home and working in our packets. We are also starting reading groups! We can’t wait to take turns reading aloud and sequencing stories in small groups. A huge thank you to those of you signed up to read with us! Homework is to continue reading every night from the leveled readers or chapter books.

Spalding – In Spalding, we only have 20 words, as it is a short week. Our spelling test will be on Thursday

Monday: call, long, love, then, house, year, to, I, as, sent

Tuesday: alone, lone, one, has, some, if, how, her, them, other

Phonograms to practice: h, l, qu, y, z, ea, ew, ng, th, ui

Writing – We will do copy work and narration exercises from Caddie Woodlawn this week

Grammar – In Grammar, it’s game week! Each day we will play a different game to review nouns and verbs.

Poem – “Autumn Woods” by James Tippett – we’ll be practicing this one in class for fun the next two weeks in honor of the beginning of Autumn! (Note: This one won’t go home to practice. We’ll send our next one home after Fall Break.

Idiom – It at first you don’t succeed…

Literature – This week we are continuing Owl at Home and working in our packets. We are also starting reading groups! We can’t wait to take turns reading aloud and sequencing stories in small groups.  Homework is to continue reading every night from the leveled readers.

Spalding – In Spalding, we only have 20 words, as it is a short week. Our spelling test will be on Thursday.

Monday: call, long, love, then, house, year, to, I, as, send

Tuesday: alone, lone, one, has, some, if, how, her, them, other

Phonograms to practice: h, l, qu, y, z, ea, ew, ng, th, u

 

Writing – We will do copy work and narration exercises from Caddie Woodlawn this week

Grammar – In Grammar, it’s game week! Each day we will play a different game to review nouns and verbs.

Poem – “Autumn Woods” by James Tippett – we’ll be practicing this one in class for fun the next two weeks in honor of the beginning of Autumn! (Note: This one won’t go home to practice. We’ll send our next one home after Fall Break!

Idiom – It at first you don’t succeed…

 

Math:

This week we will work towards mastery of both writing and speaking our subtraction facts! We will solve number bonds and relate subtraction to addition based on our different "parts" and our "whole" of each number bond. We will also be practicing counting down from 10 and using a number line to help us solve subtraction problems. It's going to be a fun week with lots of math games and new concepts :)! 

 

History:

This week we are continuing our study of ancient Mesopotamia with the study of the Code of Hammurabi.

It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. The sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the code, and partial copies exist on a seven and a half foot stone stele and various clay tablets. The code consists of 282 laws.  We will also read the classic epic of the world’s oldest and most important legend.  The Story of Gilgamesh was first carved onto clay tablets in Mesopotamia.  Its message is of compassion, forgiveness, and friendship and the story has echoed through the ages from its origins of  over 5000 years ago.

 

 

 

Virtue of the month - Citizenship

 

What is a good citizen?

A good citizen is someone who respects others and their property. He/she is helpful and considerate, willing to put others first.  He/she listens to the views of others and thinks about what they have to say.  ~Unknown~

 

 

Have a wonderful, safe week!

 

 

 

 

Week 7   September 19-23, 2016

What a delightfully busy week we had in 1B!  Everyone is happy and ready to learn each day, and making progress in their reading and Rocket Math!  Parents, working with your child each night is truly helping them to meet their classroom goals.

We enjoyed making wheat flour from wheat grain, and wondered at the complex process of making bread!

We had fun working with our classroom manipulatives, and practicing making 10's.

 

 

Ask me about:
Ask me about the layers of the ocean.
Ask me about the words ancient and civilizations.
Ask me about the many ways of making "10".
Ask me about the many ways I a good citizen in my class.
Ask me how to make bread.

This week in 1B!

Literature: We are starting Owl at Home this week! We will be learning about the author, Arnold Lobel, on Monday, as well as how to track where we are in a book using a bookmark. On Tuesday, we will learn a little bit about owls, and then we will begin reading on Wednesday! Please make sure your child has their book by Wednesday so they can follow along! We also have reading groups coming up soon!  Many of you have already signed up for your reading spot!  Thank you so much!   (Note: volunteers must be fingerprint cleared to work with us in the classroom!)

 

Spalding: We have 30 words as normal this week and will test on Friday! Please make sure your child is including all markings on the words Monday-Wednesday. We have noticed quite a few homework assignments missing these. The markings let us know that your child understands the phonograms and sounds being said in each word.

Monday: tooth, teeth, worm, day, eat, sits, sit, lot, box, school

Tuesday: belong, door, floor, yes, low, soft, stands, stand, yard, bring

Wednesday: tell, five, ball, law, ask, just, way, get, home, much

Phonograms to practice: f, g, j, k, w, au, aw, ck, wh, wor

Writing: In writing, we have copy work and narration exercises from Peter Rabbit.

Grammar: In grammar, we will continue our Question and Answer flow to name parts of a sentence. We will look at longer sentences and find the “heart of the sentence,” which is the subject noun and accompanying verb. We will also explore action verbs within poetry and stories this week 

Poem: “The Pasture” by Robert Frost – We will recite this week

Idiom/Proverb: If at first you don’t succeed, then try, try again.

 

Math:
 

In math this week we will continue with subtraction! We will switch between using different hands on items and visuals as we learn all about how subtraction relates to addition. We will use what we have mastered during our addition practice to create subtraction stories and sentences. Our first subtraction test will be on Wednesday and I am excited for us to make more and more connections as we learn even more about number bonds and how parts and wholes relate to subtraction. 

 

Science:
 

This week in science we will be studying animals! We will begin by learning about food chains and the herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores that are a part of them. We will learn why all parts of a food chain are important. We will also classify animals based on their groups:  mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. We will learn what is unique about each group, and which characteristics animals have in common with each other. 

 

History:

This week in History we will be studying he ancient civilization of Mesopotamia, which means “the land between the rivers”.  The two rivers are the Tigris and the Euphrates.  We will learn how these early citizens survived and thrived.  We will discover that many of their inventions have and are still being used today in one form or another.  Students will learn about their temple called ziggurats, and their ancient for of writing called cuneiform writing. 
 

Miscellaneous: We have our first healthy snack day this Thursday! We have been learning all about fruit and its benefits in P.E. Please join us in packing a piece of fruit to eat on Thursday!

 

 

Thank you to those of you who were able to make it to Math/Phonics Night on Wednesday! I hope it was useful. J I had a question that was raised and it’s been on my mind for the last several days. Here is my answer to it:

 

Q: What are the differences between markings, rules, and jobs?

A: Markings are always going to show us the sounds that are being made. We underline two letter phonograms, for instance, to address that it’s not the single letter phonograms put together. We double underline phonograms to call special attention to them and show that they are not making the expected sound (or no sound at all in the case of silent final e). Numbers are markings that tell us which sound is being made when the phonogram has more than one sound and isn’t saying its first sound.

 

A rule is the explanation for why the sound is being made or why we had to use a particular phonogram. It’s basically giving us some background as to why the word is spelled the way it is. Ex: Rule 4 telling us that the vowels (a, e, o, u) can say their names at the end of a syllable. Rule 6 letting us know that English words can’t end in “I”, so therefore we have to pick its partner “y”.

 

A job only applies to silent final e. Silent final e is all a part of rule 7. Within rule 7, there are 5 jobs:

Job 1: vowel consonant e (e is helping the vowel say its name)

Job 2: “v/u job 2!” (English words can’t end in v or u so we put on an e)

Job 3: “c/g job 3!” (the silent final e following the c or g changes it to its second sound “s” and “j”)

Job 4: Every syllable must have a vowel (Ex: little à lit    tl(e))

Job 5: no job e (We don’t know why – it’s just there!)

 

I have attached an interesting article about the importance of handwriting, as well as the math packets that we passed out. There are some fun math games included that you can try at home! Also included are Spalding sight word flash cards – these are common words that are on the spelling lists – some we have taught already and some are upcoming! (The links are in the margin).


Citizenship:

I a man be gracious and courteous to strangers,  it shows he is a citizen of the world.  ~ Francis Bacon~

I hope you have a week of delightful adventure! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 6  September 12-16, 2016


Thank you parents for all that you are doing with your children!  We had 100% of our homework come in and almost all of our readers returned for new readers this week.  This all may seem small, but believe me it is critical to the progress we will make this year . I have added a letter below from Ms. Ellingson who attended the Q&A at the coffee shop last week.  Hopefully this will answer some of your questions.

I had the pleasure of attending the first grade coffee shop conversations last week, and there were many questions regarding Spalding homework. We will be having K-2 Spalding/Singapore Night on Wednesday, September 14^th (from 6-8 pm), which should answer many questions, but until then, I would like to try my best to answer some questions that arose. You will notice a slight change going forward, in that there are three columns instead of two to write in. Many students were simply copying the words and not learning the correct spellings, so we took the spelling words off the Spalding paper that they will write on. These words with markings will go home on a master list every Monday (Tuesday in the case of a holiday) that the parents will hold onto. For the first time through, please read the words aloud to your child and have them write the words (with markings) in the first column. You will do around 10 words a day, Monday-Wednesday, to make a total of 30 words for the week. After the initial reading of the words, please check your child’s work, ensuring that all markings are there and that words are spelled correctly. Please also review their handwriting, reminding them to mind the midpoint and keep letters resting on the base line. After the first column is completed and checked, cover it up with a piece of paper and do the same process over in the second column. If your child is comfortable with the spelling at this point, they may copy the words in their best handwriting into the third column. However, if they need more practice, do the same process again, covering the previous two columns. It may seem like a tedious process, but when done correctly, it works! 30 words a week is a lot to learn but it is definitely doable if the process is done right!

 

Another thing you will notice on the master spelling list each week is a box of phonograms to practice. These 10 phonograms change weekly and are the phonograms being tested on Friday. There is also a copy work sentence almost every day to practice handwriting and finding particular parts of speech that are being covered in grammar. While this not collected as a grade, it is still important to practice. J 

I hope that this clears up any confusion regarding Spalding. We look forward to diving deeper into the curriculum with you at Spalding

Congratulations to Ethan for receiving the responsibility virtue award for the month of August.  We are very proud of you!

 

 

This Week in 1B:

 

Literature: We are continuing Cinderella stories from around the world! This week we will read about Pear Blossom and Yeh-Shen (the Korean and Chinese versions of our classic tale). On Friday we will reflect on our favorite version of the story and decorate a shoe for Cinderella.

Homework: Please bring in Owl at Home this week if you have not done so yet. We will begin reading it next week!

Spalding: We have 30 words as normal this week and will test on Friday! Homework will be the same formatting as last week since it worked well; however, we will make the word break down a little clearer on the master page for which words need to be practiced each night.

Monday: live, live, hill, late, big, bag, beg, bog, bug (10 words)

Tuesday: mother, three, land, cold, hot, hat, child, ice, play, sea, see (11 words)

Wednesday: bird, cool, earth, feed, fur, green, oil, paint, pool (9 words)

 

 

Phonograms to practice: h, m, n, o, u, ai, ea, ee, oi, ur

Writing: In writing, we have copy work and narration exercises from Mary Poppins!

 

 

Grammar: In grammar, we will begin our Question and Answer flow. Students will learn how to use this flow to name the parts of a sentence, with an emphasis on nouns and verbs this week. For example, “Dogs played.” Who played? The dogs (dogs = subject noun) What did the dogs do? They played (played = verb)

 

Poem: “The Pasture” by Robert Frost – Please practice stanza 2. We will recite next week!

We will start off our math week by reviewing everything we have learned about addition so far with some interactive games and new activities. I'm looking forward to seeing how much everyone has learned about addition facts within 10, number bonds, counting, and all other important addition skills. On Wednesday, we will take a cumulative addition test which will allow us to demonstrate what we know and also move on to a very new and exciting unit of subtraction! Many of us have already been so excited about subtraction and have demonstrated our "take away" knowledge so I can't wait to keep learning together.

Math: 

Homework-

Monday: Unit 3 Chapter 3 Test B

Tuesday: Cumulative Units 1-3 Test B

Wednesday: WB 36-37

Thursday: WB 38-39

Friday: WB 40-41 

Science:

This week we will continue to learn about habitats, and the plants and animals that live in them. The class will learn about two different water habitats:  ponds and oceans. The students will study the different ocean zones and learn about how the environment changes in deep water. We will wrap up our habitat unit by completing the world habitat mobile, and discussing similarities and differences between habitat.

 

History:

This week in History we will be learning about ancient history and civilizations from long ago.  Students will become aware of where they fit on the historical time line, and learn about how people from the past learned to exist with things that surrounded them.  They will learn about the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter, and also realize how we also have those basic needs today.

Ask me about:

Who was the Cinderella from Egypt?
How many oceans and continents are there?
Ask me to add a number plus 2!
Ask me about the great artist I learned about in art.

 

 

Virtue of the month:

 

Citizenship:

We honor rules and laws and respond to authority in obedience.  We give of our time and abilities to serve others.  We uphold liberty and social equality through respect for individual differences and knowledge of our democratic system.


I really hope you know I am here for you.  If you think your child would benefit from morning tutoring just send an email.  I have already spoken to parents who have children with this need, but I am happy to accommodate.  Have a great week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 5   September 6-9, 2016

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend of NO HOMEWORK!
We will have the students return their readers and book bags to me on Tuesday when they return to school.  The students will read their books to me and then I will decide to move them up according to their fluency.  The goal is to be in chapter books by fourth quarter! :)

I have finished their Dibels testing this week and I have a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses.  I will be asking some of your children to meet me for tutoring in the early morning if possible.

We are working very hard on our Rocket Math Challenges.  We sent home a sheet to use each night on the level your student is on.  Hopefully this is helping them to get faster.  Please time them for one minute each time.

This week in 1B

Literature: We are continuing to study stories from around the world, but this time we are comparing Cinderella stories! We will be reading the Western version that is very familiar and comparing it to the Egyptian version (Rhodopis). We will also read a story called “Billy Beg,” a Cinderella story with an interesting twist – a male main character! J

 

Spalding: Due to the holiday on Monday, we will only have 19 words this week! There will be two old words “have” and “are”. These will help us to review jobs of silent final e and apply job 5 to a new word. Our Spelling Test will be on Friday as normal! Please note that the phonograms on the sheet going home every Monday are the phonograms we are testing on Fridays (on the back of the Spelling Test). Please have your child practice the sounds of these two phonograms each night! We will also move to writing our words 3 times, instead of 2. For the third time, your child may copy the words without markings. Please dictate the words as though it were a spelling test so that the words are practiced and memorized for the first two columns. (This means it should not be completed during study hall after school; math and reading can be done during this time instead!)

 

Tuesday: today, look, did, like, six, boy, book, by, have, are

Wednesday: had, over, must, make, street, say, come, hand, ring

Writing: In Writing with Ease, our stories this week come from the Grimm Brothers: “The Frog Prince”.

 

Grammar: We are very excited to learn a new jingle this week, as we begin our study of verbs! We will be learning about action and linking verbs, with more of an emphasis on action verbs this week. Students will identify verbs in sentences and create phrases with subject noun and verb pairs. We will play some sorting games with nouns and verbs to get students up and moving as well!

 

Poem: We are beginning a new poem this week called “The Pasture” by Robert Frost. We will study stanza 1 this week, stanza 2 the following week, and practice the poem in its entirety and recite at the end of the 3^rd week. (Recitations on September 22 and 23)

 

Idiom: Review of our first three idioms: Sour Grapes, Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, and Golden Rule

Math:

This week we will practice writing addition sentences and stories and students will work together to create their own numbers stories. We will also be moving towards even better mastery of addition as we practice our addition facts and begin to commit number combinations for numbers 1-10 to memory. I'm looking forward to using many different visuals and hands on activities this week to help everyone stay engaged and enthused. 

 

Science:

This week we will study habitats and the plants and animals that live in them. We will be focusing on polar regions and rainforests. We will review some of the habitats that we have learned about so far, and we will find similarities and differences between them. We will also continue to add on to our world habitats mobiles!

Geography: 

This week we will finish learning about the landforms of the earth.  We will discuss and recognize the equator, northern and southern hemisphere, and the prime meridian.  We will read a book about our individual location on the globe, and then do an activity in relation to the information.

 

 

Virtue of the Month - Citizenship

 

The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of our is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.   ~ Theodore Roosevelt ~