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! :)