Reptile Guy

Here's some snapshots from our party!

Thank You

Parents,

 

I would like to thank you for your extremely thoughtful gift.  You are very thoughtful and generous individuals.  I am blessed to be working with such an amazing group of families.  Thank you for your generosity, and thank you for allowing me to work with your children to support them in their learning and goals.  I hope you all enjoy the holiday season, and I look forward to the new year!

December 15-19

Happy Holidays, First Grade!  This first half of the school year has been packed with a lot of learning, fun, and hard work.  Take a look at what we've been up to as we wrap up our final week before Winter Break:

Reading
We are continuing to navigate our nonfiction books by...

• Letting our questions and new learning lead to new questions
• Identifying a main topic
• Identifying key details
• Reviewing nonfiction text feature

Question:  Which text features can help you identify the main topic?

Writing
This week we are wrapping up our Small Moments Unit by...

• Revising
• Editing
• Peer Editing
• Publishing
• CELEBRATING!

Question:  What makes a small moment?  What are a couple writing skills you have put into your published small moment book?

Math
After ending our measurement and data, students began to explore combinations of 10 by learning these new games...

• Make 10
• How Many Am I Hiding?
• Counters in a Cup
• Tens Go Fish

Question:  What are all the combinations of 10 you can make by combining 2 numbers?

Science
We are coming to an end in our Balance and Motion Unit.  This week we wrapped up our unit by investigating...

• Wheels and axles
• Rolling cups

Question:  How can you get a cup to roll straight?

Coming up...
Winter Break- 12/22-1/2
Late Start-  1/7
Abra-kid-abra Math Residency Program- 1/12-1/14
FGIF Event- 1/16

Zoomers!

The Cheetahs investigated how to spin and rotate zoomers today.

December 8-12

Even while I was out on Monday and Tuesday, the Cheetahs remained very busy throughout the week!  Check out all of this week's learning...

In reading we continued with our non-fiction texts unit.  We explored:

• The purpose of labels, charts and diagrams
• Schema (what we know before we read)
• Reading for a purpose
• Thinking about what we've learned as we read 
• Using the table of contents
• Reading to answer questions

Question:  How does the table of contents help a non-fiction reader prepare to read a book?

In writing this week we...

• Re-read our writing
• Added dialogue
• Added hooks 
• Revisited show not tell descriptions
• Added endings

Question:  How did you add dialogue to your story to make it more real?

In math we wrapped up our measurement and data unit by...

• Reviewing time to the hour and half hour
• Reviewing analog and digital time
• Completing a summative assessment of learning
• Introducing combinations of 10

Question:  Can you name all the combinations of 10?  

Our first grade scientists continued exploring balance and motion by completing...

• The pencil trick
• Exploring tops
• Exploring zoomers
• Creating mobiles
• Reviewing terms such as counterweights, balance, stability, and motion

Question:  Which trick from this week was your favorite and why?

Coming up...

12/19 Winter Party 2:45-3:45

12/22-1/2 Winter Break

1/7 Late Start

1/12-1/14 Abra-kid-abra math residency program

Twin Day 12-12-14

Twin Day is this Friday!

Balance and Motion

Check out our scientists hard at work creating mobiles and performing the pencil trick!

December 1-5

The first graders are back on track with a week filled with new learning.  Here's what was happening at Barretts this week...

Reading
This week we started the Nonfiction Reading Unit.  We are navigating through the text features of a nonfiction book!

• Compared nonfiction stories to fiction stories
• Learned about Headings and Subheadings
• Learned about Table of Contents
• Learned about Glossary and bold words
• Learned about Illustrations and Captions

Question:  How does a Table of Contents and Glossary help you decide what to read in a nonfiction text?

Writing

We continued our small moments writing unit by diving into...

• Making our stories real by bringing our feelings from the inside out
• Adding dialogue to our words
• Adding speech bubbles to our pictures
• Adding sound effects
• Creating a class anchor chart of all the skills we have learned this unit.

Question:  What are some of the skills you learned in this unit?  Which skills did you put into your story?

Math

We are learning to tell time!  

• How much time is a second, minute, and hour?
• Kinds of clocks
• How to write the time 
• Time to the hour
• Time to the half hour

Question:  What time do you get up in the morning?  Show me that time to the hour on the homework clock.

Science

We started a new science unit - Balance and Motion.  Students have really enjoyed investigating how to balance objects.

• Explored concepts of balance
• Explored concepts of counterweights
• Explored concepts of stability
• Balanced a crayfish, triangle and arch
• Solved problems of balancing through trial and error

Question:  How do you balance a crayfish?  How do counterweights help?  

Reminders

12/19 - Holiday Party (2:40-3:40)

12/19-1/5 - Winter Break

Balance and Motion

The Cheetahs have been exploring the concepts of balance, balance points, counterweights, and stability!

Thank You

This time of year we all take the time to pause and reflect upon what we're thankful for.  When I stop to pause, one thing that comes to mind are my students and their parents.  I would like to thank each and everyone of you for your help, support, and encouragement throughout this school year.  I sincerely appreciate everything you all do.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Have a wonderful time with family and friends this break.  See you on Monday!

October 17-22

The first graders are on a roll and ready to end strong before Thanksgiving break.  Here's what was happening at Barretts this week...

Reading

This week we continued our work with say something/say something back

• natural conversations
• keep the talk going-responding to a talking point
• who are the characters?  
• exploring character traits with evidence

Questions: What is one way you can keep a conversation going with a reading partner?  What is a character trait?

Writing

We continued our small moments writing unit by diving into...

• stretching words
• telling the story in itsy, bitsy parts
• exploding a moment
• making our moments real (drawing people, background and adding color)
• closing with a lesson, feeling, or reflection

Question:  Why do we explode a moment?  What is one thing you added to your writing this week that made your small moment more realistic?

Math

Our measuring masters continued their exploration by...

• measuring keepers
• reviewing length (longest part), width (how wide), height (how high)
• looking at length of fish
• measuring/comparing length with feet
• differing units of measurement

Question:  What do I have to do when a problem asks me how much long/how much short an item is (comparing)?  What is the difference between measuring length, width and height?

Social Studies

Social studies this week has focus on continuing the study of Thanksgiving and the lives of the Pilgrims and Native Americans. We learned about...

• the Pilgrams of Plymoth
• Samuel Eaton
• Sarah Moreton
• Time Lines
• Squanto and the Wampanoag Indian

Question: Who were Samuel Eaton and Sarah Moreton?

Upcoming Events

11/21-All school assembly  (Juggling Jeff)

11/26-11/28-No school

12/3-Late start

November 10-14

Good evening, families!  Check out what we've been learning this week in first grade.

Reading

We have been working on our talk unit and how to talk about books with our partner.  The students learned and practiced:

-how to use evidence from the book

-mark one talking spot in your book

-what to say to your reading partner

-how to say something back to your reading partner

Question:  Question:  What talking spot in your book can you tell your parent about (remember to support with evidence)?  What is something you could say back?

Writing

Students have continued to work on our Small Moments unit.  We've learned:

-small moments have a beginning, middle, and end

-how to plan across our hands

-sketching

Question:  What small moment are you writing about in your book?

Math

In math this week, we started learning about measurement.  The students learned and practiced:
-comparing data
-measuring accurately
-measuring with different units
-measuring different objects' lengths

Question:  How do you measure carefully?

Social Studies:
This week we've continued our unit on families and focus on Thanksgiving.  The students learned about:
-what is Thanksgiving
-how Thanksgiving was celebrated in the past
-the pilgrims' journey and they Mayflower
-pilgrim life

Question:  Compare how we celebrate Thanksgiving today versus how the pilgrims celebrated Thanksgiving.  How is it similar and how is it different?


Reminders
11/26/14- No School, Thanksgiving Holiday
12/3/14- Late Start

Compliment Party

Hi Families!  Remember our Compliment Party is tomorrow!  The Cheetahs have decided on Pajama Day.

Family Museum

Hi Families!

THANK YOU all for helping out with the Family Museum project.  We had a great turn out, and I know you all worked very hard helping your child create their museum.

Below are pictures of The Cheetahs and The Tigers practicing their presentations for one another in preparation of our FGIF event:

We also practiced and shared our museums with our 4th grade buddies, The Dragons:

Finally, the main event!  A few snapshots from our FGIF event: