What can I infer about my character?

February 23-27

We've had a great week of learning and are ready to close out February with our best efforts.  Take a look at all we learned this week in first grade....

Reading

We began a new reading unit this week about character study.  We will be learning to...

• understand character's thoughts, feelings and motivations by inferring
• learn lessons from characters

We using this week to look at external qualities, facial expression, and to begin inferring mood and action by using familiar texts.

Question:  Describe the character Sloppy Joe.  Are you like or dislike this character?  In what ways?

Writing

This week in writing we continued with our opinion pieces.  We took time to learn more about...

• using support language to defend our choices (I agree/I disagree)
• how media can persuade audiences (commercials/posters)
• how to plan for an opinion piece
• structures of persuasive writing

Question:  How are you attempting to persuade your reader to agree with your opinion?

Math

Math focused on number patterns and addition.  We continued to introduce games to help us build number sense and fluency, these included...

• calculator challenge (1+1 digit to solve 2+1 digit problems)
• follow the pattern (noticing math fact patterns)
• PIG (building numbers to 100)
• subtraction from 49
• 2 digit plus multiples of 10 within 100

Question:  Which game was your favorite?  

Question:  How did this game help you add faster or make adding easier?

Social Studies

As we continue to learn about our country's symbols we explored...

• The Presidential Seal
• The National Rose
• Washington, D.C.
• President George Washington

Question:  What is the importance of each of these national symbols/people?

Upcoming Dates

2/26-Progress Reports Sent Home

3/4-Late Start

3/10-Book Fair Begins

3/11-Parent/Teacher Conferences

3/13-No School

3/16-Spring Break

3/23-School Resumes

3/27-Author Visit

4/2-Leader In Me Day

4/3-No School

White House

We took an interactive tour of the White House in social studies today!  I promised the Cheetahs I would put the link on the blog.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/inside-white-house/interactive-tour

February 16-20

It's been a very busy week in first grade with the shorten week! Take a look at what we've been up to...

Reading

We continued work with our current reading unit, Story Elements. This week we learned how to...

• looked at the story from the characters point of view
• learned that a character change might signal a central message
• learned about realistic fiction
• talked about text-to-text connections

Questions:  What does realistic fiction mean (could this story really happen)?  What does it mean to look at a story standing in the characters shoes?

Writing

We began a new writing unit, Persuasion and Book Reviews.  This is what we learned...

• teacher shared opinions about her collection
• students shared opinions about their collections
• opinions need more than one reason

Questions:  Why do opinions need more than one reason?  How did you use your collections to learn about opinions?

Math

We wrapped up the Place Value and Properties Unit and began a new unit, Extending Numbers and Operations.  This unit continues to look at place value with more challenging work.

• unit assessment
• adding one and two digit numbers with cubes
• adding one and two digit numbers to 100
• game-follow the pattern
• game-PIG

Question:  Can you tell me how to play PIG?

Social Studies

"This is Our Country", the current unit in social studies has been a fun and exciting unit as the children are learning about our country's national symbols.  Here is what we learned about this week!

• facts about the White House
• facts about the Bald Eagle
• worked on our American Symbols Book

Question:  Can you tell me three facts about the White House?

Reminders

2/26-Progress Reports Sent Home

3/4-Late Start

3/10-Book Fair Begins

3/11-Parent/Teacher Conferences

3/13-No School

3/16-Spring Break Begins

3/23-School Resumes

February 9-12

It's been a very busy week in first grade with the shorten week!  Take a look at what we've been up to...

Reading
We continue to dive into our current reading unit, Story Elements.  This week we learned how to...

• explain how one event causes another (like dominoes)
• identify the central message (or lesson) the author is teaching
• talk about the central message and support our thinking with evidence from the book

Question: What is the central message in one of your books?  Support your thinking with evidence from the book.

Writing

We are wrapping up our Nonfiction Expert unit this week.  We...

• selected a draft
• revised our nonfiction book
• edited and peer edited our book
• published and celebrated!

Question: What was a revision you made to improve your nonfiction book?

Math

This week we continued to work on word problems, but our focused shifted to balancing equations.  To practice these skills we...

• solved to find out if an equation was true or false
• balanced equations (7 + __ = 6 + 4)
• revised false equations to make them true

Question: What strategy is most helpful to you when balancing equations (number line, hundreds chart, adding on, counting back...)?

Social Studies

We are working through our current unit, This is Our County.  The students really enjoy learning about the symbols that represent our country.  This week we learned facts about...

• The Liberty Bell
• The Statue of Liberty

Question:  What is one fact you learned about The Stature of Liberty?  What is one fact you learned about The Liberty Bell?

Upcoming Events

• 2/13 No School-Records Day
• 2/16 No School-Presidents Day
• 2/26 Report cards come home

Valentine's Day Party & Bags

A quick reminder that I had students make bags for Valentines at school.  I've emailed a copy of our class list if you need that if you are choosing to bring in Valentine's Day Cards.

Our party begins at 2:40!

4th Grade Buddy

Our 4th grade buddy, Jerrion, brought a friend so they could showcase their musical talent for The Cheetahs!

February 2-6

Its hard to believe another week has flown by as we welcomed February in first grade!

This week we had lots of new learning, check out all the happenings here at Barretts...

Reading

We continued reviewing the important story elements in fiction books by taking a closer look at...

• problem & solution in a story
• changes in problem & solutions
• the narrators role (1st and 3rd person perspective)
• retelling events in sequence

Question:  What was one book you read this week?  Retell the story from the 1st person perspective (as if you were the character).

Writing

In writing we continued to work through our non-fiction story books.  We reviewed...

• introductions
• closings
• glossary
• conventions (capitals, periods, commas, and spacing)

Question:  What was one thing you added to your book this week?  How will that help your reader better understand your topic?

Math

A focus in math continues to be on addition and subtraction problems with an equation and representation to show work.  To help the students expand these skills sets we continue to work on ...

• addition games (5 in a row)
• subtraction games (roll and record, 5 in a row)
• strategies for adding

Question:  What is one strategy for subtraction or addition you learned this week? 

(number line, hundreds chart, pictures, whole number)

Social Studies

We began a new unit in social studies called "This is Our Country" and we began by...

• learning "what is a symbol?"
• discussing symbols in our environment
• exploring the statue of liberty
• exploring the white house

Question:  What is a symbol?  What are some symbols of the United States of America?

Upcoming events

• 2/11-Sugrue, Lemonds, Lowry out for Teachers' Academy
• 2/12 Valentine's dance party 2:40-3:40
• 2/13 No School-Records Day
• 2/16 No School-Presidents Day
• 2/26 Report cards come home

Valentine's Day

Students will be making Valentine's Day bags here at school!  Remember, our party is next Thursday!