Weekly Update, September 7 - 10

Hello Spectacular First Graders and Super 1st Grade Families!

Welcome back from the long weekend! I hope everyone had a great time and enjoyed the extra day off. I was SO impressed with what a wonderful job the children did today (especially after being gone an extra day!). The kids were so focused and worked so hard. Way to go!!!

The children are really doing well working in centers. The centers for the week include:
1. Listening - The children are listening to "That's Good! That's Bad!" They have a piece of paper and on the front they write GOOD and write things that are good from the story. On the back they write BAD and write things that are bad from the story.
2. Science - The children are working with texture words. There are eight cards with texture words (bumpy, smooth, rough, etc.) and the children need to find items in our room that match those textures.
3. Writing - The children are writing about the best birthday party ever. They get to pretend that they can plan their perfect birthday party; they write all the details down for their special party.
4. Math - The children are working with unifix cubes. They explore different ways to make 5 and then write the computations down for their findings.
5. Reading - The children read with me in small groups. We focus on reading strategies and comprehension.

This week we are doing a social studies unit on mapping. Today we learned what maps are and how they help us. We went on a search of the room to find the map in our room! Kids - see if you can find a map at home! Tell someone at home how maps help us. Tomorrow we will be learning about the elements of a map and on Thursday we will be creating a class map.

We practiced our new spelling words. The children came home with Rainbow Words for homework and they are due tomorrow. This week we are working on the "ap" family. The children learned about homophones and what it means for words to be homophones (two or more words that sound the same, the words are spelled differently and the words mean different things). This week's "ap" family words include the homophones rap and wrap.

Today in math we did a house glyph. The kids are really getting great at following multi-step directions and correctly completing their glyphs. Today the children practiced collecting data from the glyphs in small groups. They did a great job working collaboratively!

Starting this week, your child will bring home additional reading homework. This week, the children will bring the homework home as I read with their small groups (so not every day). There is a form to fill out; this is a great way for you parents to communicate with me to let me know how your child is doing with reading at home.

Reminders for the week:
1. Kids - please bring your homework folder to school every day. Remembering to bring your homework folder helps you follow our class rule of being responsible.
2. Library is on Friday. If you forgot your books last week, please make sure to bring them this week.
3. Our zoo field trip is Friday, September 17. Thank you so much to the parents who have offered to help on the trip! I need 3 more volunteers. If you would like to help, please let me know.
4. If you have not filled out the yellow class directory form, please do that and have your child bring it in to school tomorrow. Thank you for your participation in the directory!

Have a sensational week!
Mrs. Johnston