Weekly Update, January 10 - 14

Hello Stupendous First Graders and Super First Grade Parents!

Reminders:
* There is no school on Monday, January 17 in observance of Martin Luther King Day.
* Community helper week is next week!  We are studying fire fighters, police officers, doctors, dentists, teachers and coaches.  If you (or another family member or friend) hold any of these jobs and you would be able to come to our class, please let me know!  The kids love having visitors in the class and they learn so much.

Updates:
* Your child brought home his/her reading log today and there are 2 books.  Please have your child work on the first book for 1 - 2 nights and then switch to the second book.  The kids do not need to read both books tonight.
* This week we are working on alphabetizing words to the first letter.  The kids will bring home additional homework during the week to help with this concept.

This week we continue our science study on weather.  Today we learned about snow.  We learned characteristics of snow and how snow is created.  Tomorrow we will learn about rain and on Wednesday we will learn about wind.

On Thursday we will transition to a social studies mini-unit on Martin Luther King, Jr.  On Thursday we will learn about MLK's life and the kids will answer open ended questions about MLK.  On Friday we will learn about, and watch a short excerpt from his famous "I Have A Dream" Speech.  The kids will make a cloud "I Have A Dream" mobile and they will write dreams for their family, community and world.

We are continuing our 6 traits study in writing.  This week we will focus on ideas and conventions.  This week the kids will write a story about meeting a snowman.  To get started, the kids got a sheet with conversation bubbles and they wrote a conversation between themselves and the snowman.  This helped them get great ideas for their story.  Tomorrow they will turn their conversation into a story and on Wednesday they will edit the story.

The kids came home with Rainbow Words and they are due tomorrow.  The kids did such a great job with the bonus word last week and this week our bonus word is temperature.  This week in making words we will work on alphabetizing words to the first letter.  There will be additional homework to help with this concept.

The kids enjoyed our weather and MLK centers.  The centers for the week include:
1.  Listening - The kids listened to "I Can Read About Weather."  They used complete sentences to write 3 things they wrote about weather.
2.  Science - The kids hypothesized about what happens when things get wet.  They put tiny drops of water on different items (a sponge, wax paper, foil, Kleenex, paper towel).  They used their observations to decide if these items would make good rain gear.
3.  Writing - The kids watched a short video on the water cycle.  After the video, they sequenced the water cycle and drew a picture.
4.  Math - The kids put major events of MLK's life in order.  Once they ordered them, they created a timeline of his life.
5.  Reading - The kids read 1:1 with me.  We focused on reading strategies for difficult words.

We began chapter 12 in math today.  Your child brought home a parent letter with information.  The chapter focuses on addition to 12.  The kids will use a number line to count on to solve vertical and horizontal addition problems.  The chapter also reviews doubles and doubles plus one.

The kids had fun in computers today!  If you'd like to see what we did today, please click on the blog posting directly below this one, "Computers, 1/10."

Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston