Weekly Update, August 27 - 31

Hello Fantastic First Graders and Fabulous First Grade Parents!

Today was a great day in first grade! Once again, we were busy, busy, busy bees! We learned a lot of new rules procedures today because we began centers! This was very exciting for the kids and they did a great job of practicing the procedures and working hard!

This week we begin our science unit on The Five Senses. Today we learned about how our eyes help us. We did a fun activity to see what it would be like if we didn't have our eyes. The children worked in partners. The first partner closed his/her eyes, while his/her partner gave directions to draw a face. This helped us to think about how important our sense of sight is. This challenge caused us to use our senses of hearing and feeling. The kids had a lot of fun and everyone was glad to have their sight back! The children had a good time and they got to see that science is so much fun! There is a fun science experiment each day this week related to each since. Be sure to ask your child about our daily experiments!

After learning about centers, we got to do centers! There are five centers per week, so the children will do 1 center per day. There is also daily Self Selected Reading (SSR) time where I read with small groups of children. The 5 centers are:
1. Listening - The children listen to "School Days" on tape. After listening, they fill out the name of the book, author and illustrator. Next, they write their favorite thing from the story and draw a picture.
2. Science - This week our science center is based on the 5 senses. I have four jars with a food item in each jar. The jars are covered up. The kids smell the jars and guess what they are. After they guess, they write about what it is like to depend on sense of smell without sense of sight to identify the item.
3. Writing - The children are wrote about what they want to be when they grow up. These are so much fun for me to read!
4. Math - This week our math center focuses on pattern blocks with an integration of the five senses. The children have a chance to first explore the pattern blocks. After that, they partner up. The first partner makes a shape, but does not show it to the second partner. Then, the first partner must teach the second partner how to make the shape with words only.
5. Reading - The children explored the Bee Quiet Corner. They enjoyed snuggling with pillow pets and reading free choice books.

This week in reading we are focusing on the reading strategies "Chunky Monkey" (looking for a familiar word chunk) and "Stretchy Snake" (reading all the way through the word to read all the sounds). We are also working on vowel patterns. In comprehension, we are focusing on sequencing and retelling.

We practiced our new spelling words. The children came home with Rainbow Words for practice today and they are due tomorrow. This week we are working on the "am" family. Our making words activities will focus on spelling practice and "am" family practice. The children also need to read tonight and fill out their reading log.

Today in math we practiced math centers. Our center focus will be on exploration. Our centers for the week are:
Flash Card Practice – Children work in pairs to practice their addition by using flash cards.
Unifix Cube Building – Children will explore unifix cubes to find different ways to make 5. They will also write the number sentences.
Addition Problem Creation – Children will use wipe off boards to create their own addition problems.
Pattern Blocks – Children will explore pattern blocks. Following exploration, they will use templates as a guide to create different designs.
Unifix Cubes – Children will explore unifix cubes. Following exploration, they will measure different items in the room with unifix cubes.

We had our first computer class on Friday. If you'd like to see what we did on Friday, click on the blog posting directly below this one, "Computers, 8/24." The kids learned how to use Internet explorer to find my blog. This is a great activity to practice with your child at home. The blog has a lot of great stuff for kids, including Raz-Kids (there is a link to Raz-Kids on the right side under the calendar. The username is: mjohnstonan). We will not be able to attend computers for a few weeks because the intermediate grades will be doing MAP testing.

Reminders for the week: Kids - please bring your red or blue folder to school each day. It is YOUR responsibility to remember your homework and your folder!

Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston