Weekly Update, September 17 - 21

Hello Spectacular First Graders and Super First Grade Families!

This week we are doing a guided reading, science/social studies unit on Johnny Appleseed and the life cycle of an apple tree. We had a fun day learning about Johnny Appleseed and why he is important! For guided reading, we learned about Johnny Appleseed's life and how he helped bring apple trees to many states in our country. Kids - can you remember the states where Johnny Appleseed planted his trees? Can you remember the abbreviations for each state? After we read about Johnny Appleseed, we got to have our very own apple tasting! We tasted Red Delicious, Granny Smith and Gala.  The kids had so much fun with the tasting. After we tasted our apples, we made an "I Like Apples" book. Each child wrote his/her favorite kind of apple and decorated a picture for his/her page. Once the book is finished, it will go in the Bee Quiet Corner so everyone can enjoy it! On Tuesday and Wednesday the class will divide into 2 groups to complete 2 different activities (watching a video about Johnny Appleseed and taking a comprehension quiz and reading a story about and apple tree and making an apple tree). On Thursday, we will learn about the life cycle of an apple tree and about the changes that happen to trees during the different seasons. Each table group will take a different season and the children will work together to represent an apple tree for their season. The kids are really looking forward to Thursday! On Friday the kids will read a book about the life cycle of an apple tree. The will sequence the apple tree's life cycle. The kids are really enjoying this unit so far!

In reading we are working on reviewing word chunks and the sound they make to read more difficult words. We continue to use the Beanie Baby strategies daily to help in reading.  We are continuing our work on identifying and describing the characters and setting in a story.  We are talking more about important parts of the story and what message the author is trying to send. 

The kids loved centers today! The centers for the week include:
1. Arts and Crafts: Apple Masks - The kids created apple tree masks for summer and fall. The summer masks have leaves and the fall masks have apples. They got to be creative with their coloring and they even learned how to do some tricky cutting!
2. Science: Apple Painting - The kids had to guess how to cut an apple to get the seeds to make a star. They watched as the apples were cut to see if their guesses were correct. After the apples were cut, they painted apple pictures.  Thank you so much for all the apple donations!
3. Writing: Apple Person - The kids got to make an apple person! They colored and cut an apple and attached strips of paper for arms and legs. They wrote facts about apples on the arms and legs. These turned out so great! They are hanging up in the room!
4. Arts and Crafts: Apple Masks - The kids created apple tree masks for spring and winter. The spring masks have flowers and the winter masks have bare tree branches.
5. Reading: Kids read different books about Johnny Appleseed.

We practiced our spelling words. The children came home with Rainbow Words and they are due tomorrow. This week we are working on the en family. We got in some more homophone practice and we have 2 tricky homophones this week: for and four. The children have had exposure to these homophones over the last few weeks, so this should be review for them.

In math we are working on the strategy of counting on to solve addition problems. We are counting on to solve horizontal and vertical addition problems.  We are also learning to use math windows, kind of like Sudoku for kids, to solve addition problems. Children will also work on a variety of assessments for the report card.

Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston