Weekly Update April 1-5

Hello Super First Graders and Stupendous First Grade Families!


This week in science, guided reading and writing, we are learning about desert animals to follow up our field trip. Today we learned about the characteristics of coyotes. On Tuesday we will learn about the characteristics of bobcats and how they got their name. On Wednesday we will learn about gila monsters and why they are unique. On Thursday we will learn about javelinas and how to differentiate between a javelina and a pig. On Friday we will review the animals and see a short National Geographic video about the desert.

In writing we are working on a variety of different things, including poetry, stories and brainstorming. Each day the kids will do their writing and then color a picture of the animal we learned about. They will have their own book of desert animals at the end of the week! Today the kids wrote "How To Be A Coyote" poems. They have made so much progress with their poetry and these were so fun to read! Tomorrow the kids will write a story about running into a bobcat. On Wednesday the kids will learn how to do a brainstorm burst and they will do one about a gila monster. On Thursday the kids will write a "What Am I?" poem about either a coyote, bobcat, gila monster or javelina. On Friday the kids will use a picture of the desert to guide them in writing a story about the desert at night.

The kids came home with Rainbow Words and they are due tomorrow. This week in making words we are learning about words with the sk/sm chunks. We will also look at tricky/silent letters, such as the "j" in javelina. We will continue to review "not" contractions.

The kids enjoyed our desert centers. The centers for the week include:
1. Listening - The kids listened to "The Tortoise and the Hare." They made a paper plate desert tortoise.
2. Science - The kids made a day and night wheel. The wheel shows what desert animals are nocturnal and what desert animals are diurnal.
3. Writing - The kids pretended to be reporters writing for "The Desert Reporter."
4. Math - The kids made their own gila monsterwith beans!
5. Reading - The kids played hangman with spelling words!

In math we are working on finishing our time unit. We also are working on techniques for problem solving!

Have an A+ week!
Miss Klein