First Grade: September 2015

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Color Science

Kids are learning about color through different experiments. They are mixing colored water in test tubes to create a new color, wearing colored goggles to see how color is affected by looking through other colors and mixing colors on a wheel.

Friday, September 25, 2015

Read To Self

We read. We get new books every week.
By Gabe

Mrs. Bridenbecker

Mrs. Bridenbecker is special because she is my kindergarten teacher and Mrs. Bridenbecker is sweet as a plum.
By Asalie

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Snack

At snack we use placemats because we don't want to make a mess. By Lyla

About My Book Bag

We did read to self today. By Cam

Daily 5

In daily 5 we write stories and letters and lists and postcards and blog posts and recipes. By Ben

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

My Blog Post of the Pledge of Allegiance

When you do the Pledge the announcements go on. And doing it is so so fun! By Isabel

Books

There are a lot of books. We like the books. By Giliana

The Calendar

We do the calendar every day.
By Willow

Monday, September 21, 2015

Birthday Chart

I like the birthday chart because it shows all the birthdays in the class.
By Jackson

Friday, September 18, 2015

Kids' Thoughts

We do the calendar in first grade and kindergarten.
by Elizabeth

Last week we finished reading the papers that told our favorite things.
by Alex

We've done a lot of math! by Emma

We've done A LOT of writing! by Jacob

School is cool! by Ariane

School is fun! by Jonathan

School is fun and crazy! by Isabel

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Counting racks

First graders made counting racks in math today. They will help kids with counting, adding and subtracting and seeing many ways to make a number.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Letter Writing

Kids were practicing letter writing and wrote to their families, friends and even their bus driver!

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Making Lists

We are learning about many different kinds of writing and concentrated today on lists. We talked about how people use lists and what they look like. Then kids wrote their own lists!

Friday, September 4, 2015

Back To School!

We had a great few days getting to know each other, exploring our new classroom, and making new friends!
Here are a few photos of kids playing with some math materials (while practicing how to cooperate, share and discover at the same time)!

Soaring Bald Eagles by Katherine Martin-James
Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty
Hattie and the Fox by Mem Fox
The Magic Hat by Mem Fox
Zoo-Looking by Mem Fox
Time For Bed by Mem Fox
Opposum Magic by Mem Fox
Koala Lou by Mem Fox
Wilfred Gordon Mcdonald Partridge by Mem Fox
Night Noises by Mem Fox
Town Mouse, Country Mouse by Jan Brett
The Hat by Jan Brett
Kwanzaa by David F. Marx
Henry and Mudge and the Sparkle Days by Cynthia Rylant
The Mitten by Jan Brett
Annie and the Wild Animals by Jan Brett
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch
Boo! by Robert Munsch
The Fire Station by Robert Munsch
Colorful Leaves by Maria Fleming
Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty
What is a Scientist? by Barbara Lehn

Your first grader is learning to be an independent thinker and problem solver. Give your child opportunities to be more independent at home-chores, helping with their school lunch or snack, writing a list, etc. If there are things your child does on their own, let us know so we can share that news with other families!

The concepts of addition and subtraction are tricky for some first graders. Kids can learn to "memorize" math facts but understanding HOW to add and subtract and use strategies for solving each kind of problem is more difficult. We always stress that the answer is important but not as important as how a child solves the problem. Some strategies we use are to draw a picture of the problem, use a number line, create a 10-frame to visually "see" the problem, and use your fingers! They are handy counters that are with us always! Kids can use their fingers to see and solve 3+5 as well as 46+ 7 (we keep the bigger number in our head and count on using our 7 handy fingers!)

When listening to your child read, let them use these strategies they are learning at school: look at the picture, get your mouth ready to make the first sound of the tricky word, think about what would make sense as you read, check the letters in the word after you read it to see if they match.

Remember, we can't "sound out" all words so we are helping kids use many other strategies as they read.

We are learning about congruent shapes on our calendar this month.

We are continuing to tap out words that are hard to spell and are working on adding /s/ to the ends of words.

We continue to work independently during our daily 5 time and are working hard in our reading groups. Everyone has shown improvement in their reading skills!

We love to read quietly for 20 minutes every day and have books in our book bags that are just right for us to read on our own!

We are using small geoboards in number corner each day.

Kids have begun their own how-to story and have chosen a topic they feel they are experts in and can write about easily.

We continue our study of snow, winter and how the seasons affect things over time such as trees.

Welcome to First Grade!