Thank you!

Dear First Grade Families,
Thank you for the generous gift to support classroom learning and activities for the children!
I was able to purchase some wonderful items from our wish list and am so excited to share them all with the kids when we return in January. Some of the highlights include large magnetic math learning tools for money and coins, large magnetic base ten blocks and magnetic pattern block shapes. A large floor mat game to build understanding of the 100 chart, a game for learning time and using clocks, and games to support addition.
In the area of art and science I was able to purchase new magnifying glasses, picture books on weather, gold and silver metallic colored crayons, metallic colored pencil sets and Jan Brett's newest book, The Turnip. 
Thank you for your kindness and continued support of the learning that happens in our classroom!
Be looking for photos of these new items being used in 2016!
Mrs. Greene

Winter Trees inspired by the book "Sky Tree" by Thomas Locker

Using Cusienaire Rods in Math

Each colored rod has a number value. Rods will be used to create addition fact families.

What were we up to last week?

Reading group work

Writing about what we read in reading group

Playing a word game

Winter Poetry Reading December 15th

It's not looking very wintery outside yet, but we hope you can join us in our classroom on Tuesday morning from 9-10 for our winter poetry reading and beaded ornament/sun catcher project. We selected winter poems from some picture books and have been reading them during our reading group time each day. The children are busy illustrating the poems in a poetry book format so parents can follow along as the children read. 

Measurement and Place Value in Math

We put objects in order from longest to shortest and shortest to longest and discovered that 2 of these items were equal in length

Recording our measurement work

We learned about the value of the dime and penny and have used the coins to represent
2 digit numbers

Luca is proud of his math work

James made detailed sketches of the items he compared

Sophie showed her understanding of showing a given number in more than one way

We made an anchor chart to show 4 ways to represent the number 24

Putting our family foot tracings in order by length

Tyler's dad had the longest foot of the class!

Helen is writing a title onto her foot paper

Kyle is busy cutting out his foot prints to put them in order

Science and Literacy

Helen's owl joined our nest

Learning about trees while we also explore the genres of fiction and nonfiction

Three favorite winter poetry books that we used to find poems for our poetry reading

Alex and Helen are reading "Cinders" by Jan Brett. This book is full of beautiful illustrations

December author illustrator study of Jan Brett

We are growing an Amaryllis bulb and recording our observations as it grows

Kailee's first page 

The first change we observed is that the pale green sprout turned darker green after sitting on our window ledge

December Newsletter

Greene Gazette

December 2015                    c.greene@hwschools.net

Language Arts: This month we are reading books by author illustrator Jan Brett. It’s a treat to read and discuss her picture books with the children. Her detailed illustrations are amazing. Many of her books have a winter theme and may inspire some winter books and poems of our own. We will continue to practice how to retell a story in our own words by thinking abou the beginning, middle, and end of the story. We will also compare and contrast Jan Brett’s version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears with her story The Three Snow Bears, an arctic version as we discuss setting and characters. These important story elements help to build strong comprehension skills. Fundations: Unit 5 glued sounds “am, an, all” Trick words: from, have, do, does Unit 6  Introduces suffix “s” at the end of a baseword. Children will learn about how to change web to webs, chill to chills, and so on. Trick words: were, are, who, what, when, where, there, here

Math: The children will be working with measurement and length. We will discuss what is means to measure things and why it is useful in daily life. We will also explore a variety of standard and nonstandard tools for measurement. The children will be able to put three objects in order by length and compare the lengths of 2 objects by using a third object. For example, the crayon is shorter than the pencil but longer than the paper clip.

Social Studies: During December we will be talking about family traditions, giving examples of special traditions in our families and details about why these traditions are important to us. Some traditions may center around holiday celebrations but others may be traditions such as special family vacations, pancakes on Saturday mornings, or special ways to celebrate a birthday. We will use our book making skills to create a book about this special family tradition. Winter Poetry Reading! Families: Please join us on Tuesday Dec. 15th for beaded ornament making in our classroom from 9:00-10:00.The children will also be performing winter poems collected from poetry books in a choral reading format for you. Sincerely, Mrs. Greene

Leaf T- Shirt Printing

We had a great time making our leaf T-shirts. 
Thank you to our parent helpers for giving your time to our project.

Some of my favorite math tools for school and home!

Cuisenaire rods: We have not begun to use this tool in the classroom yet but will be very soon and ongoing for the remainder of the year.

http://www.amazon.com/Cuisenaire-Rods-Intro-Set-Wood/dp/B00AFWENQA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1447439797&sr=8-3&keywords=cuisenaire+rods

Idea Book:
http://www.amazon.com/Idea-book-Mathematics-activities-Cuisenaire/dp/0740601075/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447439835&sr=8-1&keywords=cuisenaire+rod+activity+book&pebp=1447439864565&perid=0064S6CR9QCTPWWTZSXQ

Pattern blocks:
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Wooden-Pattern-Blocks/dp/B000F8T8U0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1447440433&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=pattern+blocks&psc=1

Unifix cubes:
http://www.amazon.com/Didax-Educational-Resources-DD-225-Unifix/dp/B0007PC9CK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447440509&sr=8-1&keywords=unifix+cubes

Geo board:
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Single-Sided-Geoboard-Pin/dp/B000P7PVYI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447440574&sr=8-1&keywords=geo+board&pebp=1447440576270&perid=02F8EJZ35C26F5EZ7JTK

Tangram set:
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Advantage-CTU7712-Tangrams-Piece/dp/B001UFWJLW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447440624&sr=8-1&keywords=tangram+set

Math homework ideas...

Math Homework Ideas for First Grade!

Mrs. Greene and Ms. Ibarra

In an effort to provide a variety of activities for at home math practice, beyond the use of IXL, that will also connect directly to our work in the classroom, we have created a list of items that would be useful to collect and have at home for a hands on approach to math that goes beyond paper and pencil tasks. We will also select and send home 3-4 activities or games during each month to coordinate with our units and concepts. Games can be played and kept at home and do not need to be returned.

Create a math basket at home filled with several tools to use for practicing math concepts. Some ideas are listed below…

Math Basket Items

1.     Dice- roll 2-3 dice and add the numbers, use counters if needed.

Roll 2 dice to make 2 digit numbers, compare the numbers-which is greater which is less?

2.    100 chart, blank “ten frames” (teachers will provide these)

3.    deck of cards

4.    small dry erase board and dry erase markers for showing your thinking in numbers, pictures, or words. Also for writing math facts when rolling dice.

5.    domino set – for addition practice and “turn around” facts, counting on from the bigger number.

6.    simple counters (beans, pennies) or colored “unifix cube” set (amazon)

7.    sets of coins for sorting and counting (pennies, nickels, dimes)

8.    Cuisenaire rod set and activity book- see link below.

9.    Wooden pattern block set

10.  Geo board and rubber band set

11.   Tangram set

Items in the basket can be rotated in and out to coordinate with our lessons and units as they are taught in school.  

Homework in First Grade

Most everyone is familiar with our two computer based homework options of IXL for math and Raz Kids for leveled reading. Both of these programs are optional for at home use and practice. 

In addition there is the option of completing the Fundations dictation activities that are included with each Fundation Unit Parent Packet. If you choose to use the dictation activity and writing grid, feel free to send the completed work back to school for me to see. Trick words are also included in the parent packet for Fundations. In the classroom we practice trick words with magnet letter shapes, trick word rings, rainbow writing trick words, and writing words in a shallow sand tray. Feel free to try some of these options at home too. I love the magnet letter sets that have the consonants in solid blue and the vowels in red. You can find these on Amazon.

On occasion I will send home a book from school that your child has read in their guided reading group, for an overnight at home read. Enjoy listening to your child read to you and have a brief chat about the book together. Please return the books back to school in your child's folder the next day.

The first grade teachers have created a list of ideas for creating a math activity basket at home. There is a math packet coming home today. The cover sheet has a list of math tools that can be collected for at home math practice. There are also 3 math games being sent home today. A great way to store the games for reuse is to use small plastic baggies to hold the pieces. The paper games/cards that come home can be added to your math basket too. 

Our hope is to offer different ideas and options for homework in the areas of literacy and math that are activity based, and use hands on learning tools versus using all computer or paper pencil tasks. Have fun mixing it up and trying different things. Let me know how it is working out or if you have any questions!

Genre Study: Fiction or Nonfiction....

We have two collections of books that we are using to explore fiction and nonfiction literature.
The children are enjoying hearing these books read aloud to them and following up with class discussions about the things we are noticing in each type of book. 

Can you tell which books are fiction and which are nonfiction?

After reading Fletcher and the Falling Leaves, we made our books to retell the story

reading with a buddy during literacy station choice time

Is this book fiction? Yes, it is.

practicing trick words using magnet tiles during literacy station time

Bulb Planting Fun!

Thank you so much to the parents who came to help weed out our planters and those who donated bulbs for our planting day. We made sure to look closely at the bulbs before planting them. We sketched them in our nature books and made notice of the onion like skin, dry roots on the bottom, and pointed tip. We will have so much fun sketching all the spring blooms later on.

We have our planting tools ready to go