Monday, November 30, 2015

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. 15^th 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.

Friday, November 13, 2015

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!

Friday, November 6, 2015

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

Tree Study in Fall

a perfect day to sketch our fall oak tree

The children loved making leaf rubbings

The children enjoyed finding the many shades of brown and red needed for their art work

Kyle noticed this spot...did a branch used to be there?

Our beautiful oak tree has turned a deep red brown color. We took advantage of the warm weather and sat outside to sketch our tree. We took a close look at the leaves, tree trunk and bark. We noticed a few spots were branches used to be, finding the circle shape on the tree trunk. We also collected oak leaves from the ground and used them to make leaf rubbings and leaf sketches in our nature journals. A busy week for art and science in 1G.