Friday, November 14, 2014

Almost halfway through the second quarter....

Can you believe we are almost halfway through the second quarter? It feels like just yesterday, the kiddos were coming in for the first day of school! We have been working hard all quarter to master our 2nd quarter goals and I hope you have seen evidence of all of their learning at home:-)

Language Arts
Reading
This week in reading, we have been focusing on
-sight word identification
A, and, can, is, I, it, see, the, this, like, to play
The kiddos know that the more sight words they know, the more books they will be able to read. Encourage your little guy or gal to see how many sight words they can identify in a day. See if they can identify 5 sight words and reward them when they do. Ask your child to show you the gestures for the sight words. The gestures are important,as "muscle memory" is vital to sight word mastery. 
-identifying all the sounds in CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant words such as cat, log, pig, etc...) 
Challenge your kiddo to see how many CVC words they can write! 
We continue to work on:
-asking and answering questions about fiction and nonfiction text
After reading a fiction story at home (you can use the book sent home with their homework), Ask,your child to tell you about it. Who was in the story? Where did it happen? What happened? 
If you are reading non-fiction, ask your child to share with you 2 interesting facts,they learned from the story. 
-identifying the number of syllables, or parts in words
Have your child show you the 2 ways we can identify the number of syllables in a word (clapping or robot method)

Writing
We continue to work on the genre of pattern books. Today, we had an author's celebration, where the kiddos got to share the pattern books they created this week with their friends. They were really excited that they were able to take their books home and share with YOU!

Math
In math this week, we introduced:
-identifying and writing numbers in the teens
Ask your child what all numbers in the teens have (they all start with 1). Then ask them how to figure out what number comes next. For example, the number sixteen. It has the word teen, so it starts with a 1, then there is the number 6 in the word sixteen. So, the number sixteen must be written as 16. Lastly, ask your kiddo about the tricky teen numbers like eleven and twelve
-using a tens frame to represent numbers in the teens. For example, the number 16 would be represented as follows:
XXXXX
XXXXX        XXXXXX
   10                 6
We continue to work on:
-counting by ones to 40 and counting by tens to 40.

Just an FYI about end of the quarter expectations:
We have about a month until the end of the quarter. To be considered on grade level in reading, your child should be able to...
-read a level B book
That is, read a book with an AB pattern. For example, I like grapes. They are sweet. I like pizza. It is cheesy. 
-Identify ALL of the sight words on the homework sheet
The sight words in the level B books correlate to the list you have been given for homework.
-Demonstrate at least 5 out of the 6 reading behaviors listed in your child's homework
-Be able to identify identify all the sounds in 20 words in a minute (phoneme segmentation). Practice for this can also be found in your child's homework.
Please know we are working everyday with your child on these objectives to make sure they are on grade level. Any support and/or practice you can do at home is very much appreciated. 
NOTE: The end of the quarter reading assessment will NOT be completed by your child's teacher. Instead, it will be completed by a first grade teacher. Until then, I will be providing opportunities for your child to get to know the teacher who will be completing their assessment so they will feel comfortable when this person is assessing them. 
Please feel free to email me with any concerns and/or questions. 







Tuesday, November 4, 2014

What's Going On In Room 210?

Language Arts
In reading, we have been working on 
-asking and answering questions in a story. In fiction text, that means being able to answer questions such as who is the story about? Where does the story happen? What happens at the beginning of the story? What happens at the end? In non-fiction text, that would look like asking a question you want to know before you start reading, and seeing if the question is answered in the text. If it isn't, a student should be able to tell a fact they learned about the topic of the text. For example, I didn't find out if panda bears can run fast, but I did find out they eat bamboo for up to 12 hours a day.
You can support this objective at home by talking and asking questions about what you are reading each night.
-breaking apart words into parts, or syllables, then using the syllables to blend into a word
For example, alligator has 4 syllables and tractor has 2 syllables. There are many ways to determine how many syllables there are in a word, but the most common way is to clap it out (/al/ /li/ /ga/ /tor/) or use 'robot talk' (/tra/ /tor/).  When blending syllables into words, we would say /mo/ /vie/. What word would I made if I put those syllables together (movie)? You can support this at home by making a game out of breaking words into syllables and blending them back together. For example, how many syllables does the word mommy have in it? /mo/ /mmy/ (2). Or say what word would I make if I put these syllables together? /da/   pause  /ddy/. That's right, Daddy!

In writing,
we have moved on from
-Thinking and Writing like a scientist. In this genre, we picked objects from nature and wrote about them according to their physical properties. For example, "This is a gem. It is purple. It is smooth. It is sparkly." 
This week, we have introduced the genre of pattern books. That is, books that start the same way on each page. For example, "I can swim. I can run. I can slide." 
In each genre, we continue to focus on 
-starting each sentence with a capital letter
-using spaces between words
-sounding out most sounds in unknown words
-using a period at the end of each sentence
-proper letter formation 
-using sight words in our writing
*as of today, the sight words we have learned are: a, is, I, see, the, this, and, it, can
Ask your child to show you the gestures for these words. You can practice more words using the sight word list from your child's November homework.
 
In math, we have been working on:
-adding one more to a group of numbers
-taking away one less to a group of numbers
the goal is to further solidify the understanding of number sense to where the kiddos would not have to recount. For example, if I had a group of 5 and added one more  ( X X X X X         X)
I would NOT want a child to recount and say one, two, three, four, five, six, but instead count on from 5 and say 6 (although this does take time). The same is intended if we take away a number from a group (X X X X X   take away 1). I would want a child to mark out one of the Xs and say 5 take away 1 less is 4.
Do you feel like your child has a firm understanding of number sense through 10? Trying extending their learning doing this same skill with a number in the teens, or a number in the 30's.
-comparing groups and numbers to determine which is more, less, and equal
At the beginning of the year, we focused on comparing groups of numbers. However, now, we are focusing on comparing the numbers themselves. For example, which is more? 4 or 9? Which is less? are they equal? In addition, we are proving their responses (9 is more than 4, 4 is less than 9, they are not equal) by drawing pictures to represent their responses.
You can support this objective at home and/or extend your child's learning by comparing number sin the teens.

Early Release Reminder
Mark your calendars....This Friday, November 7th is an early release day

Book Fair Information
Our book fair will be up and running starting tomorrow. Our class will have a preview day, where they can browse the books and write down what they want, as well as a day to purchase books. The preview date and book purchase date are forthcoming. I will email with them ASAP. 


Pumpkin Day 
Last Wednesday, we celebrated Pumpkin Day. 
We used a pumpkin's physical properties to think and write like a scientist. When the kiddos felt the inside of the pumpkin, they described it as gooey and wet! 





We created our very own book to practice sight word identification and one to one reading correspondence (pointing to each word as we read). 

And lastly, we had some yummy fun and made some pumpkin fluff dip:-)