First Grade News for the Week of August 28th
We had a great first full week of school learning and practicing new routines. Each week I will highlight what we have been focusing on in each subject area. I will also post new vocabulary and spelling words in this blog.
I was the "Big Cheese" this week. I shared my UNI hat, my favorite movie and my stuffed dog named Scooter. I read one of my favorite books to the class, Corduroy by Don Freeman.
Important dates to remember in September:
September 4th- NO SCHOOL
September 7th- DRESS DOWN DAY
September 8th- Bus Safety
September 12th- Family picnic/Home and School Meeting at 6:30
September 15th- SPIRIT DAY (Bring $1 to wear your favorite team shirt)
September 21st- DRESS DOWN FOR MISSIONS (bring $1 to be out of uniform)
September 27th- Buddy Activity (we are buddies with 6th grade)
September 29th- Movie under the stars at 8p.m.
Math: We worked on graphing to show information. We do two graphs daily in our math meeting time. We do a weather graph and a lunch count graph. We are learning how to read a pictograph and a bar graph. We identified the sides and angles of a circle and a square. We are learning mathematician words such as fewest, least, most, and greatest. We had our first test on Friday. We will have a written assessment every 5 lessons.
RLA (Reading and Language Arts): Our first unit in reading is called Back to School. We are reviewing important skills learned in kindergarten. We read Jack's Talent. Jack didn't think he had a talent until his teacher showed him that he was good at remembering.We will begin Unit 1 next Wednesday. I will be posting our spelling words and new vocabulary then. Students will write their spelling words in their planners. Please make sure to sign up on Think Central as I will be assigning rereads of our stories read in class. We learned that nouns are words that name people, places, animals, and things. We labeled nouns in Jack's Talent. We have been working in our literacy center rotations. Students will have 3 twenty minute rotations. They will work with me during one of their rotations, reading new text and practicing skills. The other two rotations will be independent work, practicing our skills and strategies. We are working on our stamina to focus on our work for the whole 20 minutes!
Science: We brainstormed ideas about what scientists do. We read about one scientist, Jane Goodall, who studied chimpanzees in Africa. We learned that scientists use tools to help them observe, experiment, and explore. We will begin our first unit, Pebbles, Sand, and Silt next week.
Social Studies: Our first unit is People Everywhere. In the first lesson we identified the roles of family members. We learned that a family is a group of people that love and care for each other. We all learn from our families, our schools, and our communities.
Writer's Workshop: We reviewed that a sentence is a group of words that tell a complete idea. Sentences always begin with a capital letter and end with appropriate punctuation. We practiced writing sentences about a picture. We used the text pattern from Jack's Talent to write about our own talents.
Religion: We belong to many groups including our family, our school, and the Catholic Church. Each lesson focuses on scripture. We are learning that scripture is the Good News. We read the story of The Good Shepherd. Jesus is like the shepherd because he will always love and care for us.