Math- We continued to learn strategies to help us add to ten fluently. This week we focused on the strategies of adding near doubles (ex: 4+5= 9, 2+3=5) and "friends of ten" (ex: 1+9, 2+8...). We also learned that we can add two addends in any order and the sum will stay the same (ex: 3+4=7 and 4+3 =7). Next week we will be reviewing addition strategies and moving on to subtraction strategies. We will start with related addition and subtraction. Hopefully students will learn that if they now 3+4 = 7 then they should also know that 7-3=4. The we will move on to subtracting 0, 1, 2, and 3 by starting with the whole and counting back. They can use a # line, make a # line in their head, or "fist it" while counting backwards. Writing- This week in writing we all brought in our special treasures and shared them with the class. We started off with a pre-writing questioning web to help us brainstorm details about our special treasure. Then we started writing a rough draft with a topic sentence, 3 details and an ending. The students are excited about their writing pieces and are working hard to add great details. Science- The next couple of weeks in science we are learning about the patterns in the day and night sky. First, we went outside and observed the day sky and wrote down our observations in our log book. Then, we watched time lapse videos of the night sky and recorded our observations. Then we watched time lapse videos of the day sky to observe patterns of how the sun moves from morning to evening. We also learned what causes day and night (the Earth rotating so we face the sun in the day and are in the Earth's shadow during the night) and what causes the seasons (Earth revolves around the sun causing Earth to tilt toward the sun for summer and away from the sun in the winter).
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Math- In math this week we have been learning how to add and subtract fluently within 10. We have learned strategies such as adding 0, counting up/"fisting it" to add on 1, 2, or 3, using touch points to add on 1, 2, or 3, adding doubles (4+4=8) and near doubles (4+5=9). We watched cool math videos, sang fun songs and played games to help us remember and practice these strategies. Please check out the addition and subtraction page to engage your child in some fun learning activities. Next week we will work on memorizing parts of 10 and continue to practice these addition strategies. Below is a link to the Doubles Song that we have learned to help us memorize our doubles. The Doubles Song During Jaguar Time we are also continuing to practice counting and extending the counting sequence to 120. 10 of our students are working on extending the counting sequence within 1000 for a level 4! The students are working hard, helping one another, and making lots of progress! Pathways- we built all of vowel town and have been practicing how to say all the sounds. Next we will begin practicing how to find the sounds in random order and how to spell the various vowel sounds. We have been reviewing the h brother sounds, ng and defender c. We have been doing small group rotations where students rotate through read to self, listen to reading on the computers, doing a literacy drawer and meeting with me. This week I have been meeting with small groups of children and we have been practicing our sight words. However I will soon be starting small groups for Pathways and reading groups. Science- This week, we had a blast in SCIENCE. We learned how to be scientist and practiced using the scientific method while conducting various experiments. We worked on asking a question, making a prediction /hypothesis, conducting an experiment, making observations, and analyzing data all week during our three experiments. Friday we made oobleck ourselves in order to determine whether it was a liquid or solid. The students were highly engaged but pretty perplexed. If you've never made it before it is considered a liquid, but it acts like a solid when you put pressure on it. This kind of liquid is called a non-newtonian liquid. If you are interested in trying it out at home here is a link to the experiment: Oobleck Experiment
Over the last couple of weeks we have been learning about how the brain works. We have learned that it controls our movement, our emotions and our ability to learn. We saw how our brain makes pathways in our brains when we practice something over and over. Then eventually once the pathway is created, our brain no longer has to put forth as much effort in order to complete the task. We are learning that practice doesn't make perfect, but it does make us better. I am reminding the students to celebrate our mistakes in first grade, because we are going to make a lot of them (including myself). I want kids to know that I will always be pleased with their best effort! I would rather a child try and make mistakes, then not try at all for fear of doing it wrong. I saw this video tonight and thought it would be a great one to share. It is less than 2 minutes long and a great reminder for everyone! Anyone Can Learn Video This week w
Math: We are starting a new learning target- "I can add and subtract fluently within 10." This week we spent sometime reviewing the concept of addition (putting together) and subtraction (taking away). We also explored finding all the different ways to make 6, 7, 8 and 9. Next week we will be introducing addition strategies that will help us to be quicker at our math facts (touch points, counting up 0, 1, or 2, doubles facts and near doubles facts) We will continue to learn about many other strategies for both addition and subtraction for the next several weeks. Pathways: This week we unloaded the buddy vowels, next week we will unload the r vowels and we will have vowel town completely finished!!! We are continuing to practice spelling words with the h brothers (th, wh, sh, ch and Defender C) Next week we will learn about -ng. Reading- We have been practicing read to self and our station jobs. I have also begun assessing students on their sight words. We have had several friends earn their blue ribbon already!!! Social Studies: This week we continued to focus on WHY we have rules and laws. We learned that rules and laws help keep us safe, healthy and to keep things fair. Writing: This week in writing we have been talking about complete sentences. Complete sentences have a capital, subject (naming part), predicate (action/descriptive part) and punctuation. We have also been practicing choosing topics and adding details to our writing. As we previously mentioned, our class is learning how to do lots of practice in order to learn the expectations for centers and math jobs, as well as practicing to learn our first grade standards.
Pathways Large Group: We have been reviewing all of the consonant sounds and their spellings. We also reviewed the H brothers (sh, ch, wh, and th). Last week, SCREECH made his first visit to teach a new rule- "Defender C". The students learned that in words that end with /k/, you can choose k or ck to spell the sound. You should always choose CK when the word has only one vowel (shack, tuck, pick...) and use K when the word has 2 vowels (trike, week, bake). We will also be unloading the buddy vowels this next week and learning how to spell some of the tricky vowel sounds such as au, aw, oi, oy, ou, ow. Reading: Students are learning how to choose just right books, read independently, build stamina and read with partners. Writing- We learned an over view of our grade level writing expectation last week. We introduced the story hand that reminds us to write a topic sentence, 3 details and an ending. Now we are going back to basics and reviewing what a sentence is, and what makes a sentence a good detail. We will also be reviewing that complete sentences start with capitals and end with punctuation. Math- Over the last several weeks we have been working on extending the counting sequence to 120. This means that the child should be able to count up to 120 from any number, count groups of objects correctly and write numbers up from any number within 120. We will continue to work on this learning target at the end of the day during our Jaguar time (review time). During math time, we will be moving on to addition and subtraction within 10 . Our goal is for students to add and subtract fluently. Please help your child practice being fluent by doing the math homework. When your child can do the flash cards mentally and quickly, please sign the sheet, return it to school and I will test them here. You can also use the following website page to help your child practice addition and subtraction in a fun way. If you scroll down to the second symbaloo, you will find quizzes that link up with the homework practices. (math fact 1...). I know my daughter loves practicing by doing the online flashcards and games. http://jfarrellteach.weebly.com/addition-and-subtraction.html We have been practicing a lot this week! We began learning about our first grade literacy drawers. Over the course of this week and next week we will be introducing all 20 drawers and practicing the work expectations. This past week we practiced the play dough station, magazine writing, sticker writing, mail station, phonics mat and phonics folders. Once we get literacy stations up and going students will rotate through 4 jobs- meet with the teacher for small group, literacy on the computer, read to self, and their literacy drawer. They will spend 20 minutes in each station.
We also learned how to pick "Just Right Books" and we got to shop for a variety of books from our classroom library. In math we continue to work on extending the counting sequence to 120. By the end of our unit your child should know how to read #s to 120, write #s to 120 from any number, and count groups of objects up to120. We got to practice these skills with a couple of fun games this past week. During our Pathways time we are reviewing the consonants sounds, practicing saying all of the vowel town sounds and we are practicing how to segment and spell basic 3 sound words. |
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