Friday, October 23, 2015

It was a very exciting week in 1S!  First graders earned all their brownie points this week!  We took a vote today on what we wanted to earn and the winner was pajama and stuffed animal day.  On Wednesday, October 28th, first graders can wear their pajamas to school and bring a small stuffed animal.  We do have physical education that day, so please make sure your child has appropriate shoes.  It should be a fun and cozy day!

On Monday we attended the NED show with the rest of the Deerfield community.  This show was about never giving up, trying your best and encouraging others. Ask your child what NED stands for and what their favorite part of the show was.

We recently started using a new spelling program in Westwood called Fundations.  Everyday, we warm up as a class by practicing letter sounds and tapping and blending words.  We also pick a new drill leader each day to help us with our sounds.  This our drill leader using our special baby Echo owl pointer to have the class echo the sounds he points to.
In your child's OWL binder is a double sided sheet that shows a smaller version of the letter-keyword-sound cards that we use every day.  Your child can refer back to this sheet when tapping out the sounds in their writing at home.  The other side of the sheet shows how we have learned how to form all the letters on the alphabet.  Keep this sheet in their OWL binder so it's always available when you need it!


In writer's workshop this week, we talked about bringing our stories to life by making characters speak and move.  I was amazed at the different ways students were able to add movement and speech bubbles to their work.  We also talked about creating catchy titles that would grab our readers attention.  Here we are working hard on our seed stories and bringing them to life!

In reader's workshop this week, we learned a few more strategies to help us when we're reading; stretchy snake, chunky monkey and flippy dolphin.  Stretchy snake helps readers to stretch out all the sounds in a word.  Chunky monkey helps readers to look for familiar chunks in a word they're stuck on.  Flippy dolphin tells readers to flip the vowel sound if the sound they're trying isn't working (try the long sound instead of the short sound and vise versa).  Please help remind your child of these strategies when you're reading together at home. 

On Friday, author Debbie S Miller came to visit Derrfield!  She shared with us her many encounters with animals as she hiked and explored Alaska.  She also shared with us some of her inspirations for her stories.  Ask your child to share their favorite part of her visit with you.  Here are some pictures from her presentation.

Have a great weekend!

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