Studying Bird Nests

In science we have been learning about birds.  We have learned about their anatomy, life cycle and now we are learning about where they live.  Mrs. Krass brought in some examples of different abandoned bird nests that she has collected over the years.  First graders used their eyes to look at these different nest and draw sketches of what they observed.  They also used labels to highlight different things that they noticed each nest was made of.  Here are some pictures of students observing the different bird nests:

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Thankful Turkeys

This week, we created thankful turkeys about what we were thankful for and why.  Ask your child what they wrote on their thankful turkey.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Visit from Plymouth Plantation!

A big thank you to the Deerfield Cultural Enrichment program for making it possible for us to have a visitor from Plymouth Plantation come to our classroom!  The kids were all engaged and learned so much from her visit!

Below is a picture of the alphabet that the pilgrim children and adults used when writing.  Some of the letters look very similar to those that we use today, but some look very different.  Your child used this alphabet today to practice their writing as pilgrim children.  They did not use paper and pencil though, ask them what they used instead. 

 This is the horn book that pilgrim children used to learn how to write.  The top of the horn book has the alphabet and the bottom of the horn book has a prayer that children used to learn to read.

During our visit with Constance, first graders had the chance to dress up as a pilgrim child.  Ask your child about the different pieces of clothing that pilgrim children would wear.  Constance told us that she had 13 different pieces of clothing on to make up her one outfit, that's a lot of articles of clothing

to wear every day!  Ask your child if they remember the name of the article of clothing they wore. 

Have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving!

The First Thanksgiving

This week, first graders spent some time learning about the First Thanksgiving.  They watched a BrainPop video, read an article and took a virtual field trip to Plymouth Plantation.  As a group, we discussed the different ways in which the First Thanksgiving is different than Thanksgiving today.  We also wrote about the differences and similarities.  We ended our week by creating a Thankful Turkey about something that we are thankful for and why.  Ask your child to tell you about the First Thanksgiving and how it's different than the way it is celebrated today.

Fall Celebration

On Friday we had a fall celebration in the classroom!  Students worked on fall themed crafts and enjoyed a yummy snack.  Thanks to our room parents for organizing all this fun!

 

PJ Day!

First graders earned pajama and stuffed animal day last week!  Here we are nice and cozy with our stuffed animals!

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!

I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful fall weekend!  We had another busy week in 1S.  During Reader's Workshop, we talked about two new reading strategies, eagle eye and lips the fish.  We talked about how using the picture can often times help us with figuring out tricky words.  We also talked about how readers need to "get their mouth ready" for the first sound in a word so they can push through all the sounds.  Your child has 2 reminder cards in their OWL binder about these reading strategies to use at home.  

During Writer's Workshop this week, first graders wrote nonfiction books about wild cats.  We watched a movie about lions and listened to a book about tigers to learn about these animals.  First graders also jotted down notes about the important things they were learning.  We discussed important vocabulary words such as pride, camouflage, carnivore, territory and predator.  After we were all done with learning and note taking, first graders took their notesand used their ideas to write their very own nonfiction book.  Ask your child what they learned about wild cats this week!

In math workshop, we are working on combinations of numbers through 12.  We learned two new math games to help us practice called "How Many am I Hiding?" and "Plus or Minus 1 Bingo".  When playing "How Many am I Hiding?", partners start with a tower of 10 cubes, one partner hides some of the cubes and the other partner has to figure out how many are hiding based on the remaining cubes.  When playing "Plus or Minus 1 Bingo", students are working on thinking about what comes before and after a given number.  Students pick a card from a deck of playing cards and think about if it's best for them (their trying to get Bingo on their board) to add or subtract one from the number.  For example, if I drew a 6, I could cover up a 5 or a 7.  We also worked on an activity called "Peas and Carrots".  Students worked independently to come up with as many combinations of peas and carrots that they could if they had a total of 9 vegetables on their plates (1pea + 8 carrots). Here are some pictures of math workshop this week:

I also sent home information this week about RazKids and Lexia.  Each first grader has a username and password so they can access these great programs at home.  Please let me know if you have any trouble trying to use either of them.  The Scholatic Book Club forms went home as well and are due by Tuesday evening:). 

Have a great rest of the weekend!

During reader's workshop this week, we added a few more "habits" to our "Readers Build Good Habits" anchor chart.  The first was to set goals.  We talked about how these goals might be to read more books, to read with a smoother voice or to read for longer.  On Friday, our stamina was 18 minutes!  We also talked about how good readers reread to smooth out their voices and sound more like a reader than a robot.  Having your child practice their reading out loud will help them to develop their fluency.  Try recording them reading a book the first time and then after reading it a few times and play it for them.  They'll be able to hear the difference in their voice as a reader and hear how their practice is helping them!

Small Moments

During writer's workshop today we talked about writing small moments or seed stories.  A small moment is one tiny part of a bigger picture.  Rather than write a story about going to the beach, we are working on zooming in on one small moment of that trip to the beach, such as building a sand castle or finding seashells.  We read a story called Night of the Veggie Monster, which was all about a little kid who dreaded dinner because of eating peas.  This helped us to generate our own ideas/seeds that we could write about.   Be sure to your child what their seed story ideas are!

Reading Partners

This week during reader's workshop, we talked about reading partnerships and all the ways that our partners can help us become better readers.  We also talked about what reading partners do when they read together.

First graders were partnered up and began reading together.  Check out these good readers below!

It was another busy week in 1S!  Below are some highlights from our week.

Reader's Workshop:

This week in Reader's Workshop first graders continued to work on building their stamina.  Today we read for 16 minutes! We also talked about what readers do at the end of a book.  Check out our anchor chart below:

We also created our Readers Workshop Promise and talked about what we were going to do every day during Reader's Workshop.

Today, first graders got their reading bags and shopping lists!  Ask your child to tell you about our reading menu (entrees and desserts).

Math Workshop:

During math workshop, first graders continued to work on their addition skills by playing 5 In-a-Row, a game similar to Bingo.  They also worked on comparing quantities by playing Double Compare and Double Compare Dots.  First graders also worked together in pairs to order numbers that they drew from a deck of cards.   Ask your child about the different games they played this week!  

Playing Collect 20

Playing Collect 20

Playing Double Compare Dots

Playing 5 In-a-Row

Playing Double Compare Dots

Playing 5 In-a-Row

Playing Double Compare

Writer's Workshop:

We read a story called Rocket Writes a Story during Writer's Workshop.  This was a story about a dog named Rocket who couldn't think of a story to write.  We used this story to talk about how sometimes it's hard to come up with a story to write about.  As a class, we generated a list of topics that first graders could write about if they got stuck.  Check out our list below:

We also talked about how important it is to make sure that there are spaces between all of our words.  If we forget to leave spaces, our writing looks like a long string of letters and makes it hard for the reader to understand what we're writing. 

Conferences:

If you haven't signed up for a fall conference, please make sure you do.  Please let me know if you need the sign-up sheet resent.

Classroom Donations:

• Purell-We are all out of Purell in 1S!  If you have any that you would be willing to donate to our classroom, we would greatly appreciate it!  
• Games-Every Friday in first grade, students earn "Fun Friday".  I would love to have some new (ours are getting a little outdated, missing pieces, etc.) board games available for students to use during this time.  If you have any that you are willing to donate to our classroom, we would love to use them!

Thank you in advance for your donations!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!