Week in Review, September 25-29, 2023

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Friday we celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival in the classroom. We learned about two Mid-Autumn legends, The Korean story of the Moon Rabbit and the Chinese story of the Legend of the Moon Festival. We also enjoyed some riddles, pomelo, mooncakes, and Korean rice cakes (songpyun). Thank you parents for providing the treats, riddles, and for helping us with our Mid-Autumn Festival. We appreciate you! 

In Writing, we reviewed ALL the ways we have learned to bring a story to life (AKA craft moves), took our post-assessment, and decided which story we want to publish next week. We then did a self edit and a peer edit on the peice we want to publish. The post-assessment and published piece will be shared with you during our student led conference. You will be so proud of the progress your child has made in writing! Don't forget your child can be building spelling skills at home by working in the Lexia app (found in Clever). When your child levels up in Lexia they will have a special trip down to the Principal's Black Treasure Box. 

In Reading, we practiced how to give a good retell. Please review the information from last week's post for a reminder. Your child should be giving you a retell after each book they read at home. We also reflected on our fall reading strengths and goals and made a SeeSaw recording of our fall reading voice. Personal strengths and goals and our reading recording will also be shared during our student led conference. Please send September Reading Logs to school Monday. The October Reading Log will be sent home Monday in your child's zippy pouch. Please continue to read 4 nights per week. Don't forget about RAZ (in Clever). Your child can be reading in the "Level Up" room to increase their reading level. Please let us know when they have passed a level (received 3 checks under each book in the room & sees a new set of books appear), so we can assess them at school to make sure they are able stay at their new level. 

In Word Study, we learned about action verbs. Please review your child's SeeSaw post to check for understanding. We also learned about the voiced and unvoiced sound of consonant digraph th. The voiced "th" sound is heard in the words that, this, and then. It tickles your tongue as it vibrates. The unvoiced "th" sound is soft and can be heard in thin, bath, and thud. The new heart words learned this week were they, their, and were. Please review the following this coming week at home:

In Math, we reviewed all the different types of story problems we have learned so far in unit 2. We took some time to carefully compare them and saw how equations match the stories and questions being asked. We were reminded that unknows can be anywhere in the equation.

Please watch for Cool Downs coming home in your child's zippy. Cool Downs are done independently and are a good measure of your child's understanding of the math goal for that day. Please review missed concepts on th Cool Downs with your child. 

We also set our math strength and goal and are super excited to share them with you in a couple of weeks. We also had a STEAM lab in our classroom where we used Scratch Jr. to make animated math word problems. 

An online math program called IXL is now available to your child in the Clever portal. It would be a wonderful idea to do a bit of RAZ, Lexia, and IXL over the October break. 

In Social Studies, we reflected on our favorite parts of 1st grade so far and even thought about what we might change. We also reflected on our community member strength and goals. Reflections and strengths and goals will be shared with you during our conference. 

We also had our September Grade 1 Assembly, learned the difference between rights and responsibilities, and how to map an indoor space (birds eye view). Challenge your child to map their bedroom or the house over the weekend. Also, ask your child to share about rights and responsibilities after watching this video review. 

Upcoming Events:

• October 2-No EAA today due to Distance Learning Day that was canceled. 
• October 11-13-Fall Conferences!
• October 14-22-Fall Break. Drop 4-5 pictures from your holiday here. Your child will share these pictures to practice public speaking and to work on identifying the when, where, who, what & how (what we are working on during writing). 
• October 23-Late Start (10:00)
• October 25-Free Dress Day!
• October 27-Visiting Author
• October 31-Halloween color dress and party! You may want to look for a costume over fall break.
• We will be having our Halloween Party from 2-3 pm. Your child may wear Halloween colors (black and orange) to school and even festive themed clothes, but please do not wear costumes to school. Costumes need to be sent in your child's school bag. Your child will be given time to change before the party. 
• November 3-Zombie Run! Sign up here.

September 18-22, 2023

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Thank you all for the birthday love, wishes, and gifts. I had a very special day thanks to you and your children! Your children are so kind and kept wishing me happy birthday throughout the entire day. This last week we also had our first Party Jar Celebration. Students enjoyed playing games with each other while enjoying a popcorn treat. 

In Writing, we continued to learn ways to bring our writing to life. This week we learned how to add pop out words, draw a detailed background, add labels to our pictures, use ellipses (...) and other fun endings (! . ?). 

We also learned how to write a powerful ending. Watch this video as a review. Students will be taking their post-assessment next week. To help your child prepare you can help them brainstorm storm a fun family memory and go over the small steps.

In Reading, we continued to build our reading stamina, added more to our partner reading routines, and had our Unit 1 Reading Celebration to celebrate all we have learned this first quarter. 

We also learned how to give a 5 Finger Retell. Watch this video for a review and have your child give a 5 Finger Retell after each book they read to you at home. You can also watch Plot Mountain and see if your child can pick out the characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end.

In Word Study, we learned digraphs ck and sh. We found that ck comes at the end of short vowel words and sh can be found in all places. We also learned the heart words goes, says, she & we. 

In Math, we learned how to solve "Comparing" story problems. The magic words in these type of problems is "how many more" and "how many fewer." Students have to notice we are comparing two groups and then make a model to show comparing. Encourage your child to draw comparing lines between the two sets of items. Then they will look to find the difference (how many more or how many fewer). Because we are finding a difference we encourage students to use a subtraction equation. However, an addition equation can also be used. 

Give your child these two types of problems and see how they do.

In Social Studies, we had a counseling lesson with Ms. Selvie, about bullying, and continued learning about our SAS Core Values. We read Whoever You Are and Marvelous Cornelius to help us better understand respect and responsibility. We reflected in our journals and had some wonderfully deep conversations around the concept of respect and disrespect. Ask your child what respect and responsibility means to them and how they can show them. 

We also had our third STEAM lesson. We visited the Science Lab and were presented with an engineering challenge to solve Mrs. Cuthbert's mosquito bite problem. Students brought their prototype home Friday.

Upcoming Events:

*Please send back the yellow reading homework folder every Tuesday, in your child's zippy.

• September 25-Late Start (10:00).
• September 27-Free Dress Day!
• September 29-
• Mid-Autumn Festival Celebration from 2:00-3:00. We need 4-5 parent volunteers. Please let our Room Parents know if you can help.
• Cultural Dress Day!
• Friday Night Lights-Come enjoy some BBQ and High School sporting events, from 3:30-7:30, at the HS fields/gym.
• October 2-No EAA today due to old Distance Learning Day that was canceled. 
• October 11-13-Fall Conferences!
• October 14-22-Fall Break. Drop 4-5 pictures from your holiday here. Your child will share these pictures to practice public speaking and to work on identifying the when, where, who, what & how (what we are working on during writing). 
• October 23-Late Start (10:00)

September 12-15, 2023

 

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In Writing, we wrote a class story about the lockdown drill. We learned how to use POP OUT words to bring our story to life and worked to add transition words to our other stories. We also learned how to write a good beginning that would hook the reader. We learned that we can make someone talk (use quotation marks), ask a question, or use a sound to get our readers attention. Ask your child what their latest book is about and what they are doing to bring it to life. We also started writing our "No Excuse Words" daily. No Excuse words are personalized and progress will be shared during conferences. 

In Reading, we learned that reading partners plan ways to read together. They also learned that reading partners don't tell whent hey get stuck, they help. Next week is our last week of Unit 1 in Reading. On Friday during Reading we will celebrate all of the good work we have been doing. Our stamina has been building and the class is reading for about 12 minutes independently without being distracted. 

In Word Study, we learned to double f, l, s and z when they are at the end of a word and found after a short vowel. We referred to this rule as the FLOSS rule. We also learned the heart words your, want, go, no & so. Please watch for the following home practice sheets coming home Monday in your child's zippy. 

In Math, we learned how to solve "Put Together" and "Take Apart" story problems. In these types of story problems there is no action (nothing is joining or being taken away). Things are present and being put together or taken apart (color is usually involved). This week we learned how to solve total unknown and addend unknown "Put Together" and "Take Apart" problems. Here are a few examples of how the equation and model might look.

Give your child these problems (and some color crayons) and see how they do. Which model did they use? Ask them where the unknown is and how they solved it (count all, count on, count back, or have it memorized). Don't forget to label! The model should show how your child solved the problem. Students might also write backward equations (?=6+4) and turn around facts (4+6=? instead of 6+4=?). 

In Social Studies, we conducted some research on the following question: "What is a Community?" Ask your child what they learned. We also read The Sandwich Swap to learn about the SAS Core Value of Fairness. We completed our Journal and had some great conversations about treating other fairly. We also read Ruthie and the (Not So) Teeny Tiny Lie and learned about the SAS Core Value of Honesty. We completed our Journal and talked about the importance of telling the truth. We also learned that if we create a pattern of being dishonest people will not believe us when we are telling the truth. We will lose trust and possibly friends.

Upcoming Events:

• September 20-We filled up the Party Jar, voted, and will be having our gaming party from 2:00-2:30! For more information click here.
• September 21-Mrs. Wood's Birthday! A birthday treat will be shared during our PM snack today.
• September 25-Late Start (10:00).
• September 27-Free Dress Day!
• September 29-
• Mid-Autumn Festival Celebration from 2:00-3:00. We need 4-5 parent volunteers. Please let our Room Parents know if you can help.
• Cultural Dress Day!
• Friday Night Lights-Come enjoy some BBQ and High School sporting events, from 3:30-7:30, at the HS fields/gym.
• October 11-13-Fall Conferences!
• October 14-22-Fall Break. Drop 4-5 pictures from your holiday here. Your child will share these pictures to practice public speaking and to work on identifying the when, where, who, what & how (what we are working on during writing). 
• October 23-Late Start (10:00)

Week in Review, September 4-8, 2023

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In Writing, we learned a few ways we can bring our stories to life. We learned that we can make our characters move, talk, and think. 

We also learned that we can tell small steps to bring our stories to life. A lot of students are still giving big watermelon stories. This is a difficult concept to understand and by focusing on the small steps students will be able to better zoom in. You can practice telling the small steps when you work on a task together at home (brushing teeth, eating a meal, riding a bike, making cookies, playing a game, etc.).

In Reading, we continued to build our reading stamina and good reading habits. This week we learned how to:

• Reread to smooth out our voice.
• Readers track and scoop up words with our eyes.
• Reread to see more.
• How to drop our bad habits (the freeze, the blooper, the mumble, etc.) and pick up some good habits (we will be learning these over the next couple of weeks). 

Reading homework started this week. Please continue to read with your child Monday-Thursday evenings. You can read passages from in the notebook that came home 

In Word Study, we reviewed all the short vowels. Please do the home review/practice with your child this next week at home.

We also learned all about nouns. We worked to identify nouns and completed a SeeSaw post categorizing nouns. To see your child's post, please read the SeeSaw letter that came home in your child's zippy Thursday. 

In Math, we started Unit 2, Addition and Subtraction Story Problems. Please read the parent letter here. This week we learned how to write an equation with an unknown (box around the answer). We learned three different types of story problems: Add To, Change Unknown, and Take From. Please see the examples below. 

You can ask your child to solve the following story problems, for extra practice, using all of these steps: Write an equation with the unknown, make a model with labels, and write a seperate answer with the unknown box around it. See the charts above for help. 

Add To: 5 kids were listening to a story. 4 more kids joined the group. How many kids are listening to the story now?

Change Unknown: Jenny had 3 stickers. Frank gave her some more stickers. Now she has 10 stickers. How many stickers did Frank give her?

Take From: A baker had 8 cookies. He sold 4 of the cookies. How many cookies does he have now? 

In Social Studies, we had two safety drills this week. One was planned and the other was not. Students did a wonderful job on both! We also do a STEAM lesson, in our classroom, as part of the study of our names. We learned about sensors and then used some Ozobots to see how sensors work. The ozobots followed the lines in our names. We saw that the Ozobots like dark, thick lines. They can also see color. Later we will see some of the ways we can make our Ozobots move with color codes. We also did a See, Think, Wonder on what makes a community. We discovered that a community is a group of people (or animals), working together, to achieve a common goal. Next week we will start learning about our SAS Core Values and the importance of having values in a community. 

Upcoming Events:

*Parents and caregivers who pick up students at the end of the day are asked to exit the campus once they have reunited. We do not have supervision on the playground after school. 

• September 11-No School! Faculty Inservice Day!
• September 13-Free Dress Day!
• September 21-Mrs. Wood's Birthday! Mrs. Wood will be sharing a treat during our PM snack today.
• September 25-Late Start (10:00).
• September 27-Free Dress Day!
• September 29-
• Mid-Autumn Festival Celebration from 2:00-3:00. We need 4-5 parent volunteers. Please let our Room Parents know if you can help.
• Friday Night Lights-Come enjoy some BBQ and High School sporting events, from 3:30-7:30, at the HS fields/gym. You can get your coupons here after Sept. 14th.
• October 11-13-Fall Conferences!
• October 14-22-Fall Break. Drop 4-5 pictures from your holiday here. Your child will share these pictures to practice public speaking and to work on identifying the when, where, who, what & how (what we are working on during writing). 
• October 23-Late Start (10:00)

Week in Review, August 28-31, 2023

For more weekly pictures, click here. 

In Writing, we learned how to write an exciting middle and a reflective ending to our Small Moment. We also spent some time learning how to share our writing with a partner, ask good questions, and use feedback to revise. Your child can continue writing small moments at home. Here are some steps you can follow:

• Brainstorm a small moment.
• Touch and tell across the pages (this will help them know how many pages long their story might be).
• Sketch across the pages to plan (this is a quick sketch, not a detailed drawing).
• Write a beginning where you share the when, who, where, and what (what are you doing). 
• Write a middle where you share the details of what happened. There might be a big or little problem or an exciting moment.
• Write an ending. This is where the problem might get fixed or the exciting moment ends. End with how you felt about the experience and if you may have learned an important lesson.
• After they complete a sloppy copy, they can come back and revise (add more detail, add missing words, etc) and edit for spelling, capital letters, and end marks.
• Then, they can fix and fancy it up by adding more detail and color to their pictures. They might also add a cover, title page, dedication page, and an about the author page. 

The No Excuse Word Assessment and Sight Word Assessment will be coming home this next week in your child's zippy. Please look to see how your child did on these assessments. You can always support what we are doing in the classroom by practicing these words at home (spell No Excuse Words and read Sight words in a snap).

In Reading, we learned how to take a sneak peek to get ready to read, how to check the sneak peek as we read, how to do something at the end, and how to goal set. Ask your child how to take a sneak peek and to share something they might do at the end of the book (reread, share their favorite part, or give a retell). We continued to build our reading stamina and good reading habits. This week we learned how to:

• Reread to smooth out our voice.
• Readers track and scoop up words with our eyes.
• Reread to see more.

 As you child how many minutes we read Thursday without anyone losing focus.

Reading homework will be coming home Monday. Please watch these videos so you know how to work with your child:

• Home Practice Folder Instructional Video
• Home Practice How To-Video
• Decodable Passage How-To Video
• Roll and Read How-To Video

A reading log is also coming home Monday (attached to the reading homework letter). You can write the name of the decodable passage you read on the Book line. You can also write down stories read in RAZ, library books, or stories from your home library. 

In Math, we learned how to conduct a survey and ask and answer questions about the results. We also took our End of the Unit Assessment. The Assessment will be coming home this week in your child's zippy. Please look to see how your child did on this assessment. We also played lots of math games to build fluency. To practice math facts at home you can download the Rocket Math Game app. Next week we will be starting Unit 2, Addition and Subtraction Story Problems (chinese). 

In Social Studies, we continued to get to know the members in Our Community by learning more about each other's names. We have written them, read them, and had lots of noticing (vowels, constantan, syllables, capital, lowercase, etc.). We also completed an inquiry on "What is a community?" Ask your child what they learned. (What are some things a community might have?)  

SeeSaw & Lexia Information-This week students were introduced to SeeSaw & Lexia. Information was sent home in your child's zippy on how to access them from home. We will be using SeeSaw as a classroom learning journal.  We also took our Lexia placement assessment. Lexia can be practiced at home to build phonemic awareness and spelling skills. One important thing to note, is that parents should not help their child while they use the Lexia program. Because it is adaptive, if the student receives too much help they will progress to quickly and it will become too difficult. If this happens, please let us know and we will reassign their auto-placement test. Both of these apps are accessed through the Clever Badge that was sent home last week. IXL Math practice and RAZ Reading can also be accessed at home through the Clever Badge. Check them out!

Upcoming Events:

*Join the Class WhatsApp Group.

*Lionel's mom, Kate, will be our 2nd Room Parent. Thank you Kate for your help! 

• September 4
• EAA starts today! Please view the EAA Schedule here. If you see anything that needs to be changed, please let us know.
• Reading homework starts. Please watch for the homework binder coming home in your child's backpack. 
• Happy Birthday Lionel! He will be sharing his treat Friday (8th).
• September 6-Last Swim for PE.
• September 8-Lionel sharing B-Day treats for PM snack.
• September 11-No School! Faculty Inservice Day!
• September 13-Free Dress Day!
• September 21-Mrs. Wood's Birthday! Mrs. Wood will be sharing a PM snack B-Day treat!
• September 25-Late Start (10:00).
• September 27-Free Dress Day!