Week in Review, September 25-29, 2023

For more weekly pictures, click here. 

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.