Magic House

We had a great time at our field trip to The Magic House. We learned about different U.S. symbols, explored some fun areas and even got to visit the Oval Office and participate in a trial. In fact, it was so fun and exciting, that some of our friends fell fast asleep on the bus ride home :) Enjoy some fun pictures!

We were so excited on the bus ride there . . . even though it was super long because of traffic!

There was so much fun stuff that we got to do, including climbing the beanstalk, working at a grocery store and being car mechanics!

The Magic House tuckered them out!

September 28th - October 2nd Newsletter

We had a great week last week. We learned all about small moments, and will continue with it this week too. Our field trip to The Magic House is tomorrow, September 29th, and we are super excited about it!!!! Please send your child to school on time with a green shirt and a sack lunch & drink. Friday is an Early Release Day, so dismissal will be at 12:20 :) I will also be choosing a student on Friday that has been showing great Initiative this month of September! Initiative is taking charge of your own learning!

Reading/Units of Study: We will be able to ask and answer questions about a text. We will be able to identify the central message or author's purpose in a story. We will be able to identify details that make a story a small moments personal narrative.
Writer's Workshop: We will be able to include feelings and details to write a small moment personal narrative. We will able to include an opening, beginning, middle, end and a closing. A personal narrative is a true story about ourselves. A small moment personal narrative is about one specific event in our lives. A small moment includes juicy words and feelings that show, don't tell how you were feeling. For example, instead of just saying, "I was upset", I would write, "I was feeling so upset that I was like a volcano about to erupt."
Math: We will be able to use counters and a ten-frame to model numbers up to 10. We will be able to recognize numbers on a ten-frame. We will be able to identify the parts of ten. We will understand the meaning of more than, less than and missing part.
Phonics: We will be able to read and write words with the oa vowel team. The skill this week is learning about the oa vowel team. A vowel team is 2 vowels working together to make one long vowel sound. “When 2 vowels go walking, the first one does the talking” is a great way to remember the rule for vowel teams! Have fun practicing this week! Here are our words for the week: oat, road, roast, boat, foam, toad, soap, goat, soak coast, loaf, load . Also, here are some videos and games that will help with learning about the oa vowel teams!
Vowel Team oa phonics

'oa' - Shock Matrix (The Electric Company)

Between the Lions: "Cliff Hanger and the Enchanted Goat" 

"When Two Vowels Go Walking" song

Geraldine the Giraffe learns /oa/ 

Kiz Phonics oa Making Words game

Roy the Zebra oa game

Spelling City

Writing with Our Senses!

Last week, we were learning all about how super writers use their senses when writing. What better way to learn about using our senses to write than by making a 5 senses observation on a delicious Starburst?!?! We had a great time experiencing a Starburst by really observing how it felt, tasted, smelled, sounded and looked. I loved seeing everyone so excited about coming up with juicy words to describe their Starburst! The best part was watching them really think about their Starburst. After eating our Starburst and filling out our organizers, we then wrote a poem about our Starburst :)
It was such a fun activity!

Newsletter for September 21-25

So sorry about skipping a week with the newsletter. It has been very busy in our 1st grade classroom and it honestly slipped my mind! Just as a quick reminder, every child has now brought their bag of books home with them. When your child brings their bag of books home, it means that they have received a new book from me and they are to read at home with their family. The kids love their bag of books and they get so upset when they forget to bring it back to school because they won't have anything to read for familiar reading time. Also, I love seeing all of the field trip money coming for our trip to the Magic House! Permission slips are due back on Monday the 21st :) 

Reading/Units of Study: We will be able to ask and answer questions about a text. We will be able to identify details that make a story a small moments personal narrative.
Writer's Workshop: We will be able to include feelings and details to write a small moment personal narrative. We will able to include an opening, beginning, middle, end and a closing. A personal narrative is a true story about ourselves. A small moment personal narrative is about one specific event in our lives. For example, I could write a narrative about all the things I do with Parker during one day, but to make it a small moment, I would write about one specific event during a day. Instead of writing about everything we did, I would just write about going to the playground.
Math: We will be able to use models to find the missing part. We will be able to solve different types of subtraction problems. We will understand the meaning of subtract, difference and subtraction sentence.
Phonics: We will be able to read and write words with the ai and ay. The skill this week is learning about the ai and ay vowel teams. A vowel team is 2 vowels working together to make one long vowel sound. “When 2 vowels go walking, the first one does the talking” is a great way to remember the rule for vowel teams! Our rule about ai is that is used mostly in the middle of words and ay is found at the end of words. There are a few rule breakers, but this is the rule for most words. Have fun practicing this week! Here are our words for the week: rain, paid, brain, say, day, wait, claim, trait, stay, wait, gray, play. Also, here are some videos and games that will help with learning about the ai and ay vowel teams!
Spelling Strategy: When To Use ai Or ay

Between the Lions: Cliff Hanger & the Rain
ai/ay Rap (Electric Company)
Between the Lions: When Two Vowels Go Walking
ai Making Words Game
Galactic Phonics ay Game
My Favorite - SPELLING CITY!!!!
 

September 7-11 Newsletter

We enjoyed another week full of learning activities! I do have a few things to go over with everyone. By this point, almost every child has brought their bag of books home with them. When your child brings their bag of books home, it means that they have received a new book from me. They are to take their books home, read them with family, and return them to school the next day. It is very important that your child always brings their books back to school. We use them each day for familiar reading time. Also, at this time, various students are currently in reading interventions after lunch, which means that they are missing our phonics time. This is perfectly fine, as they work on some phonics work during their reading groups. I will still be sending the word lists home with everyone at the beginning of the week, so you can still go over the skills and words with your child. They will not be tested on words they are not being instructed on during the school day. I will be assessing their level of phonics knowledge during writer's workshop and guided reading word work.

Reading/Units of Study: We will be able to identify the central message. We will be able to collaborate and listen to our peers by working together and sharing our ideas. We will be able to tell about the plot of a story.
Writer's Workshop: We will be able to include details to write a sequenced narrative. We will able to include an opening sentence, beginning, middle, end and a closing. A narrative is a story with characters, a setting, and a beginning, middle and ending. We will be able to write a narrative about a time that we were a good friend.
Math: We will be able to subtract using the minus sign. We will be able to act out subtraction stories. We will be able to compare to find the difference. We will be able to use models to find the missing part. We will understand the meaning of subtract, difference and subtraction sentence.
Phonics: We will be able to read and write words with blends. A blend is a letter combination where each letter keeps its original sound and can occur at the beginning or end of a word. A blend is different from a digraphs because each letter makes a sound. Here are our words for the week: scab, gift, snug, flex, frog, skit, globe, state, pride, flute, smoke, plate. Also, here are some videos and games that will help with learning blends!
Learn to Read video
Consonant Blends video
Blends Song video
L Blends Game
Initial Blends Game

Spelling City

Today, you are receiving a letter inviting you to utilize Spelling City to practice our phonics words. I have posted all of the lists for 1st quarter. There are a ton of fun games and activities that your child can do to practice their skills! You can download Spelling City for your favorite device and for your computer. Also, I will send home the phonics list every Monday, with various fun activities for you child to work on throughout the week. At this time, it is not a homework assignment. Click the picture below to take you there!