Hello, Room 4 Families.  I hope you are all having a great long weekend.  On Friday we discussed what Indigenous People’s Day is and why we don’t have school today.  I shared that the people who are indigenous to what is now Wayland are from the Nipmuc Nation.  Did you know that there is a small display of Nipmuc artifacts at the Wayland Town Building?  We will learn more about the Nipmuc people, and other indigenous people, in November.

To encourage healthy habits, I read the book, I’m a Booger, Treat Me with Respect by Julia Cook.  The title is gross and it is not my favorite book to read.  However, it has a very important message about why we should use tissues and wash our hands.  Additionally, we are asking children to sneeze and cough into the crook of their elbows.  

•Show me how we should cough and sneeze.  Why should we do this?

•What is a “booger ghost?”  Can you show me how to make one?  

•Why is it important to keep our fingers out of our mouths and noses?  

Room 4 had a blast helping to harvest the produce from our Loker Garden.  

Please be sure to visit our Google Photo Album to see the new pictures and videos.

Reminders:

Please sign-up for our 20-minute Fall Conference.  The link is found in the upper right corner of our class webpage.

Please sign-up to be a Mystery Reader in Room 4!  Please sign-up for one spot per family.  Thank you!  Once everyone has had a chance to sign-up, I will open it to a second slot per family.

Below is some of what we have worked on over the past two weeks.  

Math

We have been practicing counting up and back, starting with different numbers.  We do this orally as well as in written form.  Counting up and back across decades is challenging for many first graders. 

We learned a game to help us practice what we call, “tricky teens.” A teen number is one that is made up of ten and some extras.  For example, 14 is one ten and 4 extra.  This is why we write it 14.  Many young children, hear the 4 in fourteen first and write the number 41.  This game helped us not only practice writing the teen numbers correctly but also provided a visual to help us see the one ten and extras.  

Tell me how you played this game.  How did you create a teen number? (rolled a ten-sided die and placed that number of cubes in the second ten-frame.  Their partner did the same on their mat.  They then compared their teen numbers.)

  

Your first graders continued to practice telling time to the hour by playing a memory game of analog and digital clocks.

•Let’s count up starting at 63 and ending at 82

•Let’s count back starting at 110 and ending at 71

Reading

During our reading blocks, we are building our stamina for independent reading.  This is when we practice reading and rereading our “just right” books.

I am currently assessing children individually to determine reading levels as well as reading skills to target in future groups and lessons.

The first graders in room 4 have had fun with choral readings of poems as a class.  We practice phrasing, fluency, and expression.  On Friday we had a contest to see who could read the poem as one voice.  

•Who won the poem reading contest, the class or the teachers? ;)

Writing

During our writing blocks, we are stretching our stories by adding important details. Our goal is to help the reader understand what we are telling them about in our story.  We are also working to begin our sentences with capital letters and ending our sentences with punctuation.

•Tell me about some of the details you added to your story.

Science

We had a lot of fun exploring air!  We made and used parachutes to explore air resistance. 

This past week we explored what happens when air is pushed into a smaller space. Check out the pics and videos! We learned about and experienced the power of compressed air.

•What was your favorite part of the exploration with the tube and syringe?  What happened when the air was compressed?  What can compressed air do? (push and pull)

Social Studies

We listened to A Kid’s Book about Belonging by Kevin Carroll.

•What makes you feel like you belong?  How do you feel when you don’t feel like you belong?  

Phonics

We have reviewed all letters/sounds (short vowels only).  This week we learned (reviewed) how to tap out simple CVC words.  Tapping out words is helpful when sounding out unknown words and helps us spell unknown words.  

•Show me how to tap out the word “met.”  How does learning how to do this help you as a reader?  How can it help you as a writer?

Enjoy this beautiful, Fall-like weather!

Best,

Kathy