Hello, Room 4 Families. I hope you have had a chance to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather we had this weekend. Thank you for your help with having your children observe the Moon last week. Wow, it was quite a week for the Moon!
Reminders:
•Our field trip to the Planetarium at the Museum of Science will take place this Friday. We will be having lunch in our classrooms upon our return. Please keep in mind that our classrooms are nut-free. Thank you! If your child would like to purchase lunch from the cafeteria on Friday, the option available to them is a sunflower butter and jelly sandwich with fruit and shelf-stable milk.
•Wednesday, November 23- Dismissal is at 11:30. NO LUNCH
Below are some of the things we have been working on in Room 4.
Phonics
We learned about the bonus letters s, f, l, and sometimes z. When following a short vowel, the letters s, f, l, and sometimes z are doubled. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule.
How do you mark a bonus letter in a word? (put a star above the bonus letter)
How do you mark the digraphs sh, ch, th, wh, and ck in a word?
(underline them)
You may wonder why we mark certain letters or letter combinations in words. It helps us to recognize these letters and letter combinations when we are working to sound out unknown words. (decoding) It also helps us remember how to spell those sounds when writing. (encoding)
These are the words we currently have on our Trick Word Wall:
the, a, and, is his, of, as, has, to into, we, he, she, be, me, for, out, you, your
Reading
Last week we began our unit on Schema. What is schema? Schema is all that we know about a topic or idea. Each day we learn more and continue to build our schema. Our schema for a topic, character, or author helps us to make predictions and/or understand a story better. Sometimes our schema can grow or change.
I read the book, The Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume, to the class. Many of the first graders had schema for siblings and could make predictions and make connections with the characters.
How did your schema help you understand or enjoy the read-aloud?
Math
The first graders are currently working on understanding the difference and relationship between addition and subtraction. They are also working on decomposing targeted numbers to 10. The numbers each student is working on are based on an assessment done individually with each child.
How are we working on these concepts? Here are two examples:
Clear the Deck
This game is played with two students. They cover two ten frames with unifix cubes. Each player takes turns rolling a 0-9 die. They then spin a +/- spinner to see if they are to add or subtract that number of cubes. The first person to “clear the deck” wins.
Build a Floor
This game is played with a specific number of unifix cubes, based on the assessment mentioned above. Students roll a die and work on building the base of their floor, using one color cube. Based on the numbers rolled, they must determine where that floorboard goes. Once the base is complete, students work on building the rest of the floorboard with a different color cube. Here are some pictures to help explain:
The base of the Floor Completed Floor
On Friday we learned the parts of an addition and subtraction equation. The numbers we add together are called addends. We find the sum when we add the addends together.
We subtract the subtrahend from the minuend to find the difference. Here are some visuals:
Science
As you know, we are currently learning about the Moon. We are also learning about clouds. We have learned to identify cirrus, cumulus, and stratus clouds. With the beautiful, sunny weather we had last week, we did not have much of an opportunity to observe the clouds in the sky. ;) We will try again this week.
Which cloud is high in the sky and looks like stretched-out cotton balls? Cirrus
Which cloud is low to the ground, is often gray, and covers the whole sky? Stratus
Which clouds are in the middle of the sky and often look like puffy clumps of cotton balls? cumulus
Social Studies
This past week we learned about courage. I read the book Courage, by Bernard Waber. Then we began the book, Courageous People Who Changed the World, by Heidi Poelman. We are learning about people who demonstrated courage while working to make the world a better place for everyone. We will finish that book this week.
How can you show courage?
Does being courageous mean that you are not nervous or afraid?
