Classroom News December 1, 2015

Dear Parents and Families,

Here’s what we’re up to in first grade:

We have new international learning buddies! We’ve partnered up with another group of students in Hungary. They are in first, second, and third grade. Our goals are to learn about each others’ school lives, countries, and cultures.

Social Studies and Writing We are working on writing autobiographies! We started with an exploration of attributes, or words that describe us. We are learning how to make a claim and back it up with evidence. For example, a student’s claim might be, “I am artistic.” Then, he would need to prove his claim with evidence such as, “I like drawing with oil pastels. I can make pinch pots out of clay.” Ask your child to tell you their claim and some of their evidence. You can support our learning at home by talking about characters in books and what they are like. Some familiar attribute words your child may recognize are thoughtful, creative, responsible, brave, helpful, caring, adventurous, athletic, inclusive, persistent, organized.

Math – Our class is wrapping up our study of the partners to 10, and beginning to learn about subtraction in relation to addition. Students will be using their knowledge of addition strategies in order to solve subtraction problems within 10. A huge connection between addition and subtraction will be explicitly taught, as well as the use of a number path (number line) to hop from the total number to one part. Students will count the hops to figure out the difference. Mathematicians will also be using efficient math strategies to solve word problems, and working in stations in math boost on targeted skills including number formation, addition of numbers with a sum up to 20, fluency practice (adding and subtracting numbers to 10 efficiently), and working in a “build it” station in order to foster creativity in problem solving.

Our Math Learning Targets for this week are:I can look for and make use of structure on the addition chart to help solve equations.I can increase my fluency (speed and accuracy) with partners to 10.I can solve addition story problems and connect them to subtraction.I can count on, or backwards on the number path (number line) in order to find an unknown part.

Science- Scientists are working to wrap up their study of the monarch life cycle by completing their life cycle books. Science journals for the monarch life cycle will come home this week and students may start learning about engineering!

As we “gear” up for our next mini unit on engineering, we welcome any volunteers who may want to share their engineering experiences with our class! We will be focusing on what engineering is, what technology is, and giving students a chance to apply that learning with an introductory engineering task that highlights communicating with a partner or group in order to solve a problem. If you are interested in helping or would like to share your expertise, please email Heather and Rebecca.

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Word Work – Sight Words are words that students are expected to know by sight because they often contain spelling “tricks” that we can’t sound out, or “tap out.”

This week’s sight words: then so some her make

Next week’s words are: these would could should him

The Fundations program focuses on pattern-based spelling and explicitly teaches skills students can apply to many different words. We’re working on Unit 7: -nk endings. We are learning about words that end with -ink, -onk, -ank, and -unk. These parts make “nasal sounds” that we can’t tap out.

Sample words: pink honk think junk rink sink thank tank chunk bank dunk link bunk sunk wink yank bonk

Next week, we’ll review words with -ng and -nk endings.

Some other logistics:

● Mrs. McGrath and Mrs. Haslam are completing their interviews for Mrs. McGrath’s maternity leave this week and will introduce the new long term substitute as soon as possible. Mrs. McGrath plans to return on March 2, 2016, right after the February Break.

● The cold weather is here! Please send your child to school with a jacket every day for outdoor recess. Thanks for your help.

Please feel free to contact us anytime,

Sincerely,

Rebecca Haslam Heather McGrathrhaslam@bsdvt.org hmcgrath@bsdvt.org

www.haslammcgrath.weebly.com