Curriculum News for the month of April
Bridges
We will begin our Bridges Unit 7 of Place Value this week. Our focus will be to continue to develop understandings of numbers to 120 through estimating, comparing, counting adding and subtracting two digit quantities. First graders will study place value through familiar models such as sticks and bundles, dimes, nickels and pennies and the number line. Hansel and Gretel will be our fairy tale characters who take us on a path of number lines counting forward and backward by 1,s, 2’s, 5,s, 10’s, 20’s and 30’s. The children love this unit, so hopefully you will hear about some of this at home!
Number Corner
In Number Corner this month, first graders will review fractions and the attributes of shapes. Each day we will determine if shapes are symmetrical and how many ways they can be folded evenly– in halves, fourths, or not at all. Daily activities will also include collecting popsicle sticks and bundling them into 10’s and 1’s and tallying daily, as well as measuring the length of classroom objects. The children will also learn that the strategies they use for single digit number can also be used to solve equations with double- digit numbers.
Reader’s Workshop
Our Unit 4 in Reader’s Workshop is Meeting Characters and Learning Lessons. In Bend 1 the children will practice the strategies of predicting and retelling. Throughout Bend 2 we will zoom in on studying the characters in our books and noticing the relationships between the characters. We will also practice changing our voices to match the feelings of the characters. Bend 3 helps us to learn the important messages and lessons in the stories we read, and to compare them to other stories we are familiar with. Finally, Bend 4 will take us into sharing our opinions about the books we are reading and share our opinions with the class.
Writer’s Workshop
Unit 4 in Writer’s Workshop, From Scenes to Series, is a first grade favorite! The children will write a realistic fiction series based on a character that they create. This unit will lead the children step by step through the process of creating a pretend character and creating “small moments” through adventures. Hopefully they will have enough books to create a series or a boxed set. Throughout this unit, the children will draw on everything they have learned about narrative writing while they practice sequencing and bringing their characters to like by describing what they do, say and think. The first graders will be proud to share their series writing in Family Sharing Night!
Inquiry
We will continue our study of Farming, production, consumption and distribution of goods and services throughout the month. As we end our unit the children will complete a project answering the following question:
Challenge Question:
How can I as a first grader teach others about the process production, distribution and consumption?
The students will choose what they want to research (veggie, grain, dairy or cotton). Your child may be asking for a poster board and other materials, if needed.
Toward the end of April, we will begin our last science Inquiry Unit, as first graders begin to learn about structure, function and information processing in plants and animals in the rainforest. Our essential and challenge questions will be:
Essential Question:
How do living things use their parts to help them survive?
Challenge Question:
How can we, as first grade scientists, use our understanding of living things parts to design and construct a new superhero costume that helps the superhero to survive?
We will end our unit with a Superhero fashion show!
We will begin our Bridges Unit 7 of Place Value this week. Our focus will be to continue to develop understandings of numbers to 120 through estimating, comparing, counting adding and subtracting two digit quantities. First graders will study place value through familiar models such as sticks and bundles, dimes, nickels and pennies and the number line. Hansel and Gretel will be our fairy tale characters who take us on a path of number lines counting forward and backward by 1,s, 2’s, 5,s, 10’s, 20’s and 30’s. The children love this unit, so hopefully you will hear about some of this at home!
Number Corner
In Number Corner this month, first graders will review fractions and the attributes of shapes. Each day we will determine if shapes are symmetrical and how many ways they can be folded evenly– in halves, fourths, or not at all. Daily activities will also include collecting popsicle sticks and bundling them into 10’s and 1’s and tallying daily, as well as measuring the length of classroom objects. The children will also learn that the strategies they use for single digit number can also be used to solve equations with double- digit numbers.
Reader’s Workshop
Our Unit 4 in Reader’s Workshop is Meeting Characters and Learning Lessons. In Bend 1 the children will practice the strategies of predicting and retelling. Throughout Bend 2 we will zoom in on studying the characters in our books and noticing the relationships between the characters. We will also practice changing our voices to match the feelings of the characters. Bend 3 helps us to learn the important messages and lessons in the stories we read, and to compare them to other stories we are familiar with. Finally, Bend 4 will take us into sharing our opinions about the books we are reading and share our opinions with the class.
Writer’s Workshop
Unit 4 in Writer’s Workshop, From Scenes to Series, is a first grade favorite! The children will write a realistic fiction series based on a character that they create. This unit will lead the children step by step through the process of creating a pretend character and creating “small moments” through adventures. Hopefully they will have enough books to create a series or a boxed set. Throughout this unit, the children will draw on everything they have learned about narrative writing while they practice sequencing and bringing their characters to like by describing what they do, say and think. The first graders will be proud to share their series writing in Family Sharing Night!
Inquiry
We will continue our study of Farming, production, consumption and distribution of goods and services throughout the month. As we end our unit the children will complete a project answering the following question:
Challenge Question:
How can I as a first grader teach others about the process production, distribution and consumption?
The students will choose what they want to research (veggie, grain, dairy or cotton). Your child may be asking for a poster board and other materials, if needed.
Toward the end of April, we will begin our last science Inquiry Unit, as first graders begin to learn about structure, function and information processing in plants and animals in the rainforest. Our essential and challenge questions will be:
Essential Question:
How do living things use their parts to help them survive?
Challenge Question:
How can we, as first grade scientists, use our understanding of living things parts to design and construct a new superhero costume that helps the superhero to survive?
We will end our unit with a Superhero fashion show!
Curriculum News for February/March
Writer’s Workshop
Music In Our Hearts is our Unit in Writer’s Workshop the remainder of February and the month of March. The first graders will be experimenting with listening to poetry with line breaks, metaphors and feelings, then writing some of their own poetry to capture what they see and feel. The students will begin by having fun writing and sharing poems written to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and other familiar tunes.
Shared Reading
As we move away from Historical Figures, much of our shared reading in March will revolve around Dr. Seuss stories for Dr. Seuss month in March. We will also read and study poetry to support the work we are doing in Reader’s Workshop and Writer’s Workshop.
Inquiry
We finished up with our very busy and fun Inquiry unit of “How Can I explain how Famous Americans have made an impact on our country?”. We are now ready to move onto our next science Inquiry Unit, which is Farms. This unit will revolve around production, consumption and distribution of goods and services. We have a field trip planned to the Long Grove Confectionery Factory for a production tour in Buffalo Grove on March 13th. More information following shortly.
Bridges
The focus in Unit 5 of Bridges has be geometry. Throughout this unit, first graders used variety of models and tools to explore 2 and 3 dimensional shapes and fractions. The emphasis on two and three-dimensional shapes was to identify, describe, construct, sort and compose. The students also learned about fractions in two-dimensional shapes as they constructed paper sandwiches and pizzas in fourths and halves. Bingo fraction games completed our fun unit of hands on activities while we explore geometric shapes and fractions.
Penguins will be our theme throughout Unit 6 as first will continue to develop fluency with addition and subtraction facts to 10, and strategies for facts to 20. They will solve number combinations and story problems using the number rack, write and solve equations that involve unknowns in all positions and determine whether addition and subtraction equations are true or false. Throughout the unit first graders will also learn of the amazing and interesting habits of penguins!
Number Corner
February was an exciting month as we welcomed our 100th day of school on February 7th. First graders worked on computational fluency with multiple addends as they worked on composing groups flexibly. Along with numeration work, the children have been naming and describing two-dimensional shapes and determining if they are congruent or non-congruent.
Our March calendar will focus on telling time to the hour and half hour on both digital and analog clocks and explore the time elapsed as they determine the time between each marker. The children will also practice counting weekly mixed sets of pennies, nickels and dimes to determine their total value. First graders will review strategies for solving equations to 20 and learn how to “think ten” when adding numbers with sums greater than 10. As we continue to make representations for our days in school, we will practice making equations beyond 100. The children really enjoy this are becoming very fluent and creative with their mathematical thinking!
Word Block
Our Words block will focus on word on list 4 and their patterns. Please have your child practice spelling these words at home and working on pattern words. Please also continue to practice any words from list 3 that come home with the list 4 words.
Writer’s Workshop
Music In Our Hearts is our Unit in Writer’s Workshop the remainder of February and the month of March. The first graders will be experimenting with listening to poetry with line breaks, metaphors and feelings, then writing some of their own poetry to capture what they see and feel. The students will begin by having fun writing and sharing poems written to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and other familiar tunes.
Shared Reading
As we move away from Historical Figures, much of our shared reading in March will revolve around Dr. Seuss stories for Dr. Seuss month in March. We will also read and study poetry to support the work we are doing in Reader’s Workshop and Writer’s Workshop.
Inquiry
We finished up with our very busy and fun Inquiry unit of “How Can I explain how Famous Americans have made an impact on our country?”. We are now ready to move onto our next science Inquiry Unit, which is Farms. This unit will revolve around production, consumption and distribution of goods and services. We have a field trip planned to the Long Grove Confectionery Factory for a production tour in Buffalo Grove on March 13th. More information following shortly.
Bridges
The focus in Unit 5 of Bridges has be geometry. Throughout this unit, first graders used variety of models and tools to explore 2 and 3 dimensional shapes and fractions. The emphasis on two and three-dimensional shapes was to identify, describe, construct, sort and compose. The students also learned about fractions in two-dimensional shapes as they constructed paper sandwiches and pizzas in fourths and halves. Bingo fraction games completed our fun unit of hands on activities while we explore geometric shapes and fractions.
Penguins will be our theme throughout Unit 6 as first will continue to develop fluency with addition and subtraction facts to 10, and strategies for facts to 20. They will solve number combinations and story problems using the number rack, write and solve equations that involve unknowns in all positions and determine whether addition and subtraction equations are true or false. Throughout the unit first graders will also learn of the amazing and interesting habits of penguins!
Number Corner
February was an exciting month as we welcomed our 100th day of school on February 7th. First graders worked on computational fluency with multiple addends as they worked on composing groups flexibly. Along with numeration work, the children have been naming and describing two-dimensional shapes and determining if they are congruent or non-congruent.
Our March calendar will focus on telling time to the hour and half hour on both digital and analog clocks and explore the time elapsed as they determine the time between each marker. The children will also practice counting weekly mixed sets of pennies, nickels and dimes to determine their total value. First graders will review strategies for solving equations to 20 and learn how to “think ten” when adding numbers with sums greater than 10. As we continue to make representations for our days in school, we will practice making equations beyond 100. The children really enjoy this are becoming very fluent and creative with their mathematical thinking!
Word Block
Our Words block will focus on word on list 4 and their patterns. Please have your child practice spelling these words at home and working on pattern words. Please also continue to practice any words from list 3 that come home with the list 4 words.
Curriculum News for the months of January/February
Happy New Year!!
Reader’s Workshop
Our next Reader’s Workshop Unit is Readers Have Big Jobs to Do: Fluency, Phonics and Comprehension. First graders will learn that they have important jobs to do as being “The Boss” of their reading. They will practice using all the strategies they know, double check to self-monitor and set goals for themselves. We will move on to using the tools we have to understand what is being read, by asking the questions, “Does that sound right?”, “Does that look right?” and “Does that make sense?”. We will finish this unit with focusing on fluency and expression and working with reading partners to make their reading sound its best.
Writer’s Workshop
Our focus for Writer’s Workshop this month will be opinion writing and writing reviews. The first part of our unit will focus on writing opinions about their collection and students’ collections of students they have brought into school. During this bend, an emphasis will be on hearing and spelling chunks in a word. In Bend 2, the children will be wiring reviews and trying to persuade others. They will be writing catchy introductions and conclusions to persuade their readers! In Bend 3 we will move to writing book reviews, giving sneak peeks and summaries. This will be a busy and fun unit for first grade writers!
Bridges
First grade mathematicians will be using the number line as a model with adding and subtracting on the number line up to 120. They will use the number line as a tool to develop a sense of numbers and number relationships and reasoning abilities as they work to determine the value of empty boxes placed on the number line. The children will also practice skip jumping forward and backward by 5’s and 10’s on and off the decade.
Number Corner
Number Corner activities will focus on collecting and counting dimes and pennies, and making and solving number stories with missing addends, differences and sums. First graders will also continue to write number equations for the days in school as we get close to our 100th day of school! They will practice composing and decomposing 100 and seeing the 100 grid as a whole. The children will also review doubles plus and minus one facts as they write their own equations as well as match equations to ten frames showing doubles and doubles plus or minus one.
Shared Reading
Throughout the months of January and February we will be reading many books pertaining to our study of Famous Americans. Some of these famous Americans that we will be studying are: Marin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Harriett Tubman. Hopefully your first grader will be sharing some interesting facts with you as we learn together about these historical role models.
Inquiry
As we study Famous Americans, first graders will be asking themselves, “ What can I do to make a difference in my classroom or school?” and “How can my actins bring about a change?” First graders will have the opportunity to look for ways they may want to help or make a change.
Word Study
We will be working on the words and patterns on list 3 for the month of January. A list will be going home with your child, but can also be accessed on the Words page on this website.
Curriculum News for the months of November and December
Reader’s Workshop
Throughout the months of November and December the unit first graders will be working on is Learning About The World: Reading Non- Fiction. Throughout this unit, the children will:
Writer’s Workshop
Along with the theme of non-fiction in Reader’s Workshop, the next unit in writing will be Nonfiction Chapter Books. In this unit, first graders will:
Bridges
In Bridges in November, first graders will practice number facts and strategies for single digit addition and subtraction. They will use their number racks to make combinations, find the sums of numbers and compare two numbers to find the difference between them. The students will also begin to develop a place value understanding and solving addition combinations to 20 as well as develop an understanding of the difference model of subtraction.
Number Corner
In November, first graders will be introduced to the language of fractions – whole, ½ and ¼ through our daily calendar markers. They will discuss that fractions mean “equal parts” while folding a whole circle into halves and fourths, and playing fraction games which reinforces how smaller equal parts make a whole. Frist graders will continue to record the days in school and come up with representations for that number through equations, ten frames, coins, and tallies.
Word List 2
We will be studying the words in word list 2 for the months of November and December. Please make sure your child puts the words on his/her word wall ring.
Throughout the months of November and December the unit first graders will be working on is Learning About The World: Reading Non- Fiction. Throughout this unit, the children will:
- Notice what is included in non-fiction books, such as heading, labels, diagrams, table of contents and indexes.
- Tackle hard words and read for meaning.
- Reading with fluency, stress and intonation.
- Think about key words in their texts and learn new words and vocabulary that they will jot down.
- Practice reading with feeling and reading like a writer
Writer’s Workshop
Along with the theme of non-fiction in Reader’s Workshop, the next unit in writing will be Nonfiction Chapter Books. In this unit, first graders will:
- Will begin using pictures and words to write teaching books about a topic.
- Practice using “fancy words” or descriptive words in their writing.
- Work with writing partners to help add detail to their writing
- Extend their writing into chapters using a table of contents
- Practice writing introductions and conclusions
- Practice editing, spelling, capitals and punctuation.
Bridges
In Bridges in November, first graders will practice number facts and strategies for single digit addition and subtraction. They will use their number racks to make combinations, find the sums of numbers and compare two numbers to find the difference between them. The students will also begin to develop a place value understanding and solving addition combinations to 20 as well as develop an understanding of the difference model of subtraction.
Number Corner
In November, first graders will be introduced to the language of fractions – whole, ½ and ¼ through our daily calendar markers. They will discuss that fractions mean “equal parts” while folding a whole circle into halves and fourths, and playing fraction games which reinforces how smaller equal parts make a whole. Frist graders will continue to record the days in school and come up with representations for that number through equations, ten frames, coins, and tallies.
Word List 2
We will be studying the words in word list 2 for the months of November and December. Please make sure your child puts the words on his/her word wall ring.
Curriculum News for the month of October
Writer’s Workshop
First graders have successfully published their first narrative writing piece, and are on their way to becoming Narrative writing experts! We will be leaving narrative writing, but will revisit in the spring. Throughout the month of October, first graders will be writing how-to books. This unit will encourage students to act as experts and teach their areas of expertise to each other! We will have some fun mentor texts to help us along the way. Writing goals for our how-to unit will include:
Reader’s Workshop
We began a fun unit this week called Word Detectives. Each day the students (detectives) are given a secret mission for solving hard words. The strategies we are practicing are:
Bridges
We will be in Unit 2 of the Bridges curriculum throughout the month of October. In this unit your child will:
Number Corner
Ten will be the magic number for October as the children compose and decompose the number 10, instantly see quantities on ten frames and leap forward and backward by 10’s from 0 to 120. Number Corner time will also be spent counting and sorting shapes and using number bonds to make number stories out of the fall calendar pictures.
Words Block
First graders will continue to practice the reading and spelling the words on list 1. Activities will include making pattern words with these words and looking for chunks, diagraphs and blends. The goal is to transfer these words consistently into their writing, not just memorizing in isolation, and to generalize them into new words patterns. We will assess list 1 at the end of October and add new words to our word rings from list 2 for the months of November and December.
Social Studies/Inquiry
We will continue on with our map skills unit by comparing may different kinds of maps and legends. This week the children learned what a compass rose is and enjoyed figuring out which direction way they were walking within the classroom and school. The children will eventually create their own maps to display.
First graders have successfully published their first narrative writing piece, and are on their way to becoming Narrative writing experts! We will be leaving narrative writing, but will revisit in the spring. Throughout the month of October, first graders will be writing how-to books. This unit will encourage students to act as experts and teach their areas of expertise to each other! We will have some fun mentor texts to help us along the way. Writing goals for our how-to unit will include:
- Practicing procedural writing – explicitness, clarity and sequence.
- Anticipating what their reader will need to know
- Revising and writing more detail.
Reader’s Workshop
We began a fun unit this week called Word Detectives. Each day the students (detectives) are given a secret mission for solving hard words. The strategies we are practicing are:
- Notice a problem and stop to solve it.
- Look CLOSELY from start to end
- Use everything you know
- Do a s-l-o-w check.
- Break words into parts
- Look carefully at the beginning of words for a blend or diagraph and end of words for word endings
- Notice vowel teams
- Notice compound words
- Practice smooth reading
- Work with partners to help each other solve words
Bridges
We will be in Unit 2 of the Bridges curriculum throughout the month of October. In this unit your child will:
- Recognize dots on dominoes or dice
- Practice addition and subtraction strategies (counting on, doubles and making 10)
- Use dominoes and picture cards to write a fact family of equations
- Solve and write story problems
- Count by 5s and 10s
Number Corner
Ten will be the magic number for October as the children compose and decompose the number 10, instantly see quantities on ten frames and leap forward and backward by 10’s from 0 to 120. Number Corner time will also be spent counting and sorting shapes and using number bonds to make number stories out of the fall calendar pictures.
Words Block
First graders will continue to practice the reading and spelling the words on list 1. Activities will include making pattern words with these words and looking for chunks, diagraphs and blends. The goal is to transfer these words consistently into their writing, not just memorizing in isolation, and to generalize them into new words patterns. We will assess list 1 at the end of October and add new words to our word rings from list 2 for the months of November and December.
Social Studies/Inquiry
We will continue on with our map skills unit by comparing may different kinds of maps and legends. This week the children learned what a compass rose is and enjoyed figuring out which direction way they were walking within the classroom and school. The children will eventually create their own maps to display.
Curriculum News for the week of Sept. 25 - 29
Reader’s Workshop
This week first grade readers were working on using the strategies they have learned to solve tricky words. They also worked hard on being super readers with increasing their reading stamina and keeping “eyes on print” for longer periods of time. At the end of each workshop, the children met with their reading partners to use a new partnership tool. They each made a spinner with 6 reading comprehension questions (your favorite illustration, a tricky word you solved, what is the author’s purpose, a passage you can read fluently, tell the beginning, middle and end and your favorite part of the book) to ask their partner. This helps to promote book conversations between partners and promote good reading partner habits.
Writers Workshop
This week, in writing, we continued to write about small moments. Our lessons this week focused on our editing checklist – (I put spaces between my words. I checked the word wall. I spell tricky words the best I can. I wrote letters for most of the sounds. I used ending punctuation and capital letters to start sentences. I can read my writing and my friends can read most of my writing without my help.), ways to bring a story to life – (Unfreeze people by making them move and talk. Tell small steps, and bring out the inside to make people feel and think), and learning craft moves from a mentor author – What did George McClements do? Why did he do this?
Bridges
We wrapped up Unit 1 in our Bridges curriculum this week and took an assessment to mark the end of Unit 1. We will start Unit 2 on Monday. Unit 2 will focus on dominoes, dot cards, and the number rack to help students develop confidence with efficient, effective, and sensible strategies for adding and subtracting single-digit numbers. We will explore strategies like counting on, combining small groups of numbers within larger numbers, building from known facts, using doubles facts to solve other addition problems, counting by 5s and 10s, and using the commutative property.
Number Corner
We also wrapped up our September Number Corner by totaling up our pennies and nickels in our Data Collection Graph. Our total amount collected in 3 weeks was .54 cents. Our class had fun adding up the total amount collected for all three weeks. We began our October Number Corner today. Ten is the magic number for October, the tenth month of the year. Students will compose and decompose the number 10, practice instantly seeing quantities on ten-frames, and learn about “leaps of ten” on the number line. The Calendar Grid features sets of fall pictures to inspire math stories, and during Calendar Collector workout, students collect and count pattern blocks and make a composite shape picture.
This week first grade readers were working on using the strategies they have learned to solve tricky words. They also worked hard on being super readers with increasing their reading stamina and keeping “eyes on print” for longer periods of time. At the end of each workshop, the children met with their reading partners to use a new partnership tool. They each made a spinner with 6 reading comprehension questions (your favorite illustration, a tricky word you solved, what is the author’s purpose, a passage you can read fluently, tell the beginning, middle and end and your favorite part of the book) to ask their partner. This helps to promote book conversations between partners and promote good reading partner habits.
Writers Workshop
This week, in writing, we continued to write about small moments. Our lessons this week focused on our editing checklist – (I put spaces between my words. I checked the word wall. I spell tricky words the best I can. I wrote letters for most of the sounds. I used ending punctuation and capital letters to start sentences. I can read my writing and my friends can read most of my writing without my help.), ways to bring a story to life – (Unfreeze people by making them move and talk. Tell small steps, and bring out the inside to make people feel and think), and learning craft moves from a mentor author – What did George McClements do? Why did he do this?
Bridges
We wrapped up Unit 1 in our Bridges curriculum this week and took an assessment to mark the end of Unit 1. We will start Unit 2 on Monday. Unit 2 will focus on dominoes, dot cards, and the number rack to help students develop confidence with efficient, effective, and sensible strategies for adding and subtracting single-digit numbers. We will explore strategies like counting on, combining small groups of numbers within larger numbers, building from known facts, using doubles facts to solve other addition problems, counting by 5s and 10s, and using the commutative property.
Number Corner
We also wrapped up our September Number Corner by totaling up our pennies and nickels in our Data Collection Graph. Our total amount collected in 3 weeks was .54 cents. Our class had fun adding up the total amount collected for all three weeks. We began our October Number Corner today. Ten is the magic number for October, the tenth month of the year. Students will compose and decompose the number 10, practice instantly seeing quantities on ten-frames, and learn about “leaps of ten” on the number line. The Calendar Grid features sets of fall pictures to inspire math stories, and during Calendar Collector workout, students collect and count pattern blocks and make a composite shape picture.
Curriculum News for the week of September 18 - 22
Shared Reading/Social Studies
We read the story Follow The Map to learn about communities and maps. The essential question for our social studies unit is, What does a community need to work well? Through literature, hands on activities, and discussions, the first graders are answering the challenge question of, “How can I, as a first grader, be part of a group and plan a successful community? Throughout the upcoming weeks, the students will have the opportunity to design their own classroom/school, town or neighborhood. They will eventually report in Seesaw, “What are the important roles in my community?” “How well did I work with my partner?” and “What do I still need to work on?”
Reader’s Workshop
Readers worked hard this week on using the skills of rechecking for meaning and reading through challenging words part by part. We practiced breaking words apart and crashing them together again, looking at each word part-by-part and listening to the vowel sounds. Reading partners encouraged each other with the strategies of “fix it up” and “keep going”.
Writer’s Workshop
First graders were very busy with their narrative writing this week! As they practice narrative writing, the children are learning how to write Seed stories (stories which are small moment snapshots). This week they paired with their writing partner to help add details and plan ideas for small moment stories. Skills we are practicing are bringing characters to life by making them move, talk, think and feel. Frist graders are also practicing taking small steps in their narratives by writing events step-by-step. Another important part of the writing process that first graders engaged in is editing, specifically capital letters and end marks. The children are beginning to use editing checklists to self-assess and make writing goals for themselves.
Bridges
Mathematicians were busy this week measuring with popsicle sticks and unifix cubes and comparing and contrasting the differences between the two standards of measurement. First graders are also practicing adding one more and subtracting one less with a given number. We will continue practicing what comes before and what comes after throughout next week.
Number Corner
We celebrated our second decade day this week as we focused on our twentieth day of school! We also continued with our “Pennies and Nickels Data Collection Chart” as we continued to total the number of coins collected each week. First graders are growing in their number sense with representing ways to make the date each date. Different representations include using coins, tallies, number bonds, addition equations, subtraction equations, and ten and twenty frames. In October we will start a new Number Corner theme!
We read the story Follow The Map to learn about communities and maps. The essential question for our social studies unit is, What does a community need to work well? Through literature, hands on activities, and discussions, the first graders are answering the challenge question of, “How can I, as a first grader, be part of a group and plan a successful community? Throughout the upcoming weeks, the students will have the opportunity to design their own classroom/school, town or neighborhood. They will eventually report in Seesaw, “What are the important roles in my community?” “How well did I work with my partner?” and “What do I still need to work on?”
Reader’s Workshop
Readers worked hard this week on using the skills of rechecking for meaning and reading through challenging words part by part. We practiced breaking words apart and crashing them together again, looking at each word part-by-part and listening to the vowel sounds. Reading partners encouraged each other with the strategies of “fix it up” and “keep going”.
Writer’s Workshop
First graders were very busy with their narrative writing this week! As they practice narrative writing, the children are learning how to write Seed stories (stories which are small moment snapshots). This week they paired with their writing partner to help add details and plan ideas for small moment stories. Skills we are practicing are bringing characters to life by making them move, talk, think and feel. Frist graders are also practicing taking small steps in their narratives by writing events step-by-step. Another important part of the writing process that first graders engaged in is editing, specifically capital letters and end marks. The children are beginning to use editing checklists to self-assess and make writing goals for themselves.
Bridges
Mathematicians were busy this week measuring with popsicle sticks and unifix cubes and comparing and contrasting the differences between the two standards of measurement. First graders are also practicing adding one more and subtracting one less with a given number. We will continue practicing what comes before and what comes after throughout next week.
Number Corner
We celebrated our second decade day this week as we focused on our twentieth day of school! We also continued with our “Pennies and Nickels Data Collection Chart” as we continued to total the number of coins collected each week. First graders are growing in their number sense with representing ways to make the date each date. Different representations include using coins, tallies, number bonds, addition equations, subtraction equations, and ten and twenty frames. In October we will start a new Number Corner theme!
Curriculum News for the week of September 11 - 15
Writing
First graders were very busy with their writing this week! As we practice narrative writing, the children are continuing to write Seed stories (stories which are small moment snapshots). This week they paired with their writing partner to help add details and plan ideas for small moment stories. Skills we are practicing are:
Reader’s Workshop First grade readers are practicing pushing through tricky words by using the following strategies:
Number Corner We continued with our “Pennies and Nickels Data Collection Chart” as we continued to total the number of coins collected each week. The students are having fun with representing the number of days in school using tally marks, number bonds, coins, ten frames and number equations! Bridges In Bridges this week, first graders practiced solving addition story problems with sums to 20 and using ten frames and bead racks to solve for the unknown in equations. Work Places included 10 plus More, Spin To Win with nickels and pennies, Flip and Write with 10 frame cards and number tracing sheets and Friends of 10 with number equation building. Word Study We will continue to practice using the Kindergarten word wall words throughout the month of September. Although children can spell these words in isolation, they do not always transfer them correctly in their writing. The goal is that they use them correctly in their writing as well as learn the word patterns to write other words. We took the Kindergarten written word wall test this week, please review any Kindergarten word wall words that went home for practice. New words will begin soon. Curriculum News for the week of September 5 - 8
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