Chuckles

 

The week of April 26-30.

 Yay for beautiful weather this week!  

We are enjoying our 4 cute chicks!   The kids got to hold them today!  Enjoy the pics below!

The chicks will stay with us until Monday, so we can keep enjoying them this week!  Then, they get to go back to the farm they came from.  It's been a great experience for the kids to learn about the life cycle of a chicken!  I'm so glad it worked out this year for them after missing out last year!

We are really in need of glue sticks if you happen to walk by them at the store!  Thank you in advance.

Spelling and Math tests are coming home today.  Let me know if you have any questions!

New Spelling words--Test May 7th

Sight words:  look, two, more, write, go, see

Pattern words:

ar

star

farm

card

or

corn

fork

sport

ELA/Science

Our new science unit is on Plants!  Today we read a paper book on plants and highlighted nouns, wrote a V above the verbs, and an A above the adjectives.  Have your child read it to you at home.

Last week we planted grass seed in cups that will hopefully grow.  

Science experiments--We have two experiments going.  We put celery in red water and a white carnation flower in blue water to see how the stems change color due to the water traveling through the Xylem tubes in them.  Xylem tubes carry water and minerals from the plants roots to its leaves.  Hopefully tomorrow the carnation will have blue tips and the celery will be a reddish color!

Last week the class learned which vegetables grow above ground and below ground.

Next, we will be learning about the parts of a seed.

The class wrote a chick story explaining the order of chick egg to the chick hatching out!  We used the sequencing words:  first, next, then, after that, last, or finally.  

Math--Last week we had fun with pattern blocks and shapes.  We are going to be learning about Equal Parts, Halves, Quarters and Fourths this week (Fractions).  Our test over 2 D shapes and Fractions will be next Wednesday.  Only one more chapter to go in our book over 3D shapes!

Coming up!

Fri. April 30.      Inservice. (NO School)

Mon. May 3        No School!

Fri. May 14.       Field Day

Fri. May 28.       Last day of first grade!!  It's a half day!

The class named the chicks!  

Meet Chuckles

Here's King Stripes!

Our new friend-Fluffy

Last but not least--Tulip

Not pictured-Will (somehow he got missed :( )

The week of April 19-23

This week will be full of excitement waiting for our baby chicks to begin hatching!  We are hoping for a good hatch out of our 6 eggs.  Updates will be coming!

The fourth quarter is going to fly by so we want to keep working hard on the sight words!  I have sent home a list of any words your child needs to work on.  Leaving first grade knowing all 100 sight words or more is our goal!  Please continue working on those with your child.

If you haven't looked at your child's 3rd quarter grade card on Skyward yet, please do!

The spelling test is this Friday!  Please work hard with your child to make sure he/she knows which r-controlled vowel to use in the words.  It's very confusing!!

Spelling words!  Make sure to have your child read the words while learning to spell them.

Spelling City has this spelling list on it.  Your child can click on it and get to it from the Blog for a fun way to review the spellings!

Sight words:

make, like, him, into, time, has

Pattern words:

girl, first, germ, verb, hurt, burn

Clues to remember which r-controlled vowel to use in each word.

ir--The girl is in first grade.

ur- The burn on my leg hurt me.

er- Germ is not a verb.  Germ is tricky since we read it as a soft g.  Please make sure your child reads it correctly.

Chapter 8 math test will come home this week!  It was pretty tough as they all seem to be.  Continue to review telling time when you have a chance.  It's a difficult concept to learn to tell time on an analog clock.  If you have one in your home, ask your child what time it is if it's on the hour and half hour.  I have only introduced telling by time to the minute.

Chapter 9 is on 2-D shapes using flat shapes and pattern blocks.  We will also have fun with Geoboards this week.  Your child needs to know how many sides and vertices (corners) the square, rectangle, triangle, circle, and trapezoid.  The kids will use the pattern blocks to fill in shapes of animals.

ELA/Social Studies--Plants!  This week we will be learning what plants need to survive, the parts of a plant, and we may even plant something!

Please continue to work on your child learning how to tie shoes.  It's a self-help skill that is so important and your child feels so good when they accomplish it!  If you haven't begun teaching them, please start working on it, as it takes lots of practice to do it well.  Thank you for working on this!

Jackets--Please make sure your child's name is in their jacket in case it gets left outside at recess.

We finished our mapping unit with some fun mapping centers!  It was a lot of fun playing Stack the States on an iPad app, playing Orboot Earth on a special globe, listening to  lots of info. and national anthems on interactive globes, finding all of the states abbreviations and filling them in on a map, and also doing puzzles of the U.S.A!

Enjoy the pics below!

Coming up!

Tues.  April 20.   Chicks may begin hatching!!

Fri. April 23.     Spelling test

Fri. April 30.      Inservice. (NO School)

Fri. May 14.       Field Day

Fri. May 28.       Last day of first grade!!  It's a half day!

The week of April 12-16

 We are on Day 14 on our chicks growing!  Only 7 more days to go!  

This week we are finishing up our mapping unit.  We learned about the seven continents and four oceans last week.  Today we made our own world with them on it!  How many can your child name?

In ELA we are going to be talking about different kinds of Technology now and from the past.  Our story, Using Technology At Work, tells about various occupations that use technology and what kind they use.  We will also learn about how robots can be helpful to humans.

After reading nonfiction books about technology, we will compare and contrast a fiction book on the topic to review the difference between the two.

Math--I am sending home math homework on time to the half hour.  We drew the minute hand on clocks in math today and wrote the digital time.  This will be the same for the homework page to practice before our test on Wednesday.  They seem to be understanding it for the most part.  At times, they may forget that when the minute hand is on the 6 is is not 2:6, but 2:30 or half past two.  You can count by 5's with them to get to the 6 to help them remember it's 30 min. after the hour.

Spelling!  R-controlled vowels.  er/ir/ur (test is April 23)

Sight words:

make, like, him, into, time, has

Pattern words:

girl, first, germ, verb, hurt, burn

Clues to remember which r-controlled vowel to use in each word.

ir--The girl is in first grade.

ur- The burn on my leg hurt me.

er- Germ is not a verb.

Coming up!

Tues.  April 20.   Chicks may begin hatching!!

Fri. April 23.     Spelling test

Fri. April 30.      Inservice. (NO School)

Fri. May 14.       Field Day

Fri. May 28.       Last day of first grade!!  It's a half day!

The week of April 5-9

 What a beautiful Easter weekend!

This week we will continue with our long u spelling words.  The test will be Friday.

Along with spelling the words, make sure to work on your child reading the words.

The kids have done great on making their bedroom maps.  Thank you for helping them with that.  If your child has not done it yet, please make sure to do that this week.  We began sharing the maps today!

This week we will learn more about the map of our country and the world.

Tomorrow we will begin learning about telling time on an analog clock.  If you have analog clocks at home, see if the kids can tell you the parts: the face, the hour hand being the short hand and the minute hand being the long hand.  We've also talked about the second hand, how many minutes in an hour and seconds in a minute.  

We will learn about telling time to the hour and half hour.

Chicks!  We are on day 7 for our chicks in the incubator.  On day 8-10 we will candle the eggs and see if we can see movement!  The kids can't wait for that!

Tying shoes!  Please continue to work on your child tying shoes at home!  It is a life skill that they really should know how to do before 2nd grade.  Thank you for helping with this!

Coming up!

Fri. April 9.      Long u Test

Fri. April 30.    Inservice--No School

Mon. May 3.     NO School

The week of Mar. 30-April 2

 I hope you all had a wonderful spring break if you were able to take one!  I had so much fun at Siesta Key, Florida with my daughter!  I  had fun finding seashells for the kids!  They will get them tomorrow!

This next couple of weeks we will be learning about different maps for social studies.  Today, I sent home a bedroom map example on one side and directions for making their own bedroom map on the other side.  Please follow the example.  Help your child look at their bedroom and draw the objects in the spot they are in on the blank square.  I'd like them to color it close to the colors in their room.  Using a ruler or straight edge of some sort will help keep it neat.  Don't forget to add the directions on the compass rose too for the direction their room is facing.  After drawing the objects, your child needs to draw mini pics of the objects and label what they are in the Map Symbol Key!  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!  Some children did this same lesson in KDG, so it may come back to them and what they did!

Spelling this week!  Long u words!

Sight Words:  

then, them, these (start all with "the" and add the ending)

so, some---has "so" and "me" in it

her

Long u words:  u-e, ue

u-e--cute, tube, huge (spell "hug" and add an "e")

ue--blue, clue (these two are word families with the same "lue"), true

We have chick eggs!

I am so excited to share with you that we are going to learn about how chicks grow in an incubator!  We have 6 chick eggs.  The only blueish-green egg is an Araucana chick egg.   Four are brown and one is tan.  We can't wait to find out what color they all will be!  Mrs. Scott just put them in the incubator before school today.  We learned what all is in the chick egg,  drew and labeled a picture on our flip chart.  It takes 21 days or more for the chicks to hatch!  I bet some of you remember the videos from Farmer Casper last spring.  They will start hatching the week of April 19th!  Hopefully we get a good hatch!

Math-- Chapter 8 is on Measurement and Time

We began measurement today.  We will only use nonstandard measurement, so measuring other than a ruler.  It may be linking cubes, blocks, and pretty much anything you can tell which is longer/shorter.  

Report card information:

Grade cards will be on Skyward the end of the week!  Look for 3rd quarter skills information and your child's Chapter 7 math test coming home on Friday.

Coming up!

Fri. April 9.      Long u Test

Fri. April 30.    Inservice--No School

Mon. May 3.     NO School

 

The week of Mar. 15-19

 I feel like we are going a mile a minute in first grade this year!  We are always so busy in here!  Spring Fever is happening now!  The kids have grown so much this year and are really taking off in all subjects!  It's been so fun to watch their progression!

Tomorrow is Green Group's turn to share for Show and Tell.  Whatever they bring should fit in their backpack.  Yellow group's turn is Thursday.  

This week our spelling list is long o.  The test is Tues. Mar. 23, so we have less days to review.  Please don't wait on working on these at home!  Thank you!

Sight words:  will, up, about, other, out, many (man with a -y)

Pattern words:

Long o-silent e. (Tip:  when they hear a consonant after the long o sound it has the silent e)

home

rope

joke

Long o-ow (Tip:  when they hear the long sound at the end, the word has the ow)

snow

grow

blow

Phonics--We are working on hearing all the sounds in words.  I give a word like "lunch" and they have to tell me each sound in the word.  (l-u-n-ch). This could be a skill to work on at home.  Give a word and they have to tell you each sound they hear.  Words that have an /n/ before the final consonant often stump them like in "lunch, ground, count".  The "n" is often left out.  

Little Readers--Thank you for listening to your child read the little readers 2-3 times at home!  It really makes a difference in their confidence and reading the book more fluently each time.  If they seem to be stumped on words, stop reading and write down the vocab. words in the book you think may be hard for them before reading on.  Go over the words with them by having them read them a couple times before reading it again.  Hopefully that helps them!  

Social Studies:  This week we are learning about Mount Rushmore and reviewing the symbols we have learned.  Ask your child who the 4 presidents are on Mount Rushmore!

George Washington- 1st pres., Abe Lincoln- 16th pres. Thomas Jefferson-3rd pres., and Teddy Roosevelt-26th president.  

Math--We finished our math test over 2 digit addition.  I will be sending it home tomorrow!

It was tough in some areas.  If you see a red "C" on a problem, I had your child correct it.

We began Chapter 7 on Graphing!  A homework page came home today.  Please have your child return it tomorrow!  Thank you!

Coming up!

Mar. 24-29.   Spring Break

Mar. 29.      No School -Professional Development/workday