Will The Groundhog See His Shadow???

With the type of winter we are having, would we really be surprised if we have an early spring?? I'm still hoping for a snow day. We need to get a little sledding in, at least once.

Last week in phonics, we focused on the /ch/ sound. We wrote words that have the /ch/ sound at the beginning and at the end.

We also discussed adding -s, or -es to the end of words. Why would we add -es to a word? We talked about the sequence of events and our story this week was A Butterfly Grows. The students sequenced the life cycle of a butterfly (in a few months we will have butterflies in our classroom as part of our science curriculum).

In math, we continued discussing 10's and 1's. During math centers, we practiced our new skills while playing different games. We learned that 52 is 5 groups of 10 and 2 ones and it is also the same as 50+2=52.

In science, we made air and water fountains. We made bubbles by gently pushing air into the water in a bottle. We also used syringes to push air into a bottle which then forced the water out. We had to go outside for this experiment so we wouldn't have 11 "geysers" in our classroom.

A look at the week ahead:

In ELA - /ar/ Ann's Trip to the Stars. Comprehension - Author's purpose/point of view and summarizing. Grammar - Names of Holidays

In Math - greater than, less than and ordering numbers on a number line.

In Science - Balloon rockets.

This Wednesday is a half day and dismissal will be at 12:30.

We will be sending home an "at home" project for our 100th day. Keep a look out for the directions in your student's binder tomorrow.

Have a great week!

Mrs. M

Mrs. Cataldo

Still No Snow....

I can't believe it is January 15th and we haven't had any snow yet. I am actually prepared this year - my kids have a couple of pairs of snow pants, boots, snow boards, sleds and now it probably won't snow at all. Just my luck...

Last week in phonics, we talked all about sh words. We made sharks and discussed words that have sh at the beginning and at the end. Our story in our anthology was King Midas. We discussed what a myth is the setting of the story. We learned that the setting tells us not only where a story takes place but also when. We used the pictures in our story to help us figure out that King Midas happened a long time ago. We also began talking about Martin Luther King Jr. We read The Crayon Box that Talked which is a great story for kids to discuss how things are better if we all work together and get along. We also read Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King. We will continue our discussion this week.

In math, we learned about fractions. We learned how to divide a whole into halves or fourths. We made paper plate pizzas where we had to add certain toppings to a particular fraction of a pizza.

In science, we began our unit on Air and Weather. We learned that air can move items. We used straws to blow items around our table and up in the air. We also learned how a paper towel in vial can stay dry when submerged under water. Air is all around us and takes up space. Ask your child how our experiments went.

A look at the week ahead:

In ELA: Assessments. Writing assessments and the beginning of DRA's. We will learn about King Ed (silent e) and review proper sentence structure.

In Math: Introduction to base ten and place value.

In Science: Continuing on with Air and Weather - Parachutes and Pushing on Air.

We have introduced our iPads into our first grade classroom last week. We will be working the iPads into our ELA and Math times as an iPad center where we can use educational apps and we can also use websites like Starfall.com for reading. We'll keep you posted as we go. If you know of any good reading, phonics or math apps, please forward them along. We are always looking for new things :)

Enjoy our short week!

Mrs. M

Mrs. Cataldo

Mrs. Fiore

Go Tebow!!!

Did you see the Pittsburgh vs. Denver game??? What a game and what an ending! I like Tim Tebow and was cheering for him the whole game. It's too bad he'll be losing the game next Saturday night! :)

Short weeks are always hectic. Especially after a vacation. In ELA we learned all about -or and -ore words. We read Sid Scores from our anthology and discussed the beginning, middle and end of the story. (do you see a trend here??) In writer's workshop we wrote about our favorite sport as a connection to the story Sid Scores. Sid plays all sorts of sports, skiing, hockey, swimming - what is your favorite sport?
In math we finished up with our geometry unit. We reviewed faces and vertices of our 3 dimensional shapes and discussed which shapes stack, roll and slide.
In science, we wrapped up our last investigation in Balance and Motion and what a doosy it was!! We made a roller coaster!! I'm sure by now you have heard all about. Please check back soon as I am going to be uploading some pictures of our class in action. Our cheering was so loud, the teachers around us asked what we did that was so exciting. It was a great way to end a great unit.

Looking at the week ahead:
ELA - phonics focus - /sh/ words. We will be making a shark to put all of our /sh/ words on.
comprehension - setting. We will read the story of King Midas and discuss the setting of the story. This will also be our focus in our reading groups.
Math - introduction to fractions. Halves and fourths. Review of addition. Please practice those flash cards. We will also begin doing Math Mad Minutes on Fridays. Math Mad Minutes are a one minute timed skill test of basic math facts. It is a great way for the students to be competitive with themselves to try to improve how many facts they can complete in one minute.
Science - We will begin our unit on Weather and Air - air as matter and even though we can't always see it, it is all around us.

Have a great week!
Mrs. M
Mrs. Cataldo
Mrs. Fiore