First Grade Happenings...

First, let both of us thank each and every one of you for the lovely Christmas gifts. It lifts our spirits to know that we are valued for the time, attention, and dedication we give your children.  We hope that everyone enjoyed their break and had a fabulous New Year's celebration.

USA Symbols

As we begin our studies in this new year, we have started our Hooray for the U.S.A. theme! During this theme students have the opportunity to learn about the people, symbols, government, and geography of our great nation. We have starting learning some new U.S.A. songs and we have enjoyed listening and singing along with your children.  

Students have been participating in guided handwriting lessons as they learn about the great symbols, history, and people of the U.S.A. This week they wrote about Independence Hall & the bald eagle.  When complete, they will have a remarkable journal that they will want to keep for years to come. FYI--(We will use this journal for Australia theme as well & it will come home in their memory books at the end of the year).

  

In addition to their basic skills, students will complete their first in class research report. Each student will receive a famous American to research and write about.  Then, they will copy it over in a report to save in their memory books.  Starting next week at home they will make a paper doll and replica of their famous American. They will also have the opportunity to dress up as their famous American in our program at the end of our theme.

In Social Studies, community, geography and history will be our focus during our U.S.A. theme. Students will learn about the continents, country state, city, and community. We will spend time learning to read maps. Students will learn about and begin discussing what it means to be a good citizen and the role each of us play in creating a safe and prosperous nation. As they research their famous American, they will have the opportunity to explore how many great people of diverse backgrounds worked to shape our country.

This week in Guided Reading with Miss Fate we have been learning all about U.S.A. Landmarks & Mapping the States.  The children had to answer comprehension questions orally to the teacher.  Since we differentiate instruction everyday some reading groups read biographies about Martin Luther King & others read about George Washington.  All the groups used their books and certain page numbers to look up the answers to the questions.  This is a way to check their comprehension skills as well as work on writing complete sentences.

During centers this week Mrs. Waller introduced the 13 original colonies to the children. She read them a story explaining the history and they had to find them on the map as well as write them down.  Ask your child to name them for you & see how many they can get right.

We had a big discussion on citizens and citizenship as a class.  The children had wonderful ideas to contribute.  Hopefully, they will add to the discussion you have with your child for their citizenship report.

 

During Social Studies we did a K-W-L chart on a map of the U.S.A. to find out what we know and we still need to add what we want to know.  We will have to wait on the L part until after we learn about this theme.

We have started researching our Famous Americans.  The children were extremely excited to learn more about their person on Wednesday!!  They have started using kid friendly Internet websites, articles and books to help them find the answers on their research report.  We will be doing this as an in class assignment.  They will do a rough draft guided with the teacher and then a final copy on their own that they copy over.  They will present it and share the information to the class.  We will put it in a nice report cover to save until the end of the year so we can add it to their memory books.

Independently, we listened to The Magic School Bus Statue of Liberty & Abe Lincoln's Hat. The children enjoyed both of these stories.

In Math, with Miss Fate this week we have been working on place value with the tens and the ones.  We have also been reviewing basic math skills such as: greater than/less than, odd/even, subtraction, addition and adding ten onto a number.   We many math centers this week....see below....

 

magnetic numbers & < > = + - signs using our hundreds chart to come up with equations

 

rolling 2 dice to make a 2-digit number & then adding 10 to that number

working in pairs & spinning the spinner to determine + or - sign then figuring out where to place the sign to make the equation a true statement....the person who had the most correct at the end wins!

pulling a domino with our partner adding the pips on it together and writing the sum of that number in either the even or odd column....fist person to get 6 numbers in a column wins!

Mrs. Waller did an excellent lesson with them using the tens/ones mats as well as using the hands on wooden manipulative blocks. They did two different math centers the next day reviewing subtraction and strategic game of probability.  By the end of this week....The children were all saying, "I LOVE MATH!"

place value

 

probability game

Subtraction game

 With Mrs. Wiedeman & Miss Fate did a penny experiment & talked about Abraham Lincoln.  How many drops of water will stay on top of a penny?

Computer- This week Mrs. Waller & Ms. Lorfing tested out the new iPads.  The cart is now going to be located in our commons so this will make the iPads more accessible to us.  An opportunity we will be sure and take advantage of this year.  They played the stack the states game, a presidents game & worked on subtraction & addition on the iPads.

 "They all said,"This is so much better than the Computer Lab!!!"

Spelling this week we wrote our spelling words inside an American Flag.  We learned about the Flag all week.  The children can tell you how many stripes are on it and stars. Ask them why there are that many?

Spelling Words:five, their, what, but, here, going, our, three, want, able
Challenge Words: colonies, United States, liberty, eagle
Surprise the Teacher Word: This week please make this word your Famous Americans first and last name.

Check out this great website where you can plug in your spelling words and play spelling 

games.

http://www.spellingcity.com/

Games & Learning Sites

In case of a Snow Day...anytime....
http://www.teachersmousepad.com/
http://www.aaamath.com/

Reminders & Dates:
*Since there are many notes, reminders, and projects throughout this theme, we will continue to update and communicate with you through emails and the blog.


Citizenship Paper: Due Tuesday, January 10th & as they come in we will present them to the class...

We are stopping the book in a bag right now since there will be at home U.S.A. projects & continued Spelling Tests.

Paper Doll: Will come home on January 10th and needs to be Due back January 20th so your child can present them to the class & then we will hang them up in the commons.

Hooray for the U.S.A. Dress up (you come up with your costume), Presentation, & Program: February 16th at 9:20am in the M.P.R stage area @St. Paul's

Your commitment to your children, us, and to the first grade is inspirational and appreciated. We hope for the best beginning to the new year!

~Have a wonderful weekend! Love, Miss Fate & Mrs. Waller