We Are A Family!!!!!

Can you believe it's almost October??  Our sweet first graders were using their best handwriting this week to write an important title and we could not believe how much their handwriting has improved!  Ms. Ahrens and Mr. Ronan were doing number corner this week and they couldn't believe how much their mental math computation skills have improved!  Ms. Lorfing and Mrs. Sansale were out on the playground and when the whistle blew and we heard so many kids saying, "Great game!", "You played so well today!", "You are really good at going across the monkey bars!" and we couldn't believe what great friends everyone has become and how much they've already grown!  To summarize,

 WE ARE SO PROUD OF THESE FIRST GRADERS!!!

  We can't wait to show off all their amazing skills to you in just a few short weeks at parent/teacher conferences.

In the meanwhile, take a peek at just a bit of all the great learning your children have done this week!

FIRST GRADE ROCKS!

Take a look at the pictures below from our integrated language arts block. We have continued to review short i with the word families -ick, -ill, -it, and ink. The students also continue to review compound words, work in their Handwriting Without Tears books, compare and contrast items using a venn diagram and write the word wall.  Your children are doing so well.  As they complete activities independently using their tic tac toe boards, they are also being pulled out for guided reading and to work on a variety of other skills with their teachers.

Building short i words with playdough.

Playing Even Steven Odd Todd game to review odds and evens.

Building compound words.

 Building words from the short a family and using white boards to record.

 Building words using colored sand.

Guided Reading
We learned new strategies in guided reading this week...Eagle Eye, Stretchy Snake and Fish Lips.  We've learned that fun strategies like this help us to be better readers! 

Building words

 Mr. Ronan's skill groups focused on the beginning, middle and end of a story with the book called The Gigantic Turnip. 

Flip books help us organize the beginning, middle and end of stories.

building short i words with magnetic letters.

Venn Diagram to compare and contrast words that rhyme.

Learning about community helpers

Listening center on the ipad...story about autumn.

 
Elliott is making words in his word work book.


We learned a fun song that helped us learn about compound words that we thought you'd like to see.  Enjoy this video!

More beautiful family collages...

In math our focus this week was to master our friends of 10.  We created a chart to help us learn the different combinations that when added together equal 10.  Then, we practiced friends of 10 with ten frame flashcards, we found missing addends that equaled 10 and we used our unifix cubes to illustrate our friends.  We also introduced the apps: Quick Images and Friends of Ten to help master this concept. Take a minute to ask your child to recite to you all of their friends of ten! We also introduced doubles with addition with the video called "Doubles Rap".  We all loved learning math through music, especially a fun rap song!  Ask your child to sing this song to you.

Making numbers on the 10-frame.

Quick image with friends to identify numbers on the 10-frames.

 DOUBLES RAP!!!!

iPad apps to review friends of 10.

Reviewing switcheroos with addition using dominoes. 

HANDS-ON-SCIENCE

We learned about surface tension, cohesion and skin in science.  We used an eye dropper and a penny to see how many drops a penny could hold.  We were amazed to see how many drops landed on the penny before it spilled over. Our hypothesis was way off!  Ask your child what their guess was and the actual amount of drops the penny held.

In computer lab we went on abcya.com and reviewed friends of ten with "Drop Sum" and "Math Lines".

Important Info:

Buddy Run

Our class will be participating in the St. Paul’s Buddy Run on October 16. Click here for more details!

Week of October 5:

Buddy Run

Our class has been discussing ways we can show spirit at the Buddy Run. Be sure to ask your child about our plans. Click here for information about the Buddy Run!

Week of October 12:

Buddy Run

Don’t forget, the Buddy Run is this Friday. T-shirts will be distributed this week so students can wear them on Friday for the event. Click here for more information about the event!

 

Spelling words: Week of October 5th-9th

can, had, at, as, and, tap, hat, hand, bag, sat.  Challenge list: community, addends, friends, October

"Surprise the teacher word" 

 

Have a GREAT weekend!  Hope to see you at the Plaza Art Fair!

Carey, Melissa, Matt and Mary