Back for the Final Stretch of First

Maybe I just didn't notice, but as students returned from their Spring vacation, I suddenly noticed how much they have grown. Not only do they look older but they are so much more mature. Did this happen overnight? Over vacation? It sure feels like it. They are ready for 2nd grade, but I am looking forward to spending these last 8 weeks together, stretching our brains a little more and celebrating everything students have accomplished this year. 

Here's a look at our week, both looking back, and looking forward to Friday:

Reading: Students have been working on wrapping up the Adventures of Superkids (first portion of the curriculum). We will finish up this week and should get through 4 or 5 more units by the end of the year. Students are doing a great job keeping up with the pace. Students have been working on compound words and contractions. Students have been practicing adding -ing, -ed, -er and -s/es endings to different syllable pattern words and learning rules to know whether or not the consonant needs to be doubled. Examples: hope->hoping, whereas hop->hopping or look->looked. Students have been participating in small groups with me on a daily basis, exploring leveled texts and group discussions to build comprehension skills. 

Writing: Students have written some beautiful poems so far this week. After reading poems throughout last week and this week, students stepped into the shoes of poets and wrote about an object, looking at it as if it were something else. A asparagus stalk became a paint brush, an eraser a piece of gum, a stapler is a shark, and many more. Students them moved on to write poems about colors. We wrote one together about the color orange: Orange is soft, firey and cozy. Orange is smells like apple pie, pumpkin pie, Orange tastes sour and sweet. Orange is October...." Students will continue to create poems with shapes, similes and metaphors and rhyming/rhythmic poems.

Math: Students have wrapped up the unit on place value and they did such an amazing job on their assessments! I am so proud of them! Today we started data collection and graphing and next week we will head into story problems, looking for the sum, subtrahend, missing addend and subtrahend.

Wish List: We would love some thin black dry erase markers for students to use on their whiteboards. We have gone through several boxes this year and we are out.  

Happy Spring!

We've finally turned the corner and it feels like spring! I know students are looking forward to their spring vacation and I hope you get to spend some quality time with them. Here's a quick look at what we've been up to and/or where we're headed:

Math: We are finishing up place value and students are working on adding two 2-digit numbers, using the jump and split strategy. Students are becoming experts on solving these problems, both with and without an open/empty number line. Students will be wrapping up the unit and starting data collection and graphing when we return.

Reading and Writing: Students have been reviewing vowel teams and contractions. Here are some examples: is not--> isn't, could not--> couldn't, we are--> we're, will not--> won't, I have--> I've. Students understand that the ' takes the place of a letter or letters. Students have been building compound words, like rainbow and mailbox. In writing, students have wrapped up their realistic fiction and we have started to discuss poetry. The poetry unit will be in full-gear following the vacation.

Science: Students finished learning about shadows and have started to learn about opaque, transparent and translucent. Students will explore more about light and reflections following the vacation. Students have also done some planting in our CF community garden, but due to rain, students have planted inside and transported the plants outside. Students will also have the opporunity to plant with second grade teachers this spring, as to harvest the vegetables in the fall, when students are in 2nd. The 2nd grade is most involved with the planting and care of our garden as it ties in with their curriculum. In early May we will get our eggs and start to explore eggs, chicks and chickens.

Have a great spring break!

Vowel Teams

This week in Room 4 students were excited for a shift in weather, as temperatures are warming up. Students transitioned from sound to light, wrapped up their realistic fiction stories and celebrated filling the pom-pom jar with a "Book Character Dress Up Day".Be sure to ask your child what characters they met at school. Here are some highlights from this week:

ELA: Students worked on reading and writing cvvc words, where a "vowel team" makes the long vowel sound of the first vowel: ai, ea, ee, ie, oa, ue. Students also worked on memory words: would, could, some, one, were, new and practiced should and come as well. We worked on reading in small groups and retelling stories and students reviewed nouns, verbs, pronouns and learned more about adjectives. Students reviewed endings: -ing,-ed and -es/s.

Writing:Students finished writing their realistic fiction series and had the opportunity to share their stories in small groups. Students worked on sharing as an author and being a good audiance. I encourage and challenge students to keep writing stories at home! Students will start learning about poetry next week and following the break we will start writing our own.

Math:In math students have been working on adding one and two-digit numbers together using a long bead strand and on an open/empty number line. Students have been breaking apart and decomposing numbers in order to make their jumps. Students also compared two and three-digit numbers, determining the greater. Students have been building numbers with different manipulatives and showing numbers in different ways, demonstarting their understnaidng of conceptual place value.

Science:Students did experiments with a tuning fork and a glass of water and ping pong ball. Students saw how the vibration, caused by sound waves, can move solids and create sounds. Students also made rice and sugar "dance" when placed under a speaker. We are now in the process of learning about light and students have read some about light as well as explored flashlights and sunlight, with shadow play and exploration.Student scientists are doing a great job recording their observations.

Other Info and Reminders: 

• Thank you for the recent snack donations! Room 4 really appreciates it! 
• April 14th is a holiday and there will be no school, which will fall right before our week of spring vacation.