Ninety-Second Day

Today we reviewed our last official spelling-card spellings. We discussed the interesting word 'employ' as a synonym for 'use', or 'to make use of'. We deduced the spelling for schwa spelled 'ou' in a spelling game (e.g. trouble, couple). We completed work on our social studies world map and many went home today with a message to parents. Our test should occur the first Friday in March. Please remember that in order to pass social studies this semester, students are required to locate and name all 7 continents, 4 oceans, and Los Angeles on an unlabeled world map.

I have almost completed the fluency assessments for week 18. We now have 15 students reaching the district required fluency level for first grade. That is up 3 from the last test. Many other exciting gains have been made. Improvements have been made in writing across the board.

We continued work on topic 14 with adding with 9 for homework.

As an aside, thanks to all the parents for your participation in this forum. Our blog has received our two-thousandth page view today.

Nintieth Day

The 100th day is fast approaching. The One-hundredth day has traditionally been celebrated as a special milestone for first grade. In lieu of celebrating individual birthdays throughout the year, we take this opportunity to mark our accomplishments and emphasize the idea of a 'hundreds' place in math.To end this day on a high note we ask parents to contribute treats that may be shared in the afternoon.

Today we blended with /r/ spelled 'wr'. We added N. America, S. America, and Antarctica to our world maps.

We worked with doubles plus two for class and homework. I've never used this "strategy" with first graders before. I'm not quite sure it will become a go-to strategy for a first grade mind. I tend to stress more the making a ten strategy which we will cover tomorrow.