See entry below for Friday schedule. Please no candy tomorrow, time to pass out any gifts or treats is not provided for in the short day schedule.
Today was a busy day. We discussed different voice inflection patterns for various punctuation marks (as they came up in our decodable Fred. Then we discussed inflectional endings and their meanings for words, in particular the past tense '-ed' suffix pronounced /d/ (as in 'called') and /t/ (as in licked). This led to a brief discussion of various homophones like 'past' and 'passed' and 'mist' and 'missed'. We reviewed our fourth thinking map, the Tree Map by subdividing our "favorites" (category) into subcategories. This thinking map is useful for categorizing parts of complex ideas into smaller manageable parts.
In P.E. we learned a base stealing game called Steal the Corner.
We are ready for our next math test. Today we reviewed math sentences for related numbers by having a math sentence relay race.
Homework for today is a writing sheet for /j/ spelled 'j' and 'short vowel -dge'.
Reminder: Reading logs are due tomorrow. You should have turned in 2 reading logs by tomorrow. Your child's homework grade depends on it.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Thirty-Third Day
Today we began our first reading selection on community workers. We generated questions about workers we were interested in learning more about. We wrote a journal entry about ourselves in as a community worker.
In science we observed 7 different liquids noting their behavior and then generated a list of properties for liquids.
In math we worked on family of facts, or using 3 related numbers came up with 2 addition sentences and 2 subtraction sentences for the same numbers. Homework is the corresponding math homework.
I just realized I forgot to post a more definite schedule for Friday. I will try and remember to post some times tomorrow.
In science we observed 7 different liquids noting their behavior and then generated a list of properties for liquids.
In math we worked on family of facts, or using 3 related numbers came up with 2 addition sentences and 2 subtraction sentences for the same numbers. Homework is the corresponding math homework.
I just realized I forgot to post a more definite schedule for Friday. I will try and remember to post some times tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Friday Schedule
Brunch for 1st grade will be 9:30-10:00
We will begin the speech ceremony shortly thereafter. We will change into costumes at 11:45 am. We are due to be on the playground at 12:20 for the parade which is set to begin at 12:30.
Feel free to add your thoughts as comments. If you are unable to attend Friday and would like it videoed, I will try that. Just get that flash drive to me so I can give you a copy.
We will begin the speech ceremony shortly thereafter. We will change into costumes at 11:45 am. We are due to be on the playground at 12:20 for the parade which is set to begin at 12:30.
Feel free to add your thoughts as comments. If you are unable to attend Friday and would like it videoed, I will try that. Just get that flash drive to me so I can give you a copy.
Thirty-Second Day
A good portion of our day was consumed by IWT (independent work time) and the second portion of the writing assessment.
Fluency scores are now posted. The mean average score for this test was 50 WPM (words/minute). Those students scoring 60 WPM or greater on the next exam (in 6 weeks) will take home the reading achievement certificate. Please keep in mind that as the year progresses, not only are more WPM required but the reading selections become increasingly difficult.
Conference notifications go home tomorrow. Please locate them in backpacks, sign and return. The conferences should not take too long, especially as there is no report card to discuss. I will go over test scores with you as well as individual goals for your child.
The math homework for the evening is a review page from last week.
We will probably read election speeches on Thursday so that voting can take place next Tuesday.
Fluency scores are now posted. The mean average score for this test was 50 WPM (words/minute). Those students scoring 60 WPM or greater on the next exam (in 6 weeks) will take home the reading achievement certificate. Please keep in mind that as the year progresses, not only are more WPM required but the reading selections become increasingly difficult.
Conference notifications go home tomorrow. Please locate them in backpacks, sign and return. The conferences should not take too long, especially as there is no report card to discuss. I will go over test scores with you as well as individual goals for your child.
The math homework for the evening is a review page from last week.
We will probably read election speeches on Thursday so that voting can take place next Tuesday.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Thirty-First Day
We completed all seminars for the first unit today. Thank you parents for your support. I've never completed an entire class before in the first unit. We are almost complete with our reading battery. I will post statistics tomorrow. If you would like to know your child's individual score you can come see me or wait for conferences. Fluency scores will be posted in the classroom.
We had our fifth dance lesson with Ms. Marrin. Today we learned some break dancing as well as its origins.
In past years the concept presented today in math has stumped many 1st graders. This publisher presented the material a bit differently and made it easier to teach and hopefully learn. With the notion that subtraction finds differences we compared different sized collections today. We discovered that if you subtract the smaller collection from the larger, you will find the difference. The question for the difference is presented in two different ways: how many less, and how many more. This can sound confusing. The answer however remains the same for both questions (thankfully). The homework is the math sheet on comparing.
If you received an unsatisfactory notice, please sign and detach the bottom portion and return it to school so that I know you have seen it.
If you would like a visual record of some of your child's classroom activities, send along a flash drive and I will try to record such things as oral reports. It just has never seemed right to me that I'm the only adult that gets to see all the things your students are doing. It would be helpful if there was some place to write your child's name on the outside of the drive or better yet, attach it to a lanyard with your child's name. You can also bring the flash drive along with you to parent conferences. I am at least hopeful I can get this to work.
We had our fifth dance lesson with Ms. Marrin. Today we learned some break dancing as well as its origins.
In past years the concept presented today in math has stumped many 1st graders. This publisher presented the material a bit differently and made it easier to teach and hopefully learn. With the notion that subtraction finds differences we compared different sized collections today. We discovered that if you subtract the smaller collection from the larger, you will find the difference. The question for the difference is presented in two different ways: how many less, and how many more. This can sound confusing. The answer however remains the same for both questions (thankfully). The homework is the math sheet on comparing.
If you received an unsatisfactory notice, please sign and detach the bottom portion and return it to school so that I know you have seen it.
If you would like a visual record of some of your child's classroom activities, send along a flash drive and I will try to record such things as oral reports. It just has never seemed right to me that I'm the only adult that gets to see all the things your students are doing. It would be helpful if there was some place to write your child's name on the outside of the drive or better yet, attach it to a lanyard with your child's name. You can also bring the flash drive along with you to parent conferences. I am at least hopeful I can get this to work.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thirtieth Day
Nine reports are now completed and only one left to do seminar. Today we blended through the /j/ sound spelled 'j' and "short vowel, dge". We worked on our third thinking map: bubble map. The topic of our map was ourselves. The main idea is to describe yourself using 6 (or more) adjectives. This map is good for developing sensory detail in writing. Obviously we had to discuss and define the term 'adjective'.
We will be beginning a new unit on Monday as well as beginning our first reading tests. This next unit's topic will be workers in our neighborhood. We will be moving through the writing process again and completing a report on a worker of our choice.
In math we discussed word problems involving subtraction. There is no homework.
Congratulations to table 2 for beating the standard of 75 grams. Successful completion of a dictation exercise pushed them over the requirement. Next week's goal will be 80 grams.
We will be beginning a new unit on Monday as well as beginning our first reading tests. This next unit's topic will be workers in our neighborhood. We will be moving through the writing process again and completing a report on a worker of our choice.
In math we discussed word problems involving subtraction. There is no homework.
Congratulations to table 2 for beating the standard of 75 grams. Successful completion of a dictation exercise pushed them over the requirement. Next week's goal will be 80 grams.
Notices of Unsatisfactory Performance
As I mentioned earlier, unsatisfactory notices will go home today. From my perspective it would be counter-productive to discuss the content of these notices with your child. First-grade students at this point should not really understand the implication of this communication from teacher to parent. As I mentioned at Back-to-School Night, these are sent to parents a specified number of days before report cards in order to let parents know of the possibility their child may receive a mark of less than a three in reading, writing, or math as indicated in the notice. I will speak in greater detail to parents during conferences in November regarding these notices and other issues of concern. Also keep in mind that full assessments have yet to be administered in reading and writing.
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