irst Grade News
March 18th, 2016
Upcoming Dates
3/21- 3/25: Spring Break (No School)
4/1: Capital Area Humane Society Visit (See attachment)
Related Arts Schedule
Monday: A- Music
Tuesday: B- Art
Wednesday: C- Library
Thursday: D- PE
Friday: A- Music
Word Study
This week, we took a break from our usual spelling work and
focused on contractions. We practiced making contractions
through various activities in which we pretended to be
contraction “surgeons”. We cut out some letters from word
pairs, then used an apostrophe “bandage” to put the word back
together. We hope this visual representation is helpful in the
kids’ understanding of how contractions (like that’s, we’ve, he’ll
etc.) work.
Reading
We enjoyed reading both fiction and non-fiction centered around
the St. Patrick’s Day holiday and the country of Ireland this
week. We learned about the history of the holiday and the
historical details of St. Patrick’s life. We learned about Irish
cities, farming, architecture, and landforms. We read a silly
poem called “Three Wishes”, which helped us practice fluency
and expression, as well as sparked some imaginative thinking.
Writing
First graders continued to practice writing “How To” pieces this
week. We also enjoyed reading some model texts, such as How to
Babysit a Grandpa by Jean Reagan and adding transitional
words and interesting details to written work. Additionally, we
enjoyed a creative piece based on the previously mentioned
poem, “Three Wishes”. It was incredibly interesting to see what
the students would wish for if given the opportunity!
Math
This week, we continued building our understanding of
fractions. First graders should be able to divide both circles and
rectangles into halves and fourths. We also think it is beneficial
to explore other fractions and the idea of parts of a whole in
general. We had many opportunities to explore these concepts
this week. We divided a group of birthday cake candles into
many different combinations of blue and pink. For example, if a
cake had 6 total candles, the two parts could be 1/6 blue & 5/6
pink, 4/6 blue & 2/6 pink, and so forth. We also enjoyed looking
at a thought-provoking image of two sisters sharing a sandwich
and discussing and solving many ways for them to partition and
share it. I was amazed to see the flexible thinking students
brought to the table!
We also explored the idea of dividing groups of items into
fractional shares. We sorted Skittles candy by color and worked
on labeling each part as a fraction of the total amount of Skittles
each student was given. We also read the story The Doorbell
Rang by Pat Hutchins and practiced equally sharing cookies
between friends. Fractions can be so yummy!
Have a wonderful spring break with your children. Make sure to
take time to “Sharpen the Saw” as a family. Your kids deserve
it!
-The First Grade Team