November 13, 2015
I hope everyone enjoyed their day off this week! Here is an update on what is
happening in Room 103.
Words Their Way
Next week we will have our first spelling test of the second trimester. The schedule is located in
your child’s home folder on a yellow page in the page protectors. The words listed next to the **
are challenge words and will not be marked wrong on spelling tests. Your child will also be bringing
home a new Words Their Way sort to be practiced during the week and tested on with the
spelling words. We will not have any spelling or Words Their way during the two day week before
Thanksgiving Break.
Book Fair
The fall book fair is quickly approaching! It will be held in the gym from Nov. 18th – Nov. 24th. The
book fair will be open during school hours and during conferences if you are interested in buying
books. Today your child received a flyer with different books that will be available at the fair.
Our class will be attending the book fair on Friday the 20th. You are welcome to send your child
with money to spend at the fair if you would like. If you would like to order books from the
book orders sent home earlier in the month you are welcome to do so as well! There is a flyer
attached with more information regarding the book fair.
Important Dates To Remember
Book Fair: November 18-24
Parent Teacher Conferences: November 19th and November 23rd
Box Tops Collection: November 24th
Thanksgiving Break-No School: November 25-27
Reading Calendar Due: November 30th
Reading
As we continue through our Fiction unit, we have discussed the elements of Traditional Tales.
These stories have been passed down for many years, usually have three characters, a happy
ending, and some sort of lesson for the reader to take away from the story. So far we have
read The Mightiest and the wordless story The Lion and the Mouse. We are also practicing the
skill of retelling a story. When we retell, we are only retelling the most important details of the
story such as the characters, the setting, the problem, and the solution. This is a skill we will
continue to practice throughout the year.
Writing
We are still writing about events that have really happened to us in our lives in our personal
narratives. We are reviewing the writing process and the importance of editing and revising our
writing to make it our very best. The students have enjoyed writing about a special day in their
lives and sharing four details about that day. We will continue our work with personal narratives.
In our daily journals, the students are challenging themselves to write three sentences about
their topic each day. I provide the students with an idea each day of something to write about,
but the students are able to write about something different if they would like.
Math
We have spent a great deal of time discussing place value. We have talked about the way we
write numbers and the meaning behind the terms. We have practiced looking at groups of
objects and grouping them as groups of some tens and extra ones. We are also continuing to
work in our math journals in which we read a story problem, draw a picture, and solve. We will
continue our work with place value as well as discuss the parts of ten and review the importance
of recognizing our partner pairs when adding.
Science
In class we completed a QR Code activity in which students looked at pictures of rocks and
decided if they showed weathering or erosion. The students then scanned the QR Code to see if
their guess was correct! We have been identifying the two types of change as weathering: the
change that breaks rocks apart and erosion: the change that moves rocks to different places.
We have also watched videos on Brain Pop Jr. explaining slow land changes and read from our
Science book. The last part of our Rocks and Soil unit will be discussing what soil is made of and
its different uses.
**In your child’s home folder today is a packet of “First Grade Websites.” This is for you to keep
at home as an easy way to access the different websites we use in class or websites you may
need to use at home. Ask your child to show you how to use a QR scanner on an Ipad or tablet!
If you do not have a QR Scanner on your device already, there are many free ones available in
the app store. One website that is not listed in the packet but is one worth using is Brain Pop Jr.
Enjoy exploring!
**I look forward to seeing most of you at Parent Teacher Conferences over the next two
weeks! The schedule is posted on our website if you would like to double check your time:
http://www.lz95.org/classes/missrogerssclass_jrogers/
Sincerely,
Miss Rogers