April 4, 2016
Welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful and restful spring break. Here is a peek into the
happenings of our classroom.
Homework
There is no homework this week, please continue to read and mark the minutes on your reading
calendars. The April reading calendar was sent home today, please send in your March reading
calendar if you have not already. We will resume the regular math, reading, and Words Their Way
homework next week.
Important April Dates
April 4th (today): March Reading Calendar Due
April 5th: PTO Meeting
April 28th: Bow Top Collection
April 29th: April Reading Calendar Due
Reading
We have been hard at work with our non-fiction unit. Our class has discussed ten different text
features such as captions, headings, glossaries, and so on. When analyzing these text features,
we talk about their purpose and how we can use them while we read. It is exciting to see the
students recognize these text features in their own books during Read to Self! The students
loved sharing their timelines and seeing pictures of their friends, thank you for helping your first
graders put together such wonderful projects. They are currently displayed in our classroom
and the students are quite proud of their work!
Writing
Our class has a new writing motto… Strive for 5! When we are writing in our journals, I encourage
the students to try their best to write 5 sentences about their topic. When writing, the
students are working on using correct capitals and punctuation. They are also practicing the
patterns they have reviewed in Words Their Way. Our whole class is currently working with the
“Bossy R” sounds such as or, ar, er, ir, and ur. We are recognizing them in tricky words while we
read and trying to write them when we hear words with those sounds.
Math
Our class has been writing balanced addition sentences and looking at the meaning of the equal
sign. We say the equal sign means “equal” or “the same as” and that we can write addition
sentences with two addends on each side of the equal sign. For example, 4+2=5+1. When working
with these problems, we use a balance to help visualize the values of the numbers. This is a
challenging concept and we will continue to work with it for the next few weeks! We have also
been studying our coins. The students are identifying the look and worth of each coin. In the
coming weeks we will be adding coins together to create different values.
Social Studies
We are wrapping up our All About Maps unit. The students have worked hard to create maps,
study directions, and review the parts of a map. We spent time looking at Google Earth and were
able to see Seth Paine from a Bird’s Eye View. We also took a virtual tour of the White House!
We worked with our globe and labeled the seven continents on a map. Ask your child if they
remember our continents song!
Science
In the coming weeks, we will begin our science unit of Habitats; this is always a favorite for the
first graders! More information on this unit will be coming soon. On our class website now is a
page called “Science Links” and it contains various live web cams of different animals such as
polar bears, elephants, sea otters, and much more. Check it out!
http://www.lz95.org/classes/missrogerssclass_jrogers/
Twitter
Room 103 now has a class twitter! I have created a class twitter account as another way to
stay updated on the learning that takes place in our room. You can follow us at
@RogersRockstars if you have a twitter or you can check out our classroom website for
pictures, reminders, updates and more!