Friday was the first day of our Caraway Academies, and we all had so much fun! We will be attending Academies every Friday morning (7:55-8:55) for the next 7 weeks. Please talk with your child about what they did in their Academy.
Conferences are coming up soon! I sent out a a sign up link last week. Many of you have already signed up. Thank you! If you have not signed up yet, please make sure to check out the times available so we can meet to discuss your child.
Reminders:
Tuesday (9/26): Tuesday folders will come home. Look for homework!
Thursday (9/28): No library this week.
Friday (9/29): Caraway Academies- 7:55 am. Homework due back!
Homework is a great time to read together and practice skills at home. My personal philosophy is that homework should enrich the child and family and it should not be a struggle. I encourage reading each night for about 10 to 15 minutes with your child. The books that come home are a resource. These books will be at your child's independent or instructional level. It is important to practice reading on a level students' are successful at to build fluency and comprehension skills. If a child is tired or ill and reading is a struggle it is ok to not force reading time. The Tic Tac Toe homework is also intended as a resource. if students would like to complete more than three squares they are welcome to. if life is stressful and the homework is not completed during the week , i understand. Take more time or try again next week!
Reading Homework...
Tomorrow your child will begin bringing one book home for reading homework. The reading homework books will come home Tuesday and return to school on Friday. If additional time is need you may keep them through the weekend. if books are returned by the following Tuesday i will send home a new book...
The ‘Little green books’ from our Houghton Mifflin collection (small books with green backs) or books from our Caraway Literacy Library, will come home in the Tuesday folders starting 10/3. When reading with your child, look for three main things:
1-Accuracy: Can your child recognize sight words and other words quickly and read the words on the page? Are they stopping to decode multiple unknown words?
(Encourage strategies such as …use the picture clues, “does it make sense?”, “is it a sight word?” (tell students sight words-most do not decode easily!)
2- Fluency- Can your child accurately read with expression? Are they recognizing periods, exclamation marks, question marks and characters’ dialogue at a good reading pace/rate?
3- Comprehension: Can your child tell you about what they just read and retell the story in the correct sequence of events? Did they pick up on details and key parts of the story?
Students should read the take home book at least two times during the week. These books are at the student’s independent or instructional level. This means only a small amount of support should be needed. It is a great idea to let your child read the book, then reread all or a part of the book to practice fluency, once all the words are familiar. Reading out loud helps students practice fluency and work on expressive reading.
Ask students questions about the story. The ‘little green books’ often have questions at the end.
As first grade students read into end of year first grade and second grade books, ask questions for fiction books such as “How was the character feeling? How do you know?” For nonfiction books ask questions such as “What was the author’s purpose for writing the story?” "How did the author help you learn about the topic?" (specific photographs, captions, diagrams, and headings help us learn about the topic.)
Look for Tic-Tac-Toe homework...
For this homework choose any 3 squares in a row (horizontal, vertical or diagonal), complete the homework stated in each box & color the 3 squares you completed. This homework will focus on skills and concepts we are discussing in class. Use the back and/or staple an extra page if you need to show your work. i will look for this homework on Friday, but if you need the weekend you may return it on Monday.
This week in Writing Workshop...
We will continue working on our small moment stories. We will discuss how writers narrow their topic down to make our stories more interesting. We will continue to think about how we can organize our stories so that it makes sense to the reader by using a beginning, middle and end. Students will begin using capitalization at the beginning of a sentence and when using the pronoun 'I'. Students will also begin to recognize when they should use end punctuation. In science and social studies, we will record facts and observations in our various notebooks. On Friday, we will reflect on our time in our Academy and then write about it.
This week in Math...
We will continue learning how to solve addition problems using the count on strategy. We will apply the count on strategy in problem solving situations. We will work with many different math tools to help us, such as a number track, a hundred chart, manipulatives and pictures. The students will create their own math story problem!
You can help your child at home by having them practice counting on and counting backward from a given number. Practice skip counting by 2's. Let your child use household objects to build numbers up to 20. A very important part of math in 1st Grade is learning to justify how a problem is solved. Ask them to explain how they got to their answer and how they know it is correct.
This week in Reading Workshop...
We will continue thinking about different elements of fiction. We will discuss the plot, setting and characters in a fiction story. The students will learn that making connections to themselves, other texts, and events in the world around them can help them to understand the story better. We will continue to respond orally during partner reading, and will continue to build stamina during independent reading time. We will be meeting in small groups to discuss various reading strategies to increase accuracy, comprehension and fluency.
You can help your child at home by having them read to you or to themselves for 10-15 minutes per night and by reading to them. This can be a very rewarding part of yours and your child's day. Ask them to recall events from the story and to talk about the characters' feelings and actions. Work on the 1st Grade sight word list. You can find this list in the daily folder.
This week in Social Studies...
We will finish up our unit about Texas! We will read legends and other fiction books to help us learn about the different state symbols, such as the Bluebonnet, state flag, state pledge, Mockingbird and the Alamo. We have all really been enjoying the fun fiction books that are about Texas. We are having fun and learning about the Texas symbols at the same time!
This week in Science...
We will finish up our unit about Changes from Heat. We will reflect on the changes that we witnessed in our experiments. We will observe chocolate as heat is applied, and then we will record our observations in our science notebook. The students will continue to think like a scientist by asking questions, making predictions, and conducting age appropriate experiments in the classroom.
We will also do a growth mind-set lesson. In this lesson the students will recognize that even though we might not all be awesome at something, if we put forth effort and keep trying, we will get there!
Technology…
The students are really loving the technology time we are getting in the classroom. I do have a request though! If every student could bring in a set of headphones to keep in the classroom, it would help out so much. It gets pretty loud when we all have the sound on. Please make sure the headphones are not the small ear buds. They do not properly fit in our small ears and they fall out frequently causing a lot of frustration. Please send the headphones to school with your child by next Monday(Oct. 9). Thank you so much!
This week’s Life Skill is Perseverance! We will think about all of the things we can accomplish if we just keep trying and never give up. Our Tribe Circle will focus on how we have used perseverance throughout the week!
That's all for now! Have a great week!
Dates to Remember:
Oct 4th- International Bike and Walk to school Day
Oct 9th- No school for students -Parent Teacher conferences
Oct 10th- No school for students
Oct 11th -School Picture Day
Oct 19th- International Night
Oct 20th- Skate Night @ 6 pm
Oct 23-27th- Red Ribbon Week
Nov 20-24th- Thanksgiving Holiday
Dec. 15th- Field Trip to the Thinkery (more info to come later!)
Dec 21st- Last day of classes
Dec 22-Jan 8th- Winter break
Jan 9th- Students return to School