Weekly Update Feb. 1-5

Hello,

I hope you all enjoyed the snow day!  I did except for the shoveling! If you have extra mittens, these can be helpful as they tend to get rather wet at recess. There are lots of new things happening this week in First Grade! We will be starting our new reading unit, Readers Get to Know Characters by Performing Their Books. In science we will be starting our Solids and Liquids unit, which provides lots of hands on opportunities with solids and liquids. This is a favorite first grade investigation!

Upcoming Events:

Monday, February 1st-School confirmation notes went home. Please return as soon as possible. 

Tuesday, February 9th-11:30 Dismissal

Friday, February 12th-Valentine Celebration

Thursday, February 25th-11:30 Dismissal

Friday, February 26th-No School

Monday, February 29th-Melodies and Masterpieces Family Night-5:30-7:00-Night includes a short concert put on by New Directions Students. Look for more info to come home in a few weeks.

Curriculum Updates:

Readers' Workshop: This week we will be starting our new unit, "Readers Get to Know Characters by Performing Their Books." This character unit builds on children's natural inclination for imitation and role-playing by inviting them to do this same sort of pretending with the characters in their books. We will spend time learning ways readers get to know a character and pretending we are characters and performing books with our partners to become character experts. This week we will think about story elements (character, setting, problem, solution) to help us learn more about our characters, think about how the pictures and words work together, and think about what all the pages together can teach us about our character. 

Writers' Workshop: Students are doing an awesome job of reviewing their favorite (or not so favorite) books. We will be finishing up this unit this week. We will be reviewing our reviews using our checklists to make sure we have all the parts. We will also be learning how we can use special print to emphasize words and phrases and be sharing our reviews on Friday.

 Word Study: The new words this week are: rain, who, after, house, out.  They will be assessed on Friday. 

Math Workshop: This week we will be solving and writing a variety of teen story problems. Problems will include:

* unknown partners (There are 16 flowers in the vase. 6 are pink and the rest are white. How many are white?)

*both partners unknown (I have 12 marbles. How many marbles can I put in a blue bag and red bag?)

*subtraction problems with various unknowns (15 butterflies are in the garden. Some fly away. There are 8 left. How many butterflies fly away?)

We will be using a variety of strategies to solve these problems, including equations, math mountains and drawings. Students will also be writing their own story problems to include these different types.

Science/Social Studies: We finished up our Families unit, and are moving on to Solids and Liquids. This is an exciting first grade science unit! With the help of our Einstein kit, we are able to explore and learn about solids and liquid hands on. In a few weeks, we will be writing like scientists in writing and creating our own experiments to write about. Our overall solids and liquid unit goals are:

*Solids and liquids can be described by their properties.

*Some properties of solids are color, shape, ability to roll or stack, hardness, magnetic attraction, and whether they float or sink.

*Some properties of liquids are color, tendency to flow, degree of viscosity or fluidity, whether they are miscible with water, and whether they float or sink in water.

*Tests can be performed to investigate properties of solids and liquids that cannot otherwise be observed.

Have a great rest of the week! 

-Samantha