Ms. Harris' Hoppin First Graders: January 2015

Sunday, January 25, 2015

January 26-30, 2015 Week 20

WOW! This is the start of the 4th six weeks! The school year is flying by! We will have many activities this semester. February activities include celebrating 100's Day on February 5. Bring something to school that represents the number 100! All projects will be judged and the top 10 winners will be chosen! Projects will be returned. On February 13 we will have our Valentine party at 2:15. Next week I will send a list of student names for you to address Valentines. February 17 we will have our first Math and Science Carnival at CES. We will sell tickets for the events.

We are reading "I'm a Caterpillar" this week. It is a non-fiction story that follows the life cycle of a butterfly. We will be able to integrate reading and science. We will review fact and opinion; blend and read r-controlled words with /er/, /ur/, /ir/, /ar/; identify verbs am, is, are, was, were; and review contractions.

Math we will continue to practice place value to 120.

Science we will study the weather and seasons.

Social Studies we will identify the characteristics of the environment (landforms, natural resources, lakes, rivers, streams, oceans, ponds)

Our spelling words are getting more and more challenging. The words come from the sounds that we are learning in Saxon Phonics. Please help your child practice these words as well as the dictated sentences that they are tested over. Please spend at least 10-15 minutes reading every night.

A.R. GLOW BOWLING!

All students that have 10 A.R. points will be able to go Glow Bowling with the class in late spring. You can read and test over your library books and some of our basal reading stories. The boys and girls seem to really enjoy A.R. testing. It is motivating and also a great way to check your child's reading comprehension. Points will start on Monday, January 26. You have until May 1 to get your points. Happy A.R. reading! :)

YAY! Our schedule has changed and these are our daily rotations...

Monday ~ PE/Library
Tuesday ~ PE/Guidance
Wednesday ~ PLC Day and specials will rotate
Thursday ~ PE/Art
Friday ~ PE/Computer Lab

Guess who our "Mystery Reader" was???

"Mystery Reader" please come in!

Mrs. Haddock read "The Snowchild."

Mrs. Haddock asked comprehension questions about the story.

Thank you Mrs. Haddock! We enjoyed you!

Monday, January 19, 2015

January 19-23, 2015 Week 19

I hope that everyone enjoyed our long weekend! Now let's get ready for the fourth six weeks. We still have plenty more to learn between now and the end of school. Please remember to practice reading and sight words nightly. Students are expected to be reading on a level 10 at this time. Please practice to build fluency and instant word recognition.

This week we will be reading "Frog and Toad Together." It is a fictional story about two friends. We will blend and read words with r-controlled vowels "ar" such as star, part, chart; read words with endings -ed, -ing; understand the author's purpose for writing a story; and identify past and present verbs.

Math: Place Value to 120

Science: We will explore the properties of soil and the importance of water.

Social Studies: Characteristics of the Environment (landforms, natural resources, etc)

Upcoming Events

January 22- Report Cards
February 5- 100th Day of School
(THINK creatively and make something that represents the number 100!)

SURPRISE SURPRISE! We will have a "Mystery Reader" this Friday. I wonder who it will be? Shhhh!

Everyday we start our day off with our morning math meeting. The boys and girls basically lead the math meeting. They are awesome to watch! We skip count, tell time, identify money; sing the days of the week and months of the year; identify patterns and geometric shapes; read the calendar day, month and year; discuss even and odd numbers; set and read a thermometer; interpret information from our weather graph; and make a number sentence for the number of the day. The students are getting better and better with the skills as the days go by...here are some fantastic number sentences that the students shared in class. SUPER JOB CLASS!

We ended the six weeks by playing Jeopardy. It covered the skills that we learned throughout the 3rd six weeks. It was our first time playing it this year. We will continue to play this at the end of each six weeks as a review of past learned skills. It was fun and they did a great job!

Getting our bells ready to buzz in to our "Jeopardy" game!

We used beans to count and make number patterns on a 120's chart!

HAVE A SUPER WEEK!

Sunday, January 11, 2015

January 12-16 Week 18

BRRR! I hope that everyone is staying warm!

This week and next will be short weeks for us. We will have teacher staff development on Friday and next Monday we will be out for Martin L. King Day. I hope that you enjoy your extra long weekend!

This week we will read "The Class Pet." It is a story that tells about how real mice grow and change. Our skills for the week are to identify fact and opinion; use adjectives that describe; blend and read words that have ending -es; and work on r-controlled vowels (we call these bossy r words such as or, store, corn, etc.); and practice daily Saxon Phonics.

In Math we will continue number patterns to 120. We will skip count and identify the patterns that we observe.

In Science we will explore soil and its properties.

In Social Studies we will continue our unit on good citizens. We will discuss facts about Benjamin Franklin and Martin L. King Jr. We will also learn about the meaning of USA anthems and mottoes.

Upcoming Events

Friday, January 16 - No School

Monday, January 19 - No School (MLK holiday)

January 22 - Report Cards

January 25 - Math and Science Night

February 5 - 100th Day of School

Be thinking of something creative to bring to school to represent the 100th day of school. Go to Pinterest there are lots of ideas!

Keep reading and practicing sight words at night! Practice spelling words and the dictated sentences that are on the back of Monday's homework. Thanks for all of your help at home!

Have a wonderful week!

Sunday, January 4, 2015

January 5-9, 2015 Week 17

Happy New Year! I hope that everyone had a great Christmas holiday. We are back in school and ready to learn lots of new things.

This week we will read a story called "Ruby in Her Own Time." This story is animal fantasy. It is about a growing duck family and little Ruby who develops and matures in her own time. We will compare and contrast characters; identify and build compound words; read words that have consonant patterns -ng, -nk; and practice verbs that add -s. We will decode, blend and read words in Saxon Phonics. In Math we will work in our "Go Math" textbook and practice numbers on an open number line; and then work on number patterns. For Science we will explore soil; and in Social Studies we will continue learning about good citizens.

I got a little behind uploading and downloading pictures. :) Here are some of the cute faces that I captured in December!

Thanks to Madeline H. for all the wonderful "12 Days of Christmas" gifts!