Little Thinkers...Geography...3-Man Made Structures

Here are a few slides from our lesson all about man made structures.

Check out our Noun Town and Verb Village...

I posted pictures of last year´s Noun Town and Verb Village, but now you can see how ours turned out. The kids in Room 104 loved doing this. Now we plan to look back at Noun Town and add adjectives on index cards. Then we will look at Verb Village and add adverbs!

Valentine's Day....

Students will celebrate Valentine's day in class on Friday, February 14. Kids can bring in their cards by Thursday morning.  We will celebrate that afternoon.

We would love to make simple Valentine holders out of construction paper on the morning of February 14. I will have some hearts cut out, find some stickers and get out the markers. It can be so much fun to decorate valentine envelopes with friends. If you have anything like cool heart wrapping paper, paper hearts, or stickers that you think we might want to use, please send them in as soon as possible. Thank you!

Students can get their Valentine cards ready at home and bring them to school that morning. Most kids like to sign them and put student names on them in first grade. The list that is on the front cover of their red responsibility folder can help them remember first names of their classmates. 

Have a sick student or just run out of time to put other student names on them? Students could just sign their names, then. 

This is a party that we do on our own.  Parents do not attend this one. We plan to pass out our cards, open them, and take time to say thank you to those that gave us cards. We will eat a little and drink a little, too! Thank you!

Our room moms might be asking you to send in things like something to eat or drink. They might ask for paper plates or napkins. Thank you for helping us out!

Little Thinkers...Geography...Maps

Take a quick peek at some of the slides from our second lesson about geography!

Little Thinkers...Geography...

Our next Social Studies unit is all about geography and maps. Take a look at some of the slides from our very first lesson.

GO Math: Chapter 6

So...want to have a clearer picture of what we will be focusing on? Check out the I Can statements for this chapter. I Can:

• 
  
• Use models and write to represent equivalent forms of tens and ones through 120.
• Use objects, pictures, and numbers to represent numbers (or quantities) to 100.
• Solve problems using the strategy "make a model."
• Count, read, and write numerals to represent a number of 100 to 120 objects.

This represents 49

Noun Town and Verb Village...

We have to find some time to talk about nouns and verbs. The best part? We will create Noun Town and Verb Village. We hope to act out the verbs in Snowmen At Night, then recreate the snowmen in actions. Fun way to learn about nouns and verbs!

Writing Workshop: Unit 2-Nonfiction Chapter Books...Bend 1

I Can Tell Information Across My Fingers, Sketch, and Write

Take a quick look at the mini lessons we are using to help us write "all about" books. There are three "bends" in the road. The writer of these writing units uses bends to describe when the unit switches focus. This is the first "bend".

I Can Tell Information Across My Fingers, Sketch, and Write
Children learn that writers plan what they are going to say before they write. They do this by telling information across their fingers, sketching and writing.

I Can Keep Readers in Mind, Writing to Answer Their Questions
Students learn that writers try to picture who their readers will be. Then, to reach their readers, they imagine and answer the questions their readers have.

  I Can Teach With Pictures as Well as Words Students learn that writers teach with pictures and words. They include illustrations in their teaching books to help teach their reader even more.

I Can be Brave Enough to Spell Domain Specific Words (Spelling Fancy Words)  Writers bravely spell the chllenging, expert words that help teach about their topic.

I Can Use a Reader to Help Me Add and Subtract  Students learn that writers need readers to help them revise. Readers help writers know where to add more details and where to subtract details.

I Can Take Stock...Self-Assess and Set Goals  Writers assess how well they are doing and set goals to become even better writers.

I Can Edit (Spelling, Capitals, and Punctuation)  Writers reread their writing closely, making sure they have included correct spelling, capitals, and punctuation.

The nonfiction texts on our shelves help us to study what nonfiction writers do.

                            

Reading Workshop: Unit 2-Learning About The World-Reading Nonfiction...Bend 1

On our first day of our new unit, readers in Room 103 realized that we can use everything we learned in our first unit, Readers Build Good Habits. We took a good look at the anchor chart from this unit and made sure we would carry those habits into our new unit.

Readers are currently listening to a mini-lesson at the beginning of reading workshop and going off to try out what I teach independently. Our important work is with our partners...day after day. I make my way around the room to confer. After about 15 minutes, I give a quick mid-workshop lesson and readers read independently.  On the first day during our mid-workshop share, we reviewed everything we reviewed everything partners do. Take a look at our google slides. They help to support our work.

After approximately 15 minutes of independent reading, each reader thought about something they learned. We are becoming "super-smart" about what we read.

Mini-lessons include:

Getting Started as a Nonfiction Reader

Students use what they already know about sneak peaks to help them learn about new topics.

Studying One Page Can Teach So Much

Students learn how to linger on one page and use the pictures to find more details and information that accompany the text. I model how readers slow down and name what they see before they turn the page.

Readers Learn More by Chatting about What's Happening

Students learn how to bring the information on a page to life.  They use the images on the page or in their heads to imagine what is happening just before and right after the part they are reading. This inferential thinking will help students learn more from the text.

Readers Reread to Make Sure They Understand Their Books

When readers finish a book, they should try to remember the whole book, not just individual parts. Students learn to reread to put the parts of their book together.

Working on Fluency, Including Stress and Intonation

When readers are trying to understand and recall information from books, it helps to read with expression, making their voices smooth and lively.

A Celebration of Learning

Students will celebrate their new knowledge with classmates by talking about what they have learned from their books.

How can you help at home? Encourage your reader to discuss pictures and texts with you when reading. Dig deeper! Ask "What are you thinking?" Share your thinking! Model how to think and talk about a page in a non-fiction text. The readers in Room 103 love to share their thinking!

Cultural Heritage Night...

It's not too late to volunteer to support Maple Dale Cultural Heritage Night! On January 24th at 6 PM, our school community will come together to celebrate the heritages and traditions represented at Maple Dale. 

Your family is invited to attend that evening. You can also participate by hosting a food or cultural booth, walk in the fashion show, or perform on stage. Please log in to the following SignUp Genius to participate, http://tinyurl.com/MD-CHN2020. Thank you for your support!  

GO MATH...Chapter 5...

We will study addition and subtraction relationships. Wondering about the objectives your child will be concentrating on during this chapter? Take a quick look at the I can statements. I Can:
Solve addition and subtraction problems using the "I can make a model" strategy.
Identify, record and use related facts within 20 to subtract.
Apply the inverse relationship of addition and subtraction. (If 3 + 7 = 10, then 10 - 3 = 7 and 10 - 7 = 3)
Represent equivalent forms of numbers using sums and differences within 20.
Determine if an equation is true or false.   (Is 4 + 8 = 15 true or false?)
Add and subtract facts within 20 and demonstrate fluency for addition and subtraction within 10.  (In other words, be pretty automatic and confident with facts within 10)

Take a look at the fact family video!

Happy New Year...

When we are together again on Monday, we will want to find out what everyone did for New Year's Eve.  Did you stay awake until midnight?  We'll read some poems and talk about New Year's resolutions.  I will even read a book about a squirrel that makes a resolution! Then we will tackle making some academic goals!

Take note: What to help at home? Consider some academic goals that your first grader might want to tackle in 2020. What would be a great goal? How could they achieve that goal?

Tacky the Penguin...

We plan on reading, Tacky the Penguin and the students fell in love with the main character. Who wouldn't? We looked closely at character traits in this book. This is a great book to make "come alive"! We had a full class set of Three Cheers for Tacky so we can partner read and act it out as a class together. Hooray!  Such fun!

I have the other titles and found some literature response sets. Students will partner read the books and respond in writing to the book. I will be sure to model how to return to the text to find the answer, to use the text as a resource to spell words, to use the words in the question to "get a running start" to your answer. This class of students do well reading so I want to integrate writing as much as possible.  Students worked with a partner.  We call them Team 1, Team 2, etc..

We used these books to monitor our comprehension this week. We continued with our unit of study in reading...

How can you help at home?  When your child reads, ask a few questions and have them return to the text to show you the part that supports their answer. Such an important thing to do!  They have returned to the text to reread their favorite part, so it should not be such a stretch to return to the text to find and support their answers. This helps students with test taking, too!

March of the Penguins

March of the Penguins

Have you seen the movie, March of the Penguins, lately?

It is a beautiful movie and we will use it to meet some of our science and writing objectives. Students will study the video in 10 minute increments and look for ways that the environment provides the penguins with what they need to survive.

We will be looking for information about adaptations. We will find facts about the penguins' physical adaptations and behavioral adaptations. We will discuss these facts and write them on paper using our best spelling, punctuation, and handwriting. Our facts will be put on penguin "belly" paper and later added to the adorable penguins we plan to make. Of course, these penguins will hang out in Room 103's "Antarctica". This is also known as a tub of white sytrofoam. What a great way to learn more about science and practice our writing skills!

March of the Penguins (ages 6+) – This documentary follows Emperor penguins as they make their grueling annual trek across the ice desserts of Antarctica. Morgan Freeman narrates this beautiful and engaging story as these birds march in single file to the bleak tundra where they mate and lay eggs. The males stay behind to protect the eggs while the females head back to the sea to eat fish. It’s an incredible journey!

I'm sure that students will be amazed at what these penguins

do!

They will fall in love with this story!

You can usually hear a pin drop when students listen to

Morgan Freeman recount their journey.

This illustration gives you an idea of the information we will 

be thinking about.