Another Wonderful Week!

We continue to work hard in first grade!

We looked at how books are categorized into fiction and non-fiction, We know that fiction books tell us a story, while non-fiction books teach us facts. We sorted books from our book boxes into fiction and non-fiction.

We added our last rotation to Daily 5- Listen to Reading. We have enjoyed reading fiction and non-fiction texts during this time. This is a good time for us to practice our listening skills and to listen to good models of fluent reading.

We discussed how to get ideas for our writing. We know the best ideas are seed stories- not writing about a watermelon topic. An example would be writing about getting sick on a roller coaster, not writing about a whole day at Worlds of Fun. These small moments allow us to focus our writing and write with better details.

In Math we celebrated what we know about subtraction and began a new unit focusing on five and ten. We focused on the ways to make ten and describe numbers as they relate to ten.

In Science, we explored light. We know that light is energy that travels in rays. We did an experiment to determine what type of materials light can shine through and learned the terms transparent, translucent, and opaque. We also used reflection to change the direction of a ray of light.

I hope that you got information for how to join our KidBlog group. It came home in Thursday folders. We look forward to using this tool throughout the school year and would love to have you join us and comment!

Strategies and Sound

It's been another busy week in first grade!

We added another rotation to Daily 5- Read to Someone. This is a time where we can practice our reading fluency (reading smoothly, with expression and accuracy) with a reading partner. We are using poetry to help us with reading with fluency.

We added two new strategies to our fix-up strategies. We can get our mouth ready by saying the first sound in the word we don't know and think about what makes sense. We then check our word by looking at the picture and the rest of the unknown word to make sure they match. We can also ask ourselves, "Do my letters match my sounds?" as we monitor our reading. This strategy is usually used alongside using the picture and getting our mouth ready. In this strategy we may use a word that would make sense with the picture and may even sound right- but the sounds we say might not match the letters in the word. An example would be when we read, "The lioness carries her cub to the den," but the text says "The lioness carries her baby to the den." What we read makes sense but the sounds in cub do not match the letters in the text. We will add more tools to our toolbox next week!

In Writers' Workshop we began our new unit on writing Small Moment stories. Small Moment stories are about ur own lives. We got booklets. 3 pages long! We had stamina as we added details to our writing to make it interesting for our readers.

In Math we continued to work on solving subtraction problems. We solved take away problems, comparing problems, and missing number problems. We also looked at the relationship between addition and subtraction.

We were scientists and explored sound.we learned about sound waves, vibrations, and pitch. We made some excellent sound machines this week.

We also started setting up our blog on KidBlog. We picked our avatars. We also practiced writing our first blog post. Right now, our blog is only viewable by students in our classroom. As we get more comfortable posting, we will make our blog more public. We discussed digital citizenship issues as we blog- not using our full name (only our first names), not attaching our picture to our name, and keeping our personal information private. Blogging will give us the opportunity to practice digital citizenship with a real audience. Be on the lookout for directions on how to join our blog as a parent in Thursday folders!

Reader's Toolbox, Celebrating Writing, and Subtraction Stories

We have had another amazing week in first grade! We came back Tuesday refreshed and ready to learn!

We continued to work on the short a sound as we practiced our spelling words. We had our first spelling test on Friday!

We added a third rotation to Daily 5- Word Work. During this rotation we can do Lexia or practice our spelling words in different ways. This week we learned how to  rainbow write our spelling words. Now we can choose the order we do Read to Self, Work on Writing or Word Work. We love our choices! Next week we will add Read to Someone as our fourth rotation.

We learned a fix up strategy to put in our reader's toolbox when we come across a word we don't know. The first is: Look at the picture. Picture books have lots of helpful clues to words we may not know. We try a word that would make sense with the picture and then check to see if the word we say matches the sounds in the word. we will continue to add strategies to our reader's toolbox next week!

We wrapped up writing pattern books this week. We read a very funny book, Who Hops and many of us tried to make similar pattern books. We celebrated and shared our pattern books during our Author Celebration on Friday.

In Math we practiced writing and solving subtraction sentences. We solved take away  and comparing problems.We will solve different types of subtraction story problems through next week.

We also discussed staying safe online as part of the Chromebook Challenge. We discussed going to the websites that adults tell us are okay and expect us to be on. We discussed letting an adult know if we come across something that we think is inappropriate or makes us feel uncomfortable. We will continue to learn about digital citizenship as we begin blogging in the next few weeks.

If you are looking for learning activities on the Chromebook, guide your student to Google classroom. The first grade teachers put websites and activities that we use in class on these pages. Mr. Burke showed us a fun koala racing game we can play!

Building Our Stamina

It has been another amazing week in first grade!

We've focused on building our stamina in Daily 5. We can now Read to Self and Work on Writing for 13 minutes at a time! This meant we got to start making the choice of which one we would like to work on for each rotation. Next week we will add another component into our Daily 5 routine- Word Work. This will be a way for us to practice our phonetic skills and spelling words.

In Writers' Workshop we've been working on writing pattern books. We practiced writing pattern books that have an two sentence repeating pattern. We also focused on writing both fiction and non-fiction pattern books. We will wrap up our unit on pattern books next week and begin writing narrative stories.

We celebrated what we know about addition this week. We know that we can use two parts to make a while. We can find the parts for 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. We began to work on subtraction skills this week. We worked on finding the missing parts of those same numbers.

On Wonder Wednesday, we learned about birds. We used padlet to write what already knew about birds before reading our National Geographic article. Padlet allowed us to share our ideas with Mrs. Mallen's classroom from our own Chromebooks. Padlet will allow us to collaborate and share ideas easily with others.  You can view our thinking here: http://padlet.com/MrsBertz/birds

We continued to work on the Chromebook Challenge. We know how to bookmark a site. Your child should have these three things bookmarked- MLE webpage, Mrs. Bertz's webpage, and Lexia. Yes, Lexia is completely set up for student usage! All new students have been added and I can look at student progress! Hooray! We also downloaded an app- Matific. It will help reinforce the math skills we are learning in class.

Bengal Book buddies and spelling homework will come home on Tuesday!

Thanks to everyone who came to Spotlight Night. If you could not make it, I sent some paperwork with your child. You can also view the presentation on my webpage. https://sites.google.com/a/lsr7.net/bertz/

Enjoy the three day weekend!