Mrs. Spooner's Class

November

Where has the time gone?  I cannot believe that we are already in the second nine weeks of school!  We are moving right along!  It was so nice to sit down and talk to all of you this past week at conferences.  It was so much fun sharing your child’s progress with you!  Remember, if we talked about something that your child was struggling with and you think that you may need some extra strategies to use at home, don’t hesitate to email me! 

This month we'll be learning...

Reading/Language Arts-We will be focusing on visualizing or creating mental images while we are reading. Mental images are the unique and vivid pictures we create in our minds' eyes as we listen to or read a story! We'll learn that mental images can be shared through art on paper, through dramatic interpretation, and through poetry!  In Debbie Miller's book, Reading With Meaning, she mentions that "proficient readers create mental images during and after reading" and "creating images enhances comprehension." We will be reading a variety of books and focus on the mental images that the words create. Everybody's mental images are different based on their schema! (Ask your child what schema means; they should be able to tell you!)  We will also work on inferring, using our prior knowledge to draw conclusions about a text. We will also continue to focus on nouns, verbs, and adjectives and begin using pronouns to replace nouns. Phonics-long i spelling patterns (i_e, igh, ie), long o spelling patterns (oa, ow, o_e), and long u spelling patterns (ue, ew, u_e)

Writing-We will be working on pattern books. We will read examples of pattern books including The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Always in Trouble, and The Grouchy Ladybug. The students will work on creating their own pattern books with repeating text. When we finish up our pattern books, we will start a unit on narrative writing. We will experiment using dialogue in our narrative stories! It should be fun.  Previously, we focused on personal narratives this time around we will focus on more fictional narratives.

Math-Next week we are getting started counting money! We will spend at least two weeks practicing counting coins and bills as well as making fair trades. Please make sure to practice counting coins at home with your child as well! We will wrap up November with two and three-dimensional shapes.

Science-We will be studying sound and will focus on the pitch and volume of sounds.

Social Studies-We will start a unit studying Thomas Jefferson. Remember you can check out PebbleGo biographies if you want to do some research at home on any of the historical figures we learn about in class! The website is http://cvl.cobbk12.org The username is cobb and the password is bird.

Important Dates to Remember:

Tuesday, November 8-Teacher workday, no school for students

November 21-25-Thanksgiving break, no school

IMPORTANT WEBSITES

There are a number of exciting and useful math games for your child to play which all align with each of our first grade math standards. The students have enjoyed using the laptops in class each week to practice our math skills. Each child has several opportunities to go to IXL in class.  I hope your child has had time to go to IXL at home as well.  Here is the website in case you need it again!  The username is your child’s first initial and last name, for example mine would be wspooner.  Their password is their initials, mine would be ws.  www.ixl.com/signin/mountainview

We will also begin utilizing a website called Skills Tutor. Your child will be bringing home their user name and password with them soon. I will also send an email home to each of you, so that you'll have this at home to use! Skills Tutor is an excellent website that has language arts, reading, writing, and math games and activities. All of the activities align with our standards. The web address for Skills Tutor is: www.myskillstutor.com

I hope you can enjoy using both of these great websites at home. They are excellent tools to help practice and reinforce skills being taught in the classroom.

Thank you again for all that you do. I LOVE hearing from you! Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is anything you need or any questions that may have arisen!

 

 

October

Fall is here! Our fabulous first graders are well on their way.  Your children are doing an outstanding job in first grade.  Thank you for being a continuing source of encouragement and support for your child. I appreciate all the time you have been spending on homework and reading with your busy first grader. The homework notebooks look amazing!! :) Keep up the great work at home!

Here's a glance at what we'll be learning this month:

Reading- We will continue our Reading Workshop with the help of Debbie Miller’s book, Reading with Meaning.  We are working on gaining deeper levels of comprehension with some of our favorite books.  We have learned that expert readers use strategies to understand the books that they read.   Making meaningful connections is one of those strategies. Schema is the word readers use to describe all of the stuff we know, all of the experiences we've had, and all of the things we've seen/done! Your child will learn that his/her SCHEMA is UNIQUE because we've all had different life experiences! Your child will also learn to tap into his/her schema to better understand the stories we read and listen to! We will practice making TEXT to SELF connections, using our schema help us better understand a story and understand how the characters are feeling. We will also be focusing on text-to-text connections.  Good readers think about the books they read and as they do, they are sometimes reminded of another book with similar story elements or features!  We will also be working on text-to-world connections, comparing and contrasting stories, and visualizing. When reading with your child encourage them to make meaningful connections! Keep a sticky note nearby, and if your child has a connection, have them write "T-S" for (Text-to-Self) or "T-T" for (Text-to-Text). 

Language Arts- We will review nouns and verbs and spend some time talking about adjectives and how to use them in our writing. We will also learn about antonyms, words with opposite meanings.

Phonics-We are starting off the month with r blends including fr, br, dr, tr, and cr. We will then focus on l blends including bl, cl, fl, and sl. Then we will focus on long a and long e spelling patterns. (ai, ay, ea, ee)

Writing-We will continue on our narrative writing journey! We will continue the unit on personal narratives and begin practicing writing fictional narratives. The students will write stories with a beginning, middle, and end as well as include characters, a setting, and a plot.  I am expecting your first grader to write EXCITING beginnings, MARVELOUS details in the middles, and EXCITING endings.

Math-We just finished a two week-long study of addition strategies. The students did an absolutely amazing job using the new strategies they learned. Ask your child to tell you about some of his/her favorite addition strategies. For the next two weeks, we will be practicing subtraction; utilizing strategies to help us fluently solve subtraction problems without frustration. Please practice counting backwards with your child NIGHTLY! Start with 20 and count back to 0. We will also be learning about place value to the hundreds place.

The students have started using a website during math workstations, www.ixl.com. There are games to match each of our first grade math standards. You can browse this website at home to see what we are using in class!  To login at home go to https://www.ixl.com/signin/mountainview.  It's truly an amazing way to extend our math curriculum at home.  You can choose a standard that we are working on this month and review the skill with your child.  The username is your child’s first initial and last name, for example mine would be wspooner.  Their password is their initials, mine would be ws.  You can also check out http://www.funbrain.com/math/ for some practice with addition facts.

Social Studies- We will be studying Benjamin Franklin. As we study Benjamin Franklin over the next several weeks, we will discuss and be able to understand the impact of his life on our lives today!

Science- Towards the end of October we will start a unit on sound.

IMPORTANT DATES THIS MONTH:

October 5, 6, and 7-COGAT testing for first and third. We will be testing in the morning so please be sure your child eats a good breakfast each day and arrives to school on time.

October 24-28-Conference week and book fair. The students will be dismissed two hours early each day of conference week beginning at 12:20.

Thank you so much for all that you do every day! Keep up the reading EVERY NIGHT for at least 20 minutes! Please don't hesitate to send me an email or a note if you have any questions or comments!

** Thank you for helping your child remember to read and return his/her reading group bag each day!