BRAIN POWER!
WOW! We have been using a lot of brain power around here! So many great things happening....read on to find out what is going on in first grade!
BUT FIRST - just a quick reminder to begin sending your child with proper fall/winter gear for outside play in the cold weather! Also, please remember that we have 27 students who might shop around town and come to school with similar items in the same size! It is VERY helpful to label your child's clothing, boots, coats, gloves, hats, etc. with their name. I do teach them how to put away all their clothing and backpacks in their coat cubby correctly, so as to keep track of it the best we can....but inevitably, 6-7 year olds often have a trail of stuff everywhere, and oddly - they often do not know what belongs to them! Please show your child markings on their outside gear to help identify it (tags, brand labels, logos, initials, etc.) THANK YOU!
We are nearing the end of our unit on the Human Body, and it has been so much fun! Our first grade scholars have learned BIG vocabulary words and totally impressed me with their use of the words in daily conversations, and remembering fun facts about the body systems that we studied. We wrote our first non-fiction writing, and I am so proud of of our authors and illustrators. They have been working incredibly hard on capitalization, ending marks, finger spaces, neat handwriting, and detailed drawings. They included a ton of great facts in their non-fiction books....look for those to come home next week! I have thoroughly enjoyed our conversations about our big learning. Our scholars are LOVING the models of the heart, spine, pelvis, and bones that we borrowed from Dr. Elmore at Family Practice. What a great hands-on way to explore!
The students have made really great videos to show their learning about the body systems on SeeSaw. Here is one:
The pumpkin projects turned out AMAZING!! I hope you found this to be a fun family activity where you could extend your child's learning from the classroom to home, while creating fun fall art! The pumpkins are on display at school in the main hallway by the gym. Feel free to stop in and see our work! The first graders are so proud of their projects!
We've also been working hard on reading phonics stories and answering comprehension questions. Students are enjoying the stories in the phonics readers, and learning how to answer a question in a complete sentence. We are getting much better at paying attention to the details in the story to answer questions in writing correctly!
Next week in phonics, we are focusing on the -ee, and -ea vowel teams. These vowel teams make the long e sound. Look for your child to be able to read and write words with these spellings!
In Math this week, we have been working on the counting on strategy. Students have been learning to add by putting the larger addend (partner) in their mind, and then counting on the other addend (partner). Using their math mats, students show their knowledge of several math strategies to solve an equation or story problem! We have some mighty math minds in our classroom!
Next week in math, we are diving into subtraction with pictures. Please be sure your little one can add and subtract within 10 (or 20!) fluently! We will be working on it a lot at school!
IMPORTANT NOTES:
The Bond proposal being brought to the community November 7th was developed after an in-depth study of CAPS facility needs and numerous discussions with the community over the course of two years. This proposal includes an early childhood center, 3 elementary buildings serving K-5 students, a middle school serving 6-8 students and a fully renovated high school. For detailed information or a personal tour, please call central office at 876-5000.
We will be having a Blue Ribbon Assembly on November 6th at the High School Auditorium. We will be traveling to the auditorium by bus in the morning, and we hope that you will meet us there to celebrate our achievements! It is going to be tons of fun, and you won't want to miss a fun dance by all the teachers, seeing Mr. Brown, and even seeing the Mayor!
In case you missed it, our class was in the news last Saturday! Here is the link: http://www.cadillacnews.com/news/new-literacy-program-aims-to-deliver-rich-content-at-cadillac/article_7d475c1a-703b-53a0-887f-8033d4754ba3.html
The Halloween Hike is on Tuesday at 2pm, if you'd like to go with us! Meet us in the lobby by the gym at 2pm! We will first tour the 3rd grade wax museum and then head outside to the nature trail and enjoy a healthy fall snack afterward!
