Week of 9/23

Literacy
We used shared reading to practice doing an in-depth picture walk. In first grade, students understand that illustrations help support the text. We can gather clues about the story from the details in the pictures as well as use the illustrations to figure out unknown words. Students looked at two different wordless picture books. They carefully examined each picture to predict the characters, setting and major events. Then, we read the stories with the text included and compared our predictions to the actual story. Their predictions were pretty accurate!

We began spelling groups this week. Students have been grouped according to their developmental spelling stages, which were assessed through a spelling inventory. Some groups are working on short vowel sounds, while other groups are working on digraphs, or beginning sounds. Each week, students will work through four different spelling tasks to go with one specific spelling pattern. They will bring home their completed spelling work each week so you can see exactly what your child is working on.

Students practiced saying words in parts this week, too. Given two parts (such as st-ar), students practiced blending the parts together to say the whole word. Just like isolating and blending sounds in words, isolating and blending parts is an important reading skill. We read a poem titled "Three Elephants" and used words from the poem to practice this skill in context.


Math
Our focus in math this week was subtraction. Students learned how to take one number away from a larger number using strategies like counting backward along a number line or drawing and crossing off pictures. They played several games to practice such as 1 or 2 Less, Five in a Row Subtraction and Start With/Get To: Counting Backward.

21st Century Skills
Students began to learn about 21st century skills this week. Please follow this link to learn more about these. Our focus was problem solving. We watched a short video, read Rose Revere, Engineer and then completed a whole group challenge. Students worked together to create a crossword puzzle on the Promethean board using all of their first names. First, students shared ideas of how we could get started. Some students modeled trial and error and perseverance when their initial idea didn't work. They were proud of themselves once they got all 15 names up on the crossword puzzle!

Upcoming Dates

• Picture Day is Tuesday, October 1st. Order forms were sent home this week in red totes.
• There is no school on Friday, October 11th or Monday, October 14th.
• All first grade classes have a field trip scheduled for Tuesday, October 15th. More info to come!

Thank you,

Mrs. Bradstreet

Week of 9/16

Literacy
We spent a lot of time reviewing our letter sounds and playing with sounds in words. We practiced "tapping" the sounds in consonant-vowel-consonant words (such as cat or mop).  Tapping  sounds helps students isolate beginning, middle and ending sounds. We also practiced blending the sounds together to say the whole word. Students used two variations of Elkonin boxes to practice segmenting and blending sounds. This photo shows one example we used.

Our writing focused on stories about helping. I read Farmer Duck and The Little Red Hen. Both stories were about an animal who worked too hard on a farm with little help. Students brainstormed, wrote and illustrated their own "I help" stories. Our writing goals were to put a period at the end of each sentence and draw a detailed picture to show the meaning of our sentences.

Habits of Work
I introduced Habits of Work this week. Each week, students will be scored on these important work habits. They are Be Prepared for Learning, Engagement with Learning and Interactions with Peers and Adults. Students are scored on a 1-3 scale. 3 means the student consistently demonstrates the habit over the course of the week, 2 means that habit is demonstrated some of the time and a 1 means the habit is rarely demonstrated over the week. These scores will be included in each trimester progress report, and will be discussed during parent teacher conferences.

Math
We continued to practice strategies to solve addition story problems. Our story problem routine is to listen to the problem with our eyes closed and attempt to visualize the action. Then, students figure out if there will be more or less at the end of the story. After, students use a strategy to solve the problem and write an equation to match. Our focus strategies were drawing pictures and counting on to find the total.
Students also played addition games including Roll & Record and Five in a Row. Ask your child to demonstrate how they can add two numbers together by counting on. Dice or playing cards work well for practicing this skill!

Guidance
We enjoyed our first guidance lesson with Mrs. Holt this week. Students will visit Mrs. Holt every three weeks for lessons in social-emotional learning through the Second Step program. This week, they talked about feelings. You can learn more about this wonderful program here.

Upcoming Dates

• There is an early release on Wednesday, September 25th. Students will be dismissed at 12:35pm. Please let me know if your child's dismissal plan will be different on this day.
• Skillin's Open House is Thursday, September 26th. Please stop by the classroom between 5:00-6:00 to look learn more about first grade learning goals and activities. There will be an ice cream social in the cafeteria afterward. (Thank you, PTA!)
• Picture Day is Tuesday, October 1st. Forms were sent home in red totes this week.

Thank you,

Mrs. Bradstreet

Week of 9/9

Responsive Classroom
We continued to build our classroom community in a few different ways this week. I introduced the greeting component of our morning meeting. We will start each day this way. Daily greetings help us get to know one another's names, practice using an appropriate voice volume and making eye contact...all while building teacher and peer relationships. We practiced a new greeting each day this week - ask your child to describe their favorite one to you!
We worked on our Quiet Time routine, too. At the end of each day, students participate in quiet time to help wind down from a busy day of learning. Choices during this time include drawing, reading or using iPads. The expectations are to use a Level 0 voice and stick with whichever choice they have made for the entire time.
We also built a set of classroom expectations this week. Students brainstormed ways to be safe, responsible, respectful and kind in our classroom. After creating our rules, they took turns demonstrating what each rule looks and sounds like. We also read a couple of stories to help reinforce the importance of following rules - Do Unto Otters and What If Everybody Did That?

Literacy
We kicked off the week with our first formal Writing Workshop. Our workshop time will always include listening to a story, brainstorming ideas for writing, participating in shared writing and independent writing time. At the end of the week, we will usually have time for an Author Share so students can hear one another's work. Eventually, students will learn how to give appropriate feedback on each other's writing. This week, we wrote "I like" stories. Students were reminded to begin each sentence with an uppercase letter, end each sentence with a period and to write the sounds they could hear in each word.

Math
Our focus in math was on counting and addition. Students played Build It - a game in which partners took turns turning over a number card and building the number on ten frames. It was important for them to understand that a teen number was "10 and some more." They learned how to play an addition game called One or Two More. Again, partners took turns turning over a card and deciding to add one or two to that number. Then, they had to cover the sum on a BINGO-style game board. We also practiced counting by ones with our Start With... Get To routine and an activity called Draw 20 (please see the photo).

Upcoming Dates

• Our first early release is Wednesday, September 25th. Students will be dismissed at 12:35pm. If your child will have a different dismissal routine on this day, please let me know in advance. For families that send their children to Rec, please let me know if they have signed up for the special Rec program for that day.
• Skillin's Academic Open House is Thursday, September 26th. Look for more information in red totes next week!

Thank you,

Mrs. Bradstreet

First Week of School!

Hooray! We made it through our first week as first graders at Skillin! Our focus was learning all about the procedures and routines to be successful first graders. Students practiced the following:

• Lining up in lunch order
• "Give Me 5" (used for respectful listening while on the rug)
• Attention signals such as the chime and a backward countdown
• Voice level chart
• Playground, cafeteria and hallway expectations
• Morning and dismissal routines

Ask your child to explain what they remember about these procedures.

Literacy

Students enjoyed listening to many stories about the first day of school. I read Chrysanthemum and Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes, First Day Jitters by Julie Danneburg and First Grade, Here I Come! by Nancy Carlson. We spent time practicing reading and writing our first names. We created a class chart of first names using index cards. Each child's name was written on an index card with an uppercase letter at the beginning, followed by lowercase letters. Students took turns reading their own name card to the class, placing it in a pocket chart and then they helped read though ALL the names together. After, they used small white boards to practice writing their first and last names, using their tabletop name tags as a guide. They also counted the vowels, consonants and total number of letters in their names.

Math

Students enjoyed exploring several math manipulatives this week including pattern blocks, power polygons, geoblocks and connecting cubes. Students generated ideas on how to use the tools, as well as ways the tools were similar and different. In a warm-up routine called "Start With, Get To," we counted forward by ones beginning and ending with different numbers. In "Mystery Bags," students counted a set of objects in a bag and recorded their findings on a recording sheet. Students discussed and modeled good counting strategies such as keeping objects organized in a neat pile or straight line and making sure to count each object only once. A few children thought it was helpful to find the number on a number line before recording it on the sheet. These counting skills will be especially helpful when we are ready to dive into addition and subtraction!

Specials

We enjoyed our first library, art, and music classes this week. Each student checked out one library book to bring home. Please help your child remember to return his or her book next Wednesday so they can check out a new one.

Here is a reminder of our specials schedule:

• Monday - gym (please wear sneakers)
• Tuesday - guidance (every 3 weeks)
• Wednesday - integrated library/technology 
• Thursday - art
• Friday - music

Reminders

• Our classroom is a nut-free room. Please make sure you carefully read all of the labels on your child's snack. Anything containing nuts, traces of nuts or that has been processed in a facility with nuts cannot be eaten in class. Thank you for your help in keeping all of our children safe.

Thank you for a wonderful first week!

Mrs. Bradstreet