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