First Grade - Week of January 16

 

It was such a privilege to attend the Lollipop Concert. The performance was incredible. 

January 31: Math MAP Assessment 

February 7: Field Trip to Kent County Recycling Center

February 16: Midwinter Break - No School (Teacher Professional Development)

February 19: Midwinter Break - No School

MLK Day Activities: We continued MLK activities this week and the Bright Star Theater will be joining us on Monday, January 22 to perform a skit titled Dr. King.

WEEK AT A GLANCE

ELA: Not only are our nonfiction texts full of longer and harder words, but also expert words that pertain to the topic we’re reading about. We discussed how it’s important not to just breeze past these words, but to stop and think about what these words actually mean. 

We’ve also been getting to know some common phonograms that end in blends (-ump, -ock, -ash, -unk, -ack, -uck, -ing, -ish) Knowing these endings helps us to recognize the ending as a “part” and not just isolated sounds. Recognizing these word parts helps us to be more efficient in our reading and writing.

In writing we’ve been thinking about adding who, how, why, where and when to our nonfiction books to help our readers.

Math: This week we focused on measurement, comparing and ordering two-digit numbers, writing inequality statements, finding differences, and working on a number line. Phew! That’s a lot! We put all of this together in the context of a pretend trip to Antarctica. Students got to measure their heights for their own “pretend snowsuits” and graph the results. The class also recorded the height and other data for two types of penguins: the rockhopper and the king penguins. Students made their own measuring tapes and strings to help them order and compare numbers and find the differences.

*They have been loving this song and asked me to share with you!

7 Continents Song

Updated Star Student List: 

You will receive the google slides to complete before your child's star student week. 

Field Trips: We will be taking five field trips this year, GRPS Planetarium, Forest Hills Performing Arts Center, Recycling Center, Van Andel Institute, and the Celebration Cinema IMAX. If you would like to volunteer to drive for any of the field trips, please complete this sign-up.  All parents will have the opportunity to join us on May 17th for the Celebration Cinema field trip. I will send out a separate form for this field trip in the spring.

Please be sure that you’ve filled out a volunteer consent form if you plan on driving for a field trip or volunteering in our classroom. 

Classroom Volunteers: I would love help preparing for upcoming math units and projects. Please sign-up here if you would be willing to volunteer in the classroom. Thank you in advance for your help.