Happy Birthday Kansas!

Happy Birthday Kansas!
Last week we celebrated the birthday of our great state! We have spent so much time studying the Native American tribes and first explorers from Kansas. Last Monday we reviewed out state symbols, sang our state song, and even made our own “edible Kansas”!
In math we have been studying about “smart groupings”. Smart groups are pairs of numbers that equal 10. The equation (8+2)+3=13. By using this strategy and identifying a 10 team, we are learning a quicker way to count on when adding three digit numbers. This week we are beginning adding and subtracting with an unknown addend. 12-___= 5. This is probably the hardest concept of the quarter. Thank you for all of your support at home with homework!
In Storytown we have really been focusing on long vowel patterns. It is fun to see the kids pick out these patterns in their reading! This week we are working on long A patterns –ay, ai, and a_e. Our comprehension skill of cause and effect will carry over into this week. Have conversations with your child at home when reading about cause and effect examples you might find in their book.
In social studies we are working on our mapping skills and have been taking a look at our place on a map. This was a great subject to transition into after studying so much about our state. Your kiddos are excited to share many of the projects we have been working on at conferences with you next week! Speaking of conferences…. Thank you so much for returning conferences schedules! I am looking forward to seeing you and having your child share many special things from this quarter with you! If you have any questions on time please let me know.

Busy Times in First Grade!

We have had a busy time back from winter break! I hope the New Year is finding you all well and rested! Here are a few highlights of the things that have been keeping us busy…

Reading- In Storytown we have been working on R controlled vowels. We practice these many ways in class including practice during Daily 5. This week we are looking at words that end in –le. Thank you for continuing to practice these words with your child at home and have them turn in a spelling practice every week! Our comprehension skill we have been working on is main idea. We have been building on the skills of beginning, middle, and end to understand what the story is mostly about. This is a tough skill to pinpoint, so we are working on this through Storytown, Daily 5, in reading groups, and in writing!
Writing- In writing we have published our first writing pieces of the year! We have read MANY books about snow in class. Using these stories as inspiration each first grader composed their own “snow story” and created a sparkly snow globe scene to go with it! These are proudly displayed in the hallway. Our next project will have us looking at the structure of a friendly letter.
Social Studies- Last week and this week, we have taken a look at the lives of the plains Indians. As a class we have studied the clothes they wore, things they ate, where they lived… and other details about their lives. This will lead us into Kansas history this week in preparation for Kansas’ birthday at the end of the month!
Math- We have been working very hard the last couple of weeks on place value. We’ve been counting groups of tens and ones, representing numbers, identifying which number is more and less, and using our 100s boards to solve number problems. We will assess on this tomorrow and begin studying “greater than” and “less than”.
Last Friday we had a guest speaker, Trisha Williams, come speak to the class about healthy eating, getting enough exercise, and staying well. The kids loved hearing about germs and ways we can take care of ourselves in the winter. Thank you Trisha for taking time to come speak with the class!
Our 100th day of school is coming up at the end of the month. A note will be going home soon with information on a special class activity.

Spelling 1-9 1-13

Spelling words:
her, fur, turn, bird, girl, first, quit, when, name, and work

Just a note to pass along:
“The USD231 Bond Issue election ballots will be mailed to registered voters between January 11 and 14. The school district bond issue is extremely important to our students and the future of Gardner Edgerton School District. Please take a moment to vote and mail in your ballot. Every Vote Counts! For more information, visit usd231.com. Thank you!”

I hope you all had a wonderful break... we are finally back into the swing of things here. I will update out blog later this week with all of the fun things we have been doing here!

Winter weather is here!

It is hard to believe that December is here and flying by! Here are a few notes about our week…
In reading this week we are focusing on the “ar” sound. Our comprehension strategy of the week is understanding author’s purpose. We continue to work on retelling a story beginning, middle, and end. We also continue to work on characters and setting.
In math our focus has been on looking at data. We have been gathering information and displaying data on various graphs. Some of which include: bar graphs, pictographs, and pie graphs.
We have been very busy this week in writing… on a “special“ writing project! Your children can’t wait to share all of the hard work they have been working on in class, but you will have to wait until break! This project walks us through the writing process from creating a web of ideas to a published book!
You were sent a green flyer explaining our plans for social studies until winter break. We have been busy traveling the world learning about holiday traditions in many different countries. Next week we will be writing about a tradition in our own families, so please discuss a family tradition with your child that they might want to write about. (This can be as simple as a food item you make every year.)
There are a few party/classroom needs if you can help out:
• White tissue paper (by Dec 14)- classroom
• Candy canes 20 (by Dec 16)- classroom
• Small inexpensive toys for games- party
• Plastic beads (the size pipe cleaners can fit through)- party

Spelling 11/28-12/2

Spelling- chip, chin, inch, such, catch, match, wish, shop, saw, and were
High Frequency- air, fly, friends, grew, need, play, rain and watch

Happy Thanksgiving!

Believe it or not… we only have two more days until Thanksgiving break! Here are a few highlights from the week and reminders of what’s going on. (An updated calendar went home with your child for December.)

In Storytown we have been working on the “sh” sound in our spelling words. We continue to practice high frequency words and reading comprehension. Our focus this week was setting and story sequence.
In writing we finished our “Oreo Stories”. They are proudly hanging up in our hallway! Each story describes how an oreo tastes, feels, smells, looks, and sounds. This descriptive writing project was delicious! We even were able to have a publishing party to share our work with our friends.
In math we have been working on number sense and ordering numbers from 1-50. We used our 100s board to help us work on order and patterns. The various games and activities have kept us busy. We reviewed partners of “10” strategies and solving story problems. Next week we will be participating in various Thanksgiving themed math activities,
We began studying the first Thanksgiving this week. We started with the voyage of the Mayflower, what life was like for little girls and boys at Plymouth, and wrote our own Native American symbol stories. Next week we will continue our study with activities to help us gain a better understanding of the meaning of Thanksgiving. We will make pumpkin pie, share what we are thankful for, even have our own feast… and so much more! Speaking of a feast, a yellow note is coming home this evening explaining what your child should bring for our feast of Tuesday. If you have any questions please let me know.

A few reminders…
Progress reports went home today. Please contact me with any questions.
Our food drive begins the week following Thanksgiving and will run all week.
Our school district is running a campaign to encourage parents to register to vote. If you need anything to register please contact the office.
Lastly, our playground is positioned in a VERY windy place. Now that the temperatures are dropping… it is even more important that your child come to school with heavy coats, hats, and gloves to keep them warm during recess.
Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Month!

Spelling words: or, for, form, more, store, sort, long, bring, your, and head
High Frequency words: animals, cold, fish, from, their, under, and very
Welcome November! First of all a big thank you to those of you who were able to help at the class Halloween party… and a huge thank you to our room parents for organizing everything! The kids had a blast and everything went very well!
In Storytown this week we are focusing on main idea and details as well at the “or” sound. These would be great things to work on as you read at home with your child!
We have been busy learning about story problems in math. We have worked with problems with two and three things added together and two things subtracted. When solving them we are focusing on “proving” our thinking through pictures, equations, words, and other strategies. As a class we have been practicing our adding and subtracting strategies of +1, -1, +0, -0, +2, and -2. We continue to work on skip counting to 30 by 2s and 5s to 50. (Skip counting by 2s has been tricky!)
In writing we have focused on descriptive writing. The fall has been our inspiration for these projects. This week we will be using our five senses to “experience” a special snack… and write about it using all of our five of our senses! We continue to work on writing 5 star sentences.
Spiders have been the topic of crawly discussion last week and this week. We will gather more interesting facts this week and make some of our own spider creations this week! We are practicing our graphing skills by asking the question… Are you afraid of spiders?
Reminders:
Book orders are due tomorrow November 8th.
“Saturday Morning” basket items for our PTO basket may still be brought in through Wednesday this week… don’t forget that if you are not able to send in an item they would love a breakfast recipe to include!
This Thursday students will have their health screening in the morning. This will happen at 9:20am.