Valentine Projects will be coming home this week. This project can be a quite labor-intensive and time consuming. Please help your child pace him/herself so that it does not become overwhelming. Completed projects should be returned to school by February 12th.
Here's what we were working on in the classroom last week:
Reading : We started learning about nonfiction texts. The students have had a great time going through nonfiction books. So far, we've talked about the differences between fiction and nonfiction and how to determine if a book is nonfiction. At the beginning of this unit, we're going to be focusing a lot on the nonfiction text features that readers use. So far, we've talked about labels.
Writing : We started our next writing unit last week, which is an opinion unit. We launched the unit by reading a story called Duck! Rabbit!, which is a story about two characters discussing whether or not they think a drawing is a duck or a rabbit. The students immediately developed their own opinions about the picture. We graphed our opinions and then the students wrote their first opinion pieces. Ask your child if he/she thought it was a duck or a rabbit. (I thought it was a duck, but the VAST majority of 1-Bu thought it was a rabbit.)
Math : Last week, we did some more work with greater than, less than, and equal to symbols. Then, we began to develop strategies to add double-digit numbers. In school, we use the number grid and base-ten blocks to add double-digit numbers. The students have been very successful with these strategies so far!
Science : We continued our look into plants by taking a close look at how young and adult plants of the same species are similar and different. We also started growing some plants of our own! We have 'Herbie,' which is an indoor plant grower (because it's tough to grow plants in winter), and we have planted some basil and oregano seeds. The basil seeds have already sprouted and the students have taken a keen interest in watching it grow.
Here are some pictures of 1-Bu working on their Duck! Rabbit! opinions and checking out Herbie.