Here's what we've been working on in the classroom the last couple weeks:
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, photographs, captions, and comparisons.
Writing : We started our next writing unit a couple weeks ago, 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.
After that, the students wrote two more opinion pieces - one about whether or not a boy in a story should squish an ant and one about the students' favorite seasons. To help organize the students' writing pieces, we have been using graphic organizers for the first time in writing in first grade. The students are doing a great job using the graphic organizers to carefully think out their opinion writing pieces.
Math : We've continued to work on using greater than, less than, and equal to signs. The students also developed more understanding about how number grids are organized and started creating number grids of their own! We ended the week by learning how to measure paths that have multiple sections.
Social Studies : Over the past couple of weeks, we have focused a lot on where we are located on maps. The students learned about what continent, country, state, and town they live in. We concluded our study by completing a Google Slideshow presentation that shows each of these places.
Science : The students have had a couple of great Liberty Science lessons in which they continue to learn about animals' adaptations.
Here are some recent pictures of 1-Bu :