Last week, the students met Officer Hamm, 1-Bu's Adopt a Cop this year. Adopt a Cop is a great program in which each first grade class in River Edge 'adopts' a River Edge police officer and develops a rapport with him/her. That police officer comes in at various times throughout the year to teach different lessons about how to stay safe in the community.
Here's what we were working on in the classroom last week :
Reading : We continued our work on text-to-self connections last week. A text-to-self connection is when a text reminds you about something that has happened to you. Meaningful text-to-self connections will help you have a much deeper understanding about the text you are reading. For example, if I am reading a book about a character getting his/her name made fun of in school, it could remind me of when my classmates made fun of my name when I was growing up. When it happened to me, I was very hurt and didn't want to come to school, so it could help me understand how the character in the book felt. When you're reading with your child at home, ask if he/she has any text-to-self connections.
Writing : The students have continued working on their how to writing pieces. They've been learning about the importance of breaking the steps down, using sequencing words, and adding details to help teach the reader how to do something. They also added warnings to their pieces. Ask your child about what 'how to' pieces he/she is writing about!
Math : We've been talking a lot about strategies to help us add and subtract. We specifically talked about strategies that help people add three numbers efficiently and successfully. We also went over a shortcut to add and subtract multiples of ten on a number grid.
Social Studies : We talked about the importance of Martin Luther King Jr last week and how he, along with many other black leaders, helped to change the ways that laws segregated black and white people.
Here are some pictures from last week :