Other than all of our fun on Friday, here's what we were working on in the classroom :
Reading : Last week, we focused on using our inferencing skills to figure out words' meanings. Many times first graders can successfully sound out tricky words, but they still don't know what the words means We spoke about using context clues to try and infer what unknown words mean.
Writing : We spent all week putting the finishing touches on our nonfiction pieces so that they would be ready to go on Friday. The students did a great job and should be very proud of their work. All of the pieces that you read on Friday were the students' own ideas and hard work. While I scaffolded and guided the students, they were in complete control of their topics and their writing.
Amongst completing all of the finishing touches on their published pieces, the students also worked on persuasive writing pieces. After reading a book about a boy who tries to persuade his parents to have his own room, the students wrote persuasive letters to try and get things that they wanted. (None of them were convincing enough, however, to stop me from assigning them homework.)
Math : Last week was a tricky week in math. We learned all about making change and then moved on to talking about fractions. So far, we've talked about dividing things into equal parts and labeling those equal parts. In the future, we'll dive much deeper into labeling fractional parts.
Please continue talking about and practicing making change at home. To figure out how much change someone is owed, we've talked about 'counting up' from the amount of money that the customer owed to the amount of money that the customer paid.
Word Study : Verbs were our focus last week. We talked about different kinds of action words and spent a time differentiating between nouns and verbs. This week, we're moving on to adjectives!
Theme Study : In preparation for Cinco de Mayo, we learned all about the historical significance of the holiday. Ask you child why Mexicans and Mexican-Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
I hope you have a great week and enjoy the gorgeous weather!
Here are some pictures from the fun we had on Friday: