Here's what we were working on in the classroom last week :
Reading : We spent all week practicing various ways that the students can work with their reading partners. We went over different ways to read, how to talk about books, and how to coach their partners to read tricky words.
Writing : Last week, the students started using the writing folders you helped decorate at home and learned all about how to use their folders to spark writing ideas. The students also chose the writing pieces that they want to publish for the first unit. At the end of every writing unit, the students choose which pieces they would like to fancy up and 'publish.' Each child has chosen his/her piece and has worked on making sure that his/her piece makes sense (which is the beginning steps of revising/editing).
Phonics : We've moved on to reading and writing CVC words. (CVC stands for consonant, vowel, consonant. These are three letter words that are simple to read and write. For example : cat, fin, pet.) It's very important that first graders have a strong foundation in these early phonics skills, so we are taking our time to review them. In school, we've been tapping words' sounds out on our fingers. Ask your child to show you how we tap out the word 'nap' in school.
Math : We started our second math unit this week. The students played a math game called Roll and Total to practice the addition strategy of counting on. We also started learning about numbers that go together to make ten.
Science : We focused on the moon last week. We spoke about the patterns that we notice with the moon (that it starts off low in the sky and then moves in an arch shape across the sky). The students had great discussions about the similarities and differences between the sun and the moon.
Social Studies : We're currently in the middle of a unit on communities. So far, we've talked about what communities are and how communities look different and have different rules.
Here are some pictures from last week :