Also, on a sad note, one member of 1-Bu moved out of River Edge last week. We all will miss him very much. We had a fun dance party on Wednesday afternoon to celebrate his last day.
Here's what we were working on in the classroom last week:
Reading : We started getting our minds ready for our schema unit last week. To get the students to take an active role in paying attention to make sure they are understanding what they are reading, we kicked off the unit by talking about 'real reading' and 'fake reading.' Ask your child to tell you the difference between the two. Our goal is to always be doing 'real reading.'
Word Study : Last week, we started to talk about blends. A blend is when the sounds from two (or three) consonants are blended together. We can see blends at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of words. We discussed s blends (st, sn, sc, etc) and l blends (pl, bl, fl, etc) last week.
Writing : Since we've gotten back from break, we've been working on a new writing unit. This is a non-fiction 'how to' unit. In this unit, the students will create writing pieces that tell someone how to do something. So far, we've all made lists of things that we are experts at (and could teach others how to do), we've written the materials (or 'you will need' page), and we've written the steps. Ask your child what 'how to' book he/she has been working on!
Math : Last week's focus was all about measuring. We learned about inches and feet and about how to use different measuring tools (rulers, 6-inch rulers, and tape measures) to do these measurements.
Science : In January, we've been learning all about the sun and the moon. We'll expand upon that knowledge this week to talk about the moon's phases and solar/lunar eclipses. If the sky is clear this week, have your child look at the moon and track the moon's phases.
Here are some pictures of 1-Bu this week: