Celebrations Galore!

Mrs. Wilaby
Oct 7, 2016
3 min read

We had lots to celebrate this week in room 13. We showed off our knowledge during our reading groups and showed that we have grown so much already so far this year, we sent home results from our aReading and CBM-r screeners, we got an EXCELLENT report from our guest teacher, and we celebrated with a popcorn party. Keep reading for what other great things we did at school this week!

Reading: Our shared reading story this week was "A Party for Bob". We continued practicing reading at a good pace, as many of us are still ready a tad too slow. We turned our phonics focus to blends, two consonants next to each other that make their own sounds. We found them at the beginning or words such as flag, star, and scat. We were able to show off our reading knowledge in reading groups, and Mrs. W is working on making new reading groups so everyone gets the exact instruction they need to be a better reader. We will start new reading groups on Monday. Progress reports for aReading and CMB-r were sent home as well this week. If you did not receive this letter and would like to know how your student did on the screeners, please let me know.

Writing: We spent a lot of time this week evaluating our own writing. We looked closely at a 4 star scale and then looked at our own writing. Our first graders are very insightful and pretty accurate with rating their writing and pictures. We will continue to work on boosting our writing from a level 1 or 2 that most of us are currently in, to levels 3 and 4 by adding more details to our stories. Check out some of our writing samples on Seesaw!

Math: Our focus turned to addition in math this week. We looked at taking parts and putting them together, we learned about the equal sign and that it really means "the same as", and we practiced writing equations about part-part-whole boxes. You can help your first grader by continuing to practice counting 0-120, and by practicing basic math facts at home!

Science: Much of our time this week in science was spent constructing kites. Luckily we were able to get them finished on Friday in time to take them outside! We discovered we needed the wind to help our kites fly. The air resistance on the kite helped push it up higher in the sky! We will be wrapping up our air and weather unit next week with a special guest on Friday :)

Social Emotional: This week we learned that we can tell how someone is feeling by looking at their facial expression, their body position, and by listening to the words they are saying. We practiced recognizing different emotions and what clues our bodies give to tell us what we are feeling.

Need to Knows

America Reads Day – Friday, October 21 st

Sign up to read in our classroom by following this link. Be sure to sign-up by

October 9 th.

Sight Words

Students will be reviewing the following kindergarten sight words next week.

Please practice reading and writing these sight words each night with your

child. Our goal is for students to be able to read the words quickly without

trying to sound them out. Students can also practice these sight words through

fun games and activities at the following website:

https://www.spellingcity.com/1stgrade1516/

Be sure to click on the “Sight Words - Week 5” list.

Week #5

Test: Friday, October 14 th

come

do

I

me

said

you

all

of

they

was

Next Week’s Specials Schedule

Monday: PE

Tuesday: Spanish

Wednesday: Art

Thursday: Music

Friday: PE

Wilaby's Words of Wisdom

Wondering what you can do at home to help your first grader be successful? The two easiest things you can do that will really get your bang for your buck is reading with your first grader and practicing basic math facts. Just a few minutes each night can make a HUGE difference in their academics. If you would like ideas for book levels, or would like your child to start taking good fit books home, let me know and I can make that happen! For more ideas of what to do at home and on weekends, check out our "Family Resources" page.