 |
| Enjoying a few of the new books from our book order! |
We have continued to be visited by the kindness elf each day. The students are really enjoying finding and performing the kindness missions. Some of this week's missions included writing letters to Mrs. Lyford to tell her why we enjoy our school and delivering pencils to another class. The students have also been reporting on their kind acts and acts of others. As a class, we have reached 84 kind acts. I'm pleased to see the students really working to notice and remember when others have been kind to them. (The kindness elf suggested that the children clean up their toys to surprise their parents... please let me know if you notice any extra effort at cleaning) 😊Writing
In writing, we have been working intensely on using correct capitalization and punctuation. At this point the year, it is expected that first graders write with lower case letters except when a capital is needed. The words that first graders are expected to capitalize are people's names, days of the week, months of the year, and the beginning of sentences. The class has really been enjoying correcting my errors in our daily message. We are now going to work on checking our own work with that same enthusiasm.
We have just begun to learn about writing non-fiction texts. We often refer to these texts as "teaching" books or "all about" books. It is amazing the variety of topics the students feel they can write like experts about. Currently, students are writing expert books based on personal knowledge and experience. In January, we will move toward integrating our non-fiction writing and our science unit on space.
Math
During our math time, we have focused on recognizing, understanding and applying patterns in numbers up to 120. We have worked a great deal with counting by 10s starting at any number (for example 16, 26, 36,...). We are ordering, comparing and explain how numbers are the same and how they are different. We will continue this work as we head into solidifying our understanding of place value in the coming weeks.
Many students would benefit from additional practice with their basic addition facts to 10. Ideally, they will know these facts orally in less than 2 seconds. The goal of having such automatic knowledge is to have a solid foundation on which to build math skills.
Reading
The class is developing into voracious readers. They are eager to tackle challenging words and are becoming great problem solvers. During the month of December will be reading and discussing many books written by Jan Brett. Her books are often based on traditional folk tales and are beautifully illustrated. As her books typically have clear characters, settings and problems, they work well as the launching point for comprehension work. This week we read and retold both The Hat and The Mitten. Most students are bringing home their mitten filled with animals from the story. Ask your child to tell you his/her version of the mitten. Jan Brett has a wonderful website that you may want to check out. Upcoming/Ongoing Events
We have a busy few weeks coming up. Please be sure to check the blog and the EMES newsletter for dates and special events.
ECO - Tuesday, December 13th
Chex-mix sale to benefit World Santa Project - Friday, December 16th
Toy Joy - collection on going until December 16th
Food Drive - collection on going until December 16th
Gifts for Giving - December 19th
Winter Concert - December 23rd
