Week 19

Wow, I can't believe that we are wrapping up the first half of first grade this week! I have really enjoyed my time in 1C this year, and these last few weeks have really flown by. This class has been very hardworking, respectful, and excited to learn, and I will miss them. It has been wonderful to see all of the growth that our scholars have made so far and I can't wait to hear about how they do in the spring from Mrs. Chilson and Ms. Kaye. 

I hope that you all have a relaxing weekend and that everyone who has not been feeling well recovers quickly.

  

Thank you for a wonderful baby gift. The classical literature board books are a great addition to her library! 

World Religions Celebration: This Wednesday, our first grade scholars will rotate through all of the first grade classrooms to celebrate what we have learned about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We will be completing arts and crafts, playing games, and having snacks. If you would like to help out with the activities in our classroom you can sign up here.

Class Book Exchange: After our celebration on Wednesday, we will have a class book exchange! Please have your child bring a new or gently used book (non-pop culture) to school. Please wrap the book and try to choose a book that would be enjoyed by both boys and girls.  Thank you!

Field Trip: Our field trip to the Arizona Science Center will be January 19th!  We will leave at 8:30 and return at 2:00. Students will bring a lunch and we will eat at the Science Center. We will also see a Grand Tour of the Solar System at the Planetarium. We will accept the first five parents who would like to volunteer to be chaperones. Send me an email if you would like to help!  Permission slips were sent home today.

This week:  Monday will be a full day of school and Tuesday and Wednesday will be half days. Please send a grocery bag to school with your child this week. On Wednesday, we will put everything from his or her desk into one bag and hang it in the back of the classroom so that the room can be thoroughly cleaned over break. Reusable bags work great for this!

Coming up in 1C:

Literature: 

This week we will finish our Frog and Toad unit with an assessment on Monday.  Tuesday and Wednesday we will read stories about Br’er Rabbit.

Spalding: 

We will be reviewing and practicing important aspects of Spalding. We will practice handwriting, challenging phonograms, frequently used rules and markings, and active participation in every lesson. Homework will be handwriting practice and we will not have a spelling test this week.

Writing: 

We will be reading excerpts from The Railway Children.  Students will listen to passages and retell important details from the story.  We will also work on basic conventions of a proper sentence and rewrite model sentences.

Math: 

We will review addition and subtraction facts and strategies for problem solving.

History: 

This week we review what we have learned about Mexico and will finish by making our very own piñata!

Science: 

This week we will take a short quiz to check to for understanding of solids, liquids, and gases. Then, we will review the scientific method with a candy cane experiment! We will predict what will happen if we put candy canes in cups of vinegar, warm water, and cold water. After the experiment we will make observations about the effect of vinegar, warm water, and cold water on the candy canes.

Week 18

We had a great week of learning in 1C! Ask your child about the differences between a balloon with water and a balloon with ice in it. Also ask him or her what happened to the balloon when we mixed vinegar and baking soda.

Announcements

Please Label Items:  Please label all of your child’s items (sweaters, lunchbox, water bottle, etc.) so if they are lost, we can find their home quickly! We do not currently have any sweaters or water bottles in the classroom, so please check lost and found if you are missing any items.

Class Book Exchange: After our world religions party on 12/20, we will have a class book exchange! Please have your child bring a new or gently used book (non-pop culture) to school. Please wrap the book and try to choose a book that would be enjoyed by both boys and girls.  Thank you!

This week in 1C:

Literature:  Students will continue to read Frog and Toad All Year and will be able to retell the story while highlighting important details. We will discuss the virtues found in the book.

Spalding:

Monday: mine, chair, forgot, guess, hang meat, mouse, phone, store, supper

Tuesday: Through, toe, became, brother, rain, keep start, mail, male, female

Wednesday: eye, I glass, party, upon, two, twin, twice, twelve, twenty, between

Phonograms to practice:  b, p, s, t, w, gu, ng, oe, ough, ph

Poem:  Table Manners                  

Idiom: The more the merrier.

Writing:  Students will be able to understand the basic conventions of a proper sentence and rewrite a model sentence.  We will read and discuss different poems.

Grammar:  We will find noun, verbs, and describing words in Francisco Goya's painting of Don Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuniga.

Math: This week we will go back in time and begin reviewing the math content from the very beginning of the year. We will review all that has been learned from shapes to counting and subtraction to measurement. We will have a final units 1-10 cumulative review before break. 

History: In history, we will learn about how Mexico gained their independence from Spain.  On Wednesday, we will discover the ancient Bering Strait which led people from Asia to the Americas. On Friday, we will learn about hunters and gatherers and how farming led to the development of cities.

Science:  This week we will continue to learn about matter by learning about changes in states of matter. We will complete some interesting experiments in order to observe melting, freezing, evaporation, and condensation.

Week 17

Announcements:

Please have your child bring in their copy of Frog and Toad All Year this week.

Class Book Exchange: After our world religions party on 12/20, we will have a class book exchange! Please have your child bring a new or gently used book (non-pop culture) to school. Please wrap the book and try to choose a book that would be enjoyed by both boys and girls.  Thank you!

This week in 1C:

Literature: This week we will be starting Frog and Toad All Year. Please bring in your books if you haven’t done so already! We will read chapters 1, 2, and 3 this week and discuss the virtues found in each chapter.

Spalding: We have 30 words this week and will test on Friday!

Monday: life, here, car, word, every, under, most, made, said, says, say

Tuesday: work, our, more, when, from, form, wind, wind (a toy), print, air

Wednesday: fill, along, lost, name, room hope, same, glad, with

Phonograms to study: f, h, k, w, y, ai, ar, ay, or, wor

Writing: Copy work and narration exercises from The Saturdays.

Grammar: We will review the four types of sentences, and learn about abbreviations..

Idiom: The more the merrier.

Poem: Table Manners by Burgess

Math: This week we will focus on measuring the capacity of objects. We will conclude with a test on Friday.

Science: This week we will learn about solids, liquids, and gases by completing some experiments!

History: We will study modern Mexico this week. Students will learn about the geography of Mexico and the influence of Native American and Spanish culture. Students will also learn about how Mexican fiestas are celebrated!

Week 16

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a fun and educational Ancient Egypt celebration last week. Thank you to everyone who was able to volunteer or donate to help make our afternoon such a success. We are looking forward to an exciting week of learning!

Coming up:

Literature: We will finish Frog and Toad Together this week by reading chapter 5:  The Dream.  We will discuss the main characters of the book. There will be a short comprehension check for this book on Friday.

Writing: Copy work and narration exercises from Today is Monday and Old Mother Hubbard.

Grammar: We will be learning about the four types of sentences this week – statements, commands, questions, and exclamations.

Idiom: Never leave till tomorrow what you can do today.

Poem: Table Manners by Burgess

Math: This week we will begin a new unit on measurement! We will be working with length and weight. We will practice weighing and measuring different objects and comparing them from shortest to longest and lightest to heaviest. We will continue to review key math skills this week such as creating and identifying shapes and addition and counting. 

Science: We will review and wrap up our ocean unit. Then, we will begin our unit about matter by learning about solids, liquids, and gasses.

History: On Monday, the scholars will learn about Ramadan.  We will review and compare all 3 world religions and will finish the unit with a test on Friday.

Week 15

Some baby tortoises visited our classroom on Monday!

Dear 1C families,

We enjoyed a wonderful performance by our scholars last week at our concert. They have worked very hard in music preparing for the concert and they did a wonderful job.

We have a short week ahead with no school on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. On Tuesday we will have our Ancient Egypt Celebration! You can still sign up here to volunteer or bring something in:

Ancient Egypt Celebration

We have our Fall Festival coming up tomorrow from 11-2! I'll be there and I'm looking forward to seeing many of you. If you're able to help, please sign up here:

Fall Festival

Monday morning we will be treated to a performance by a few members of the Phoenix Symphony.

This week in 1C:

Literature: This week, we will read chapter 4, “Dragons and Giants” from Frog and Toad Together. We will discuss the importance of having courage and look for examples of Frog and Toad showing that virtue.

Spalding: There will not be a spelling test this week, due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Instead, please practice your phonograms. We will take a graded WPR (written phonogram review) on Tuesday in class.

Writing: copy work and narration exercises from The Trumpet of the Swan.

Grammar: We will play a noun and verb review game.

Math:  This week we will wrap up our unit on shapes by taking a chapter quiz. We will also review all that we have learned throughout the quarter so far about addition, subtraction, and counting and will end the week by taking a cumulative test. 


History:  Next week we will continue to study the religion of Islam as we learn about the story of Muhammed.

Week 14

I hope that everyone had a great 3 day weekend! We have a great week ahead with our concert on Wednesday night. 

This week in 1C:

Literature: This week we will be starting Frog and Toad Together. Please bring in your books on Monday. We will read chapters 1 and 2 this week and discuss different virtues found in each chapter.

 

Spalding: We have 30 words this week and will test on Friday! 

 

Monday: noon, think, sister, cast, card, south, deep, inside, blue, post

Tuesday: town, stay, grand, outside, dark, band, game, boat, rest, east

Wednesday: son, sun, help, hard, race, cover, fire, wire, tire, age

Phonograms to study: d, g, n, r, s, ar, ay, ea, ee, oa

 

Writing: We will do copy work and narration exercises from Davey Crockett and Sacagawea.

 

Grammar: We will find noun, verbs, and describing words in the painting The Gleaners.

 

Idiom: “Never leave till tomorrow what you can do today.”

 

Poem: “Thanksgiving Day” – We will recite one stanza (of each student’s choice) on Friday!

Math:  This week we will begin a very new and exciting unit on shapes. We will learn all about the many different attributes of 2D and 3D shapes. We will practice identifying, sorting, and creating shapes throughout the entire week. We will continue to review and practice our addition and subtractions concepts and skills. 

Science: This week we will continue to study oceans and learn about the many fish that live there.

History: We will continue our unit on world religions as we learn about the story of Christmas and the parable of the good Samaritan.  On Friday, we will learn about the symbols of Islam including the Koran, mosque and the crescent and the star.

 

Week 13

On Tuesday, we had a fun day exploring literature at our Read-a-thon! Thank you to all of the parents who were able to send in supplies or come in to help and make our celebration so fun! We have a short week ahead with no school on Friday. 

Winter Concert, November 15th: Our Winter Concert is quickly approaching! It will be at Higley Center for the Performing Arts on November 15th.  Students’ attire for our performances is NOT school uniform. Gentlemen are expected to wear a plain white collared shirt, black pants, black socks and black closed toed shoes. Solid dark colored vests and ties are optional for gentlemen. Ladies are expected to wear a white top, black skirt, black tights and black closed toed shoes. Please have your first graders at Higley Center for the Performing Arts by 5:00pm.

This week in 1C:

Literature: : In Literature, we will be finishing up Frog and Toad Are Friends. We will chapter 5, “The Letter”, and write a friendly letter to a friend. On Wednesday, we will take a quiz to check for comprehension of this book. Please bring in Frog and Toad Together by the end of the week to begin reading when we get back from the 3-day weekend

Spalding: This week we have 20 words. Spelling Test on Thursday!

Writing: Our copy work and narration exercises will come from Charlotte’s Web.

Grammar: This week is a review week in Grammar. We will do a noun “Read Around the Room” activity, “Proper Versus Common Noun Scoot” game, an editing worksheet, and review how to classify sentences.

Poem: “Thanksgiving Day” by Lynda Maria Child 

Idiom: “Never leave till tomorrow what you can do today.” Meaning: Get your work done as soon as possible! 

Math: This week we will finish up our first unit on adding and subtracting numbers within 20. We will continue to review how to "count on" and "count back". We will practice making 10 first in order to count on and complete addition problems. We will create addition and subtraction stories. There will be a unit test on Friday along with a cumulative review test. 

Science: This week we will dive a little deeper into our ocean unit as we learn about sharks and whales. 

History: In history, we will continue our world religions unit.  On Monday, we will learn about Hanukkah and make a menorah! On Wednesday, we will be introduced to our second world religion, Christianity.  We will learn about the Christian symbols the church, bible and the cross.