Crew News September 11, 2012

Writing
In writing, we are learning all about books that follow a pattern. Many of the books that we read at the beginning of first grade have repetitive patterns so this ties nicely with trying to write books that have a repetitive pattern. We are reading many books that have a repetitive pattern and using these as mentor text to help us figure out how to write our own. One book that we read that we all loved was called, "When I Was Five". In this book the main character tells all about his life and his interests when he was five and then he tells how things have changed now that he is six. The repetitive phrases are "When I was five" and "Now that I am six". This book appealed to many of us and we tried to write a book in that style. Ask your child about the pattern books he or she has tried to write.

Take a Peek
Take a minute to see some of the exciting things that happened today during centers. The kids were so engaged and creative today. The videos and pictures below show why I have the best job on the planet.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 2.5 Clocks and Watches

Crew News September 10, 2012

Expedition
We launched our Social Studies Expedition called We Are Family last week. We started with a silent gallery walk. During this walk we looked at lots of pictures and artifacts of a family - actually my family. Our goal was to try to figure out what we were going to be studying during this expedition. Most of us decided that we would be studying people, one of us figured out it was me in the pictures and guessed that we would be learning all about me and some of us determined that we would be learning about families. This activity is often called a mystery piece. Having a bit of a mystery to solve heightens excitement and builds curiosity about what we will be studying.  We will do this again when we start the second case study of this Expedition. We revealed the next day that this first case study will be about our families - past and present. See below for some photos that show how interested we were in the artifacts we were studying.

The artifacts that we were studying were hung up on the wall so we could look at them a little longer.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 2.4 Numbers Before and After

Crew News September 7, 2012

We learned about stewardship last week. Stewardship means taking good care of things and helping to keep our world clean. We have gone on "Stewardship Patrol" in our classroom several times. This means that we all look for things that need to be put away and put them where they go and that we look for trash to throw away. We show excellent stewardship in our room. Ask your child how they can show stewardship at home.

Homework
No homework for the weekend. Enjoy some good books with your child.

 IA (Integrated Arts)
Our IA next week is Music.

Crew News September 6, 2012

Counting by 5s
In math we have been learning to count by 5s so last Friday, we played a game during morning meeting that helped us practice this skill. Each crew member was given a card with a number on it. Then the crew had to line up in order (counting by 5s) without talking. It was a challenge but they did it (as you can see in the pictures below). We are going to play that game again tomorrow but everyone will have a different number this time. Counting by 5s will be a much needed skill when we learn to count coin amounts (specifically counting nickels) and when we learn to tell time on an analog clock. You can help by having your child practice counting by 5s. A good time to do this is when riding in the car. You can also ask them to count by 2s because we have just started learning to do this, too. Ask them to do the first grade cheer to get them started.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 2.3 Two-Fisted Penny Addition

Crew News September 5, 2012

Guest Reader
On Friday, Ms. Noreene, our Building Resource Teacher, came to our room and read a great book to us. It was called Goldilocks and Just One Bear. We loved it. It was a very funny remix of the original Goldilocks story. We hope that Ms. Noreene comes back to read to our crew again soon.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 2.2 Counting Up and Back

Library
We have library tomorrow. Please help your child remember to bring back his or her books to that new books can be checked out.

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Crew News September 4, 2012

Reading for Enjoyment

On Friday we had a chance to just read for fun. We got out some of our favorite book collections: Elephant and Piggie books, Fly Guy books, Bear books, Dr. Seuss books, Henry and Mudge books, Little Critter books, Fancy Nancy books, Pinkalicious books, books about bugs and insects. We read and read and read. We shared our favorites with our friends. I have posted 2 videos below for you to see what it looked like and hear what it sounds like - reading time at the beginning of the year in first grade is not very quiet but it is fun. Just look at how engaged they are in their books. (If you get this post by email, you will need to go directly to our crew blog to be able to view the videos.)

More on the Math Test
 Last Friday's math test came home today in the blue homework folder. The test consists of two parts. Part A includes those concepts that your child should have mastered at this point and Part B includes concepts that have been introduced but do not need to be mastered at this point. Everyday Math is a spiraling curriculum which means that we are constantly reviewing and using concepts that we have previously learned.

When marking your child's test, I simply circled items that were incorrect, underlined directions that weren't followed and wrote a letter "B" by numbers that were written backwards. Students also completed a self-assessment and an open response problem. I did not make any marks on the self-assessment page.

The open response lets me know who is already able to apply skills we have been learning and if they are able to express their thinking in drawings and in words. This is typically very challenging for all students at this point in the year. As we move through the year the goal is for all students to be able to explain their mathematical thinking and reasoning orally and in written form - either drawings or words.

I use the results of each test to help me determine who needs more help with certain concepts and who may need some enrichment around certain concepts. I am sure that you can see those same things as you look at your child's test.

Finally, you may be able to see that simply taking a test by filling in blanks was a challenge to some students. As I mentioned last week, this is probably the very first written test that most of the crew has ever taken. Taking a test will become easier as we go through the year.  When I look at a student's test I am looking for understanding of a concept rather than test-taking skills. So please don't worry if filling in blanks was a challenge for your child. I can see if they understand a skill and they will get better at test-taking.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 1.14 Unit 2 Family Letter (keep at home) and Home Link 2.1 Telephone Numbers (return this one to school)