What We're Learning

What We're Learning 

Social Studies: We are starting to learn about Lewis and Clark. We are discussing the Louisiana Purchase, Sacagawea, and much more!
Writing: We are continuing our Opinion Writing, focusing on how to create convincing and true reasons to support our opinion, rather than just stating "I like it." We are also learning about how to create a captivating introduction and conclusion that state our opinion. 
Reading: We just finished learning about the central message of a story (also known as the lesson the author wants you to learn from the story). We are moving on to comparing and contrasting characters and their adventures in a story.
Math: We are still adding and subtracting! We have gone through adding and subtracting a double digit with a single digit with both no regrouping AND regrouping. In 1st grade, we refer to regrouping as "making a new group of 10." We learned how to add and subtract a double digit with a double digit WITHOUT regrouping before break, so over the next two weeks, we will be focusing on double digit +/- a double digit with regrouping. We will also be reviewing all of the strategies and concepts that have been taught over the last 4 weeks to review and make these ideas concrete to the students!

Quarter 3 Math Parent Video!

Here is the math quarter 3 parent video :) Enjoy!!!

What we're learning about this nine weeks :) 

Social Studies/Science- 

We are finishing up our unit on Theodore Roosevelt and the important contributions he made to the United States. Once we wrap that up, we will switch gears and jump in to Light and Shadows for our science unit. We will tie the shadows in with Groundhog's Day, so that could be a fun topic to discuss with your children at home, as well!

Writing-

 Our 3rd quarter will be all about Opinion writing. We will focus on how state our opinion, provide a reason and evidence or examples to support that reason, and then we will learn how to restate our opinion to conclude our writing. A great way to support your writer with this unit at home is to talk about their thoughts- discuss their opinion when given two options. Ex: Would you rather eat chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream? Focus on their reason why, and delve deeper than just simply stating "I like it," or "it tastes good."

Reading- 

In reading, we have been learning about how to predict what will happen in the story before reading, retell the events of a story after reading, and then summarize what was read at the end. These are all great topics to ask your child questions about as you read each night. While doing this, don't forget to continue focusing on story elements, also! (i.e. characters, settings, beginning/middle/end)!

Math- 

We started the quarter learning about expanded form of a number (i.e. thinking of 53 as 5 groups of 10 and 3 extra ones, written as 50+3), moved into comparing numbers (understanding that the bigger number is "greater" and the smaller number is "less"), and are now going to move into adding and subtracting double digit numbers within 100. We will be focusing on this concept for the next 4 weeks, so if your child seems to be confused at first, we will be working for a long time to ensure they understand! Due to the new common core, if you have any questions about strategies or reasoning behind why we teach it the way we do, please do not hesitate to reach out and ask for help!

Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful winter break and Happy New Year! I am so excited to back into the grove! This video will give you an idea of what we are learning in math this quarter. 

Below you will find helpful online resources that you can use to help your child at home. There are spelling/ sight words, reading comprehension, and math. :)

-Ms. Smith

Spelling/Sight Words:

ABC Ya- spelling practice. Level = Primer or 1^st Grade

http://www.abcya.com/dolch_sight_word_spelling.htm

Free Spelling Apps:

-          The Electric Company Wordball!

o   The Electric Company Wordball is a phonics game that integrates video clips from the TV show to teach reading and spelling. The game consists of two parts: watching a video about a letter sound or letter combination and tapping the "wordballs" with the featured letter or letter combination; then using the collected wordballs to complete words as they move across the screen. The object of the app is to teach lessons about phonics, reading, and spelling.

-          Chicktionary *primarily for 2-4*

o   Chicktionary is a chicken themed spelling and vocabulary-building word game. Children create as many words as possible out of seven letters. Completed words can be tapped to view their definition. There are multiple levels and children can choose a timed or untimed mode. *Note: This is a noisy app — incorrect words receive scolding squawks.

-          Spell Well Lite

o   Help Wordy the frog build a beautiful magic garden by spelling words correctly.

-          Spelling Bus

o   Spelling Bus is for learning to spell and practice to spell. Kids see the pictures and listens to the word and then type the spelling.

-          Cimo Spelling Sight

o   This is a great app for kindergarten through 3rd grade children. It teaches a combination of high frequency and sight words (from the Dolch Sight Word list).

Reading:

Raz Kids-
teacher log in- ssmith592 and then your child will pick their name :) the password is a picture of a duck 

https://www.raz-kids.com/

Starfall- Practice Phonics, Reading, and Math

http://starfall.com

Math:

ABC Ya!

http://www.abcya.com/first_grade_computers.htm

Math Playground

https://www.mathplayground.com/grade_1_games.html

Free Math Apps:

First Grade Splash Math

-      Free app on iTunes

First Grade Learning Games

-      Free app on iTunes

Social Studies- We have been learning about Thomas Jefferson and all the ways he helped the United States of America.
Writing- We are writing "How-To" papers in which we tell the reader sequential steps of how to do a task. A cookbook or instructions for putting together a table are both real-world examples of how-to writings. This past week we wrote a book about how to follow our PBIS School Wide Expectations for our hallways behavior, and next week we will be discussing how to catch a turkey based on a mentor text we will be reading!
Reading- We just finished up the idea of asking questions before, during, and after reading a text. This is a strategy we will use in class to help us better comprehend and enjoy each story we read! Now, we are moving into problems and solutions within a text- What is the problem and how did they solve it? We can use this knowledge to both help us better understand a text, and to apply to every day life when we have a problem and need to find a solution! Both of these strategies for comprehension can be used in your household while reading with your child, also!
Math- Math has been a busy subject in the past couple weeks! We have been learning about the equal sign, and that it simply means that both sides must be the same number (i.e. 6 = _ + 4, so something and 4 together must equal the same number as 6. We can count on from 4- 5..6.. so we had to count 2 more numbers. So 2 + 4 is the same as 6: 6 = 2 + 4.. 6 = 6). AND we are learning how to add 3 digits together to get our total, or whole. We look at each number as a "part" and then the total as the "whole" (i.e. 3 + 2 + 4 = _ can be seen as one part is 3- which can be modeled using any household item, another part is 2, and the last part is 4. If you are modeling these items with objects, you simply join all objects together and find the total, or whole!). I know Common Core Math strategies can be tricky for some of us, so as always, please reach out if you would further information for assisting your child!