April showers...

What a wonderful long weekend we had! I heard some wonderful stories and I hope that everyone had a nice, extra day! We are in the last few weeks of school and we are still working hard! We have some exciting events around the corner, I can’t wait! For now, here is what our week looks like… Oh and remember no visitors in the building Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We need to respect the integrity of the STAAR test and the students taking the test!

April 21-25, 2014

Math:  This week we will continue learning about fractional parts.  We will work with halves and fourths this week.  We will apply the knowledge we have gained about fractional parts when we solve word problems in our math notebooks.  Again, anything you can do at home to pull this concept into the kiddos’ daily life is great!

Reading and Writing Workshop:  This week in Reading and Writing workshop, we will be reading Expository texts to become experts about an animal. We will be using the Research Process to help us. The students were allowed to choose an expository text about an animal from the library last week, and we will be using it and kid friendly research engines such as www.pebblego.com to learn about the topic.  All of the kids picked different animals to research, so I am excited to see what we can all learn!

Research Process:

1. Pic a topic to research
2. Activate prior knowledge (What do you already know about your topic?)
3. Ask questions (What do you want to learn about your topic?)
4. Read Expository texts (books, websites, magazines, newspapers)
5. Record the information found
6. Reflect (What did you learn about your topic?)

Science:  This week in science we will learn about the different natural resources, what they are used for, and how we can help by conserving them.  On Earth Day (April 22) we will focus on what reducing, reusing, and recycling and we will discuss how those 3 things can help our beautiful planet, Earth.

Reminders:

*Please remember to send a healthy snack every day.  Snack time is @ 9:30am.

*Make sure your child wears tennis shoes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

*Library day is Thursday.

*Please remember to send back your child’s orange folder every day.

Dates to remember:

April 22-24  STAAR Testing-NO VISITORS

May 1:  Field Trip to ZACH Theater

             Talent Show (K-3)

May 2:  Field Day

            Talent Show (4-5)

May 5-9:  Teacher Appreciation Week

May 7:  Early Release Day

May 9:  Career Day

May 12-16:  Book Fair

May 26:  No School-Memorial Day

May 30:  End of the Year Party

   Last day of school!

The chicks! The chicks!

April 14-18, 2014

Last week was super exciting! We had a lot of chicks hatch and we had so much FUN! We are continuing our research on chicks this week to help us understand more about where they come from. It is fun times in first grade right now!

Math:  This week we will begin learning about fractional parts.  We will learn what a fraction is first off, and then we will talk about equal parts of a whole and then even halves and fourths.  If you find the opportunity to talk about fractional parts with your child at home, that would be great!  Any time you can find the chance to relate math to real life is awesome!

Reading and Writing Workshop:  This week in Reading and Writing workshop, we will be reading Expository texts and learning about the Research process.  We will apply this knowledge when we begin our class Research project on Chicks!  After that, the students will be picking their own topic to research.

Science:  This week in science we will continue our Animals unit.  We will focus on Mammals this week.  We will learn about the mammals’ body parts, life cycle, how mammals depend on the different things in their habitat, and last, we will learn what makes mammal babies so different from all other animals’. 

Reminders:

*Please remember to send a healthy snack every day.  Snack time is @ 9:30am.

*Make sure your child wears tennis shoes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

*Library day is Thursday.

*Please remember to send back your child’s orange folder every day.

Dates to remember:

April 18:  No School- Good Friday

April 22-23:  STAAR Testing-NO VISITORS

May 1:           Field Trip to ZACH Theater

                                     Talent Show (K-3)

May 2:           Field Day

                                    Talent Show (4-5)

May 5-9:        Teacher Appreciation Week

May 7:           Early Release Day

May 9:           Career Day

May 12-16:  Book Fair

May 26:         No School-Memorial Day

May 29:         End of the Year Party

May 30:         Last day of school!

April showers...

I cannot believe that it is already April! Where have all the months gone? We will be super busy in the next few weeks and before you know it, summer will be here!  Just a reminder that there will not be any volunteer access today or tomorrow, due to STAAR testing. Thank you!

Math:  This week we will begin our unit on Measuring Length.  This will be a two week unit of study.  Students will use non-standard measuring tools for continuous linear measurement - illustrating length using same size units laid end to end with no gaps or overlaps. The student will directly compare the length of two or more objects and use nonstandard units that have the attribute of length to estimate and measure length. Students will experience tasks in which they explore the relationships between the size of a unit and the number of units needed to measure the length of an object. The student will represent math concepts with concrete materials in problem solving connected to everyday experiences.

Reading and Writing Workshop:  This week in Reading and Writing, we will be reading many different types of poetry and identifying and analyzing acrostic poetry, color poetry, and descriptive poetry.  We will be learning that poets use different strategies and writing styles when they craft their art. We will practice writing acrostic poems, color poems, and using our five senses to write descriptive poetry.

Science:  This week in science we will be learning about living and non-living things. We will sort and classify living and non-living things based upon whether or not they have basic needs and produce offspring. We will then extend our knowledge further and study different species of animals.  This week we will learn about the fantastic fish! We will learn about the external characteristics (body parts) of fish and how these external characteristics determine how fish move, what they eat and the ecosystem that they live in. 

Reminders:

*Please remember to send a healthy snack every day.  Snack time is @ 9:30am.

*Make sure your child wears tennis shoes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

*Library day is Thursday.

*Please remember to send back your child’s orange folder every day.

Dates to remember:

April 1:  STAAR Testing-NO VISITORS

April 2:  STAAR Testing-NO VISITORS

             Spirit Night

April 4:  Austin Reptile Show

April 10:  Chicks will begin to Hatch!

April 18:  No School- Good Friday

April 22-23:  STAAR Testing-NO VISITORS

May 1:  Field Trip to ZACH Theater

             Talent Show (K-3)

May 2:  Field Day

            Talent Show (4-5)

May 5-9:  Teacher Appreciation Week

May 7:  Early Release Day

May 9:  Career Day

May 12-16:  Book Fair

May 26:  No School-Memorial Day

May 29:  End of the Year Party

May 30:  Last day of school!

Catching up!

Here I am again! Things in first grade are rolling smoothly! We have a lot going on in the next few weeks, we are a busy, busy class. Here's what is happening...

March 24-28, 2014

Math:  This week in Math we will focus on strategies for learning Doubles Plus One facts (8+9) and Doubles Plus Two facts (8+10).  Using these strategies to solve math facts allows for quick recall.  Students find relationships with these math facts and future learning such as in third grade when they are learning multiplication facts.  We do not time test math facts but do want students to learn strategies so they can quickly recall the facts in problem solving situations.

Reading and Writing Workshop:  This week we will be combining our reading and writing workshop.  Our reading workshop will flow into writing workshop.  We are continuing with our unit on poetry and we will be learning how to find inspiration in our hearts to write poetry.  What really matters to you?  We will start the week off with creating a heart map with different ideas to help us with ideas for writing poetry.  We will explore different feeling/emotion words in reading workshop and follow it up with writing a feelings/emotion poem.  Next we will explore with imagery.  In reading workshop we will listen to poetry with imagery and draw what we think the object is without naming it.  In writing workshop, we will create our own imagery poetry.  The last set of poetry we will explore this week will be poetry using our 5 senses in sensory/free verse.  In reading workshop we will read different examples, focusing on the parts with the 5 senses.  In writing workshop, we will write our own sensory poem.  Last week we learned about the elements in poetry and this week we get to begin writing our own poetry!  This is a fun and exciting time for the children!

Social Studies:  This week, we will continue to talk about the things we need vs. the things we want.  We will learn about work, income, and budgets.  When you go to the grocery store, talk with your child about what you need to buy and your budget. 

Reminders:

*Please remember to send a healthy snack every day.  Snack time is @ 9:30am.

*Make sure your child wears tennis shoes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

*Library day is Thursday.

*Please remember to send back your child’s orange folder every day.

Dates to remember:

April 1:  STAAR Testing-NO VISITORS

April 2:  STAAR Testing-NO VISITORS

             Spirit Night

April 4:  Austin Reptile Show

April 10:  Chicks will begin to Hatch!

April 18:  No School- Good Friday

April 22-23:  STAAR Testing-NO VISITORS

May 1:  Field Trip to ZACH Theater

             Talent Show (K-3)

May 2:  Field Day

              Talent Show (4-5)

May 5-9:  Teacher Appreciation Week

May 7:  Early Release Day

May 9:  Career Day

May 12-16:  Book Fair

May 26:  No School-Memorial Day

May 29:  End of the Year Party

May 30:  Last day of school!

Almost 101st Day of School!!

Wow! We are almost to 101 days of 1^st grade! It’s so hard to believe how far everyone has come and I am super excited to see where we go from here! 

Don't forget about the 1st grade PE performance tomorrow night. The kids need to be in the cafeteria by 6:50. See you then!

Here are our learning goals for the week…

Math:  This week in math we will be comparing 2 dimensional shapes to 3 dimensional shapes.  We will discuss the attributes and explore 3 dimensional shapes.  Do they roll? Can you stack them? What do their faces look like?

Reading Workshop:  This week we will introduce the students to biographies.  They will learn that biographies are true stories about a real person.  Our focus will be on three characteristics of biographies: 1. Take place during a real historical time period. 2. Tell about a person's life in chronological order. 3. Written about people who have made a significant contribution to society.  

Writing Workshop:  This week in Writing Workshop, we will begin writing Small Moments.  We will work on writing what we hear when we don’t know how to spell a word and it isn’t on our Word Wall, and sketching a picture instead of drawing before you write.  We will plan and add details to our stories so our readers can get a clear picture in their mind.  We will also work on planning our story as a beginning, middle, end story before we begin writing.

Social Studies:  This week, we will finish up our Texas unit.  We will then begin to read Biographies about a leader in our Community (Sam Houston) and Inventors (Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison).  We will talk about what a timeline is and we will create a timeline of Alexander Graham Bell’s life as well.     

Reminders:

*Please remember to send a healthy snack every day.  Snack time is @ 9:30am.

*Make sure your child wears tennis shoes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

*Library day is Thursday.

*Please remember to send back your child’s orange folder every day.

Dates to remember:

February 4:  1^st Grade PE Program

February 5:  Early Release Day

February 7: 101^st Day

February 14:  Chocolate Fever Day

       Valentine’s Day Party

February 17:  Bad Weather Make Up Day- We will have school this day!

March 1:  Family Dinner Night

March 3-4:  Turkey Trot

March 10-14:  Spring Break

March 19:  Early Release Day

     Family Skate Night

March 24:  Turkey Trot Make-up

April 2:  Spirit Night

May 1:  Talent Show (K-3)

May 2:  Field Day

            Talent Show (4-5)

May 5-9:  Teacher Appreciation Week

May 7:  Early Release Day

May 9:  Career Day

May 12-16:  Book Fair

May 29:  End of the Year Party

May 30:  Last day of school!

Crazy Winter Weather!

Happy Monday! I cannot believe how crazy the weather is in Austin- freezing/ice day on Friday, shorts on Sunday! Hopefully the weather will hold out tonight and we won't have another bad weather day this year. Knock on wood!

I cannot wait for the Fairy tale parade this Friday at 8:15. Don't forget that your child's costume needs to represent a character from a fairy tale or folk tale. I look forward to seeing their great costumes!

Here are our learning goals this week. Have a great one!

Math:  This week in math we will continue to explore shapes. We've folded squares to see what other kinds of shapes can be made. We will sort shapes according to their attributes (sides, corners).  We will compare 2 dimensional shapes to 3 dimensional shapes.  We will learn the names of shapes we see all around us.  We will identify shapes that make up other shapes such as a cylinder has 2 circle bases.  This discovery based unit has been a lot of fun so far!!

Reading Workshop:  This week in Reading Workshop, we will be reading Fables.  Just like Fairy Tales, Fables are a type of Folktale.  Fables have animal characters with human attributes and always have a lesson (moral) to the story.  We will read The Lion and The Mouse, Fox and the Crow, The Ugly Duckling, and The Tortoise and the Hare.  While we are reading these stories, we will think about the story structure (characters, setting, problem and solution) and retelling the story by remembering what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story. 

Writing Workshop:  As we turn our focus back to non fiction writing with personal narratives this week, we will learn to think about events that have happened in our lives, then focus on only that event. We will learn that all of the things that lead up to that, as well as all of the things that happened after it, are not as important as the details of that single event that we would like to share about with our friends. We will be learning to "zoom in" on our stories.

Social Studies:  Howdy Y’all!  This week we will be learning about the customs and traditions of our community in the great state of Texas.  We will learn about different state symbols such as the Bluebonnet, Mockingbird, Pecan Tree, State Flag, and the Texas Pledge.  We will also talk about the capitol of Texas, our home, sweet, home…Austin.  We will take a step back in Texas history to learn about the Alamo.  Yee haw!

Reminders:

*Please remember to send a healthy snack every day.  Snack time is @ 9:30am.

*Make sure your child wears tennis shoes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

*Library day is Thursday.

*Please remember to send back your child’s orange folder every day.

Dates to remember:

January 30:  Science Fair

January 31:  Fairy Tale/Folktale Parade @8:15

February 4:  1^st Grade PE Program

February 5:  Early Release Day

February 6:  101^st Day

February 14:  Chocolate Fever Day

       Valentine’s Day Party

February 17: make up day for bad weather

March 1:  Family Dinner Night

March 3-4:  Turkey Trot

March 10-14:  Spring Break

March 19:  Early Release Day

     Family Skate Night

Short Week!

I hope everyone had a great long weekend! The weather was beautiful and despite my cedar fever I was outside everyday. I hope you all got the same opportunities! 

January 21-24 Lessons.... 

Math:  Students will describe and identify two- and three-dimensional shapes. The will distinguish 

between attributes that define a two-dimensional or three-dimensional figure and attributes that do not define the shape. Each student will create, classify and sort two- and three-dimensional shapes 

according to their attributes using informal and formal geometry language. The student will be able to compose two-dimensional geometric shapes by joining two, three or four figures to produce a target shape.

Reading Workshop:  This week, we will be reading Folktales.  Folktales are very similar to Fairy Tales.  3 key differences are that there are animal characters that display human characteristics, there is no magic, and there is usually a lesson to be learned.  We will read The Little Red Hen, The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and Little Red Riding Hood.  We will have a Fairy Tale Parade on January 31.  On this day, your child can come to school dressed up as their favorite Fairy Tale or Folktale character!  Parents are invited to attend, and we will parade around the school to show off what we have been learning and our awesome costumes! 

Writing Workshop:  As we head into another week of fictional writing, we will continue to refer back on all that we have learned about the elements of fairy tales, folktales, and fables. We have been applying our new learning by putting pencils, markers, and crayons to paper and working hard at crafting our own amazing stories. We will also be discussing and writing about our favorite fairy tale and folktale characters as the week progresses. 

Science:  This week we will continue to learn about weather.  We will learn about different kind of weather such as sunny, warm, cold, windy, rainy, snowy and windy.  We will also learn about different types of precipitation such as rain, snow and sleet and sever/extreme weather such as flooding tornado, and hurricane.

Reminders:

*Please remember to send a healthy snack every day.  Snack time is @ 9:30am.

*Make sure your child wears tennis shoes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

*Library day is Thursday.

*Please remember to send back your child’s orange folder every day.

Dates to remember:

January 22:  International Festival

January 30:  Science Fair

February 4:  1^st Grade PE Program

February 5:  Early Release Day

March 1:  Family Dinner Night

March 3-4:  Turkey Trot

March 10-14:  Spring Break

March 19:  Early Release Day and Family Skate Night