Monday, April 21, 2014

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!






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Wednesday, April 16, 2014

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!




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Tuesday, April 1, 2014

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!


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