This Week's Updates

Happy Monday Fantastic First Grade Families!

Here's what we're up to in room 21 this week:

Writer's Workshop - We are getting close to the end of our Opinion Unit! We have switched gears a bit and are working to write reviews. We are restaurant reviewers, movie reviewers, video game reviewers, and more! We are working hard to CONVINCE our readers of our opinions. Here are some tools we use to convince our readers:

Math - We are deep into our Place Value Unit! We understand that two digit numbers are made up of tens and ones and will soon learn about hundreds! This week we will be focusing on ten more, ten less, comparing numbers, and expanded form. Check you kiddo's place value goal tracking page in their Leadership Binder to see what we've accomplished so far!

Spelling - Don't forget your child is responsible for their FIVE snap words each week. We choose our words on Mondays and take our tests on Fridays. It's super important that we practice our words at home so we're ready for our tests!

Reading - Please remember to read, read, read every school night! The expectation is 10 minutes each night, but many kiddos are reading more! WOO HOO! Make sure you are recording your minutes and initialing each night. We are working towards our school wide goal of one million minutes by the end of the year!

XtraMath - Although many kiddos are logging onto XtraMath at home, many kiddos aren't. It's a great way for students to practice their basic addition facts! Let me know if you need your child's password again.

Leadership Binder Update!

Happy Tuesday Fantastic First Grade Families!

Take a peek at your child's Leadership Binder this afternoon - we've added another section!

At the end of our binders we now have a "math goal tracking" section for us to keep track of the skills we are mastering in first grade. It looks like this:

Behind the divider, you will see our very first unit we are going to be tracking - Place Value! Throughout this math unit, we will learn:

We will keep track of our learning by coloring in each star after each skill is introduced whole group, practiced in small groups and centers, then mastered. As you can see, we have already learned that teen numbers are made up of one ten stick and some ones cubes!

Make sure you are checking your child's binder to monitor their practice pages, learning, and goal tracking. 

This Week

Happy Monday Fantastic First Grade Families!

With Winter Break just around the corner, we have lots of awesome stuff going on this week!

Spelling - Due to our short week, we will NOT have new spelling words. We will take this time to assess our Snap Word skills.

Writer's Workshop - This week we are wrapping up our nonfiction unit. We have all chosen our favorite nonfiction book and are working to "fancy it up!" We will edit, revise, and add a front cover so it's ready for our First Grade Writing Celebration on Wednesday afternoon.  When we come back from Winter Break we will start our next writing unit - opinion writing! 

Math - We continue to develop the relationship between addition and subtraction.

THURSDAY - On Thursday we will have our school wide assembly AND Winter Party. Don't forget to use the SignUpGenius if you are interested in bringing anything in! Our party will be from 2:00-3:00PM in our classroom. Hope to see you there!

Have a great night!

An Overdue Update!

Happy Monday Fantastic First Grade Families!

Can you believe it's already December 7?! I sure can't! We've been super busy in Room 21 so read on to find out what we've been up to!

Reading - We've been focusing our learning on nonfiction books. We know that nonfiction means REAL and TRUE so nonfiction books include information that teaches us about a topic. We've been getting super smart about nonfiction topics like animals, sports, and weather!

Writer's Workshop - Just like we've been READING nonfiction books, we've been WRITING nonfiction books! We have discovered we are all experts about different topics - dogs, Legos, and volcanoes just to name a few! We have learned lots of different ways to teach our reader about our various topics:

We've even started writing CHAPTER BOOKS since we have so much information to share! Ask your kiddo what their nonfiction chapter book is about and to name a few of their chapters.

Math - Just like we learned ADDITION strategies to help us solve addition, we've been learning SUBTRACTION strategies to help us solve subtraction. As we learn these strategies we are developing an understanding that addition and subtraction are related. If I know 2+2=4, then I know 4-2=2! 

Don't forget this Wednesday, December 9 is an Early Release day! If your kiddos afternoon transportation will be different than normal, please send a note with them to school. 

Monday Updates!

Happy Monday Fantastic First Grade Families!

I hope everyone had a great three day weekend and a super fun Halloween! We have some important updates, so check out what's going on in Room 21:

Homework Check Off - We are going to be switching up the way we record reading minutes/homework. In place of the light bulb pages, you will find this page in your child's binder this afternoon. Starting TODAY, we will be using it to keep track of reading minutes, XtraMath, and Spelling practice. The only box I expect to see filled in EVERY night is Reading. Please continue reading for at least 10 minutes every night, then record the number of minutes in the box. You only need to mark an X for XtraMath and Spelling on the days those two activities are completed. Make sure you initial on the line each night! Please let me know if you have any questions!

Helping Hands - Our annual Helping Hands Campaign begins today and runs through December 11th. Each week you will receive a note with the specific items we are collecting. This week we are collecting FOOD items. Please send in canned or boxed food items such as peanut butter, tuna, canned chicken, pasta, spaghetti sauce, macaroni and cheese, hot and cold cereals, canned fruits and veggies, etc. Please do not send anything breakable - no glass containers! Also, don't forget to check expiration dates, rust, or damaged cans/boxes. Our families deserve the same things we'd like to eat! Our Helping Hands room coordinator, Mrs. Merlo, gave us a challenge this morning - bring in 100 food items by Friday and we will get a treat! Let's see if 22 first graders can reach our goal!

Have a great night!

Spelling Switch!

Happy Monday Fantastic First Grade Families!

As we finish up Spelling Principles and move into more sorting during Spelling/Word Work, we will only be sending home Weekly Snap Words. Keep an eye out for your child's FIVE Snap Words every Monday!

COOKIE DOUGH FUNDRAISER STARTS TODAY! You can find all information regarding our Cookie Dough Fundraiser in your child's backpack.

Don't forget to send in BOX TOPS! We are having a school-wide competition - the grade level with the most box tops earns an EXTRA RECESS!

FRIDAY FACTS - This Friday, October 16, is a HALF DAY. School will be dismissed at 11:50. Please send a note if your child's dismissal routine will be different than normal. We will be taking a school picture on the field on Friday, so please send your child to school in their GREEN IGNITE, INNOVATE, INSPIRE shirt.

Have a great night!

Friday Fun!

We had a SUPER fun Friday in Room 21! Check us out:

We used the laptop cart for the FIRST TIME EVER! We logged on with a username and password, opened an Internet browser, and navigated our way to www.jmathpage.com! We did most of this by ourselves with just a little help from friends and Miss Greteman. It was a very successful laptop day for us!

We also had our grade level WRITING CELEBRATION! After working hard throughout our entire Small Moment Unit, we just HAD to show off our pieces. We traveled around to other first grade rooms, read our friends' writing, and left them comments about their writing!