Friday Update 11/7

Happy Friday!  We had a productive and busy week in room 7!  Here's a little update and make sure you read the whole post for a glimpse of some Halloween goodies at the end!  Also- I'm back on my A-Game and updated the side links!  So sorry about that!

Reading:

• We read the story "Boots for Beth" about a pig who has grown out of her favorite pair of red cowgirl boots.  Her friends try to help her by having her try on their boots. Unfortunately none of their boots are a good fit, so Beth remains sad she doesn't have any boots.  Her friends come through at the end with a big surprise.... a new pair of boots!  The students enjoyed this story very much and did a great job reading it. 
• We focused on the comprehension skill of Cause and Effect.  We will continue to dive deeper into this skill next week, but the students did a great job matching the causes to the effects in the story.  We made a special chart on our Mimioteach to help us with this skill.
• We also focused on the Grammar skill of Telling Parts of sentences this week.  A telling part is what first graders call the predicate of a sentence.  We learned that the telling part is what happens in a sentence.  In order to have a complete sentence, we need a naming part (subject- who or what) and a telling part (predicate- what is happening/the action).  This is something we will continue to work on for the rest of the year.

Spelling:

• We focused on the "th" sound this week.  The students did a great job distinguishing between the spoken "th" sound as in "the" and the whispered "th" sound as in "thin".  We spent A LOT of time on this skill since it is a more difficult sound to master in spelling.
• We also started spelling dictation this week.  This is found on the back of your child's spelling test.  I dictate a sentence to the class and they are responsible for writing down the sentence that is said aloud.  I repeat the sentence MANY times since this is a newer component to their test.  I also will review what is required for them in order to get a good grade.  
• They need to start their sentence with a capital letter, end with a period, have appropriate spacing between words and spell all their spelling words (current and previous) correctly.  If they do that, they will get a "2" (meets expectations).  
• There is a bonus word in there as well.  If they spell the bonus word correctly AND meet all the requirements for the "2" grade, they will get a "3"(above expectations).  
• If they do not meet the requirements for a "2", then they will receive a "1" (below expectations).  
• They will receive 2 grades for dictation- one for spelling and one for grammar.  You will see those grades located at the bottom of the dictation portion of their test.  The top grade is for spelling in their sentence and the bottom grade is for the grammar in their sentence.
• In 2nd quarter we will write only one dictation sentence, 3rd quarter we will write two dictation sentences and 4th quarter we will write all three dictation sentences.
• The front of the spelling test will be graded the same as it was in first quarter.
• If you have any questions, please let me know!

Math:

• We have been doing A LOT of problem solving this week with subtraction.  We have learned about three different types of subtraction problems: Take-Away stories, Missing Part stories and Comparing stories.  We dove deep into each one, looked for clues and key words, and figured out strategies to solve each type of problem.  By the end, we were masters at solving these stories!
• We have 2 more lessons in Topic 2, a review day and our test is on Thursday.  We will start Topic 6 (also a subtraction topic) on Friday.

Social Studies:

• We continued our unit on Government this week, which coordinated very well with Election Day on Tuesday!  We have a couple more lessons to finish up and then we will venture into learning about the explorers who helped make our country what it is today.... starting with the Pilgrims!  After we learn about our country's history, we will start our Health unit on the Food Groups and healthy eating.

Ok... that's what we did this week!  Here are some SPOOKTACULAR pictures from our Halloween Party!  Enjoy!

Decorating some fantastic looking pumpkins!

More pumpkin decorating!

Getting mummified!

Who's hiding under all that wrapping??

Now that's how to make a mummy!

All wrapped up nice and snug!

What a fantastic looking mummy!

The mummy and the mummy creator!

Switched places!

When did Elsa become a mummy??

Don't forget to wrap the head!

Where'd the Elsa go?

Oh my! We are getting very mummified!

Busting out of the mummy wrap is WAY more fun than getting wrapped!

The Spanish Dancer is fully wrapped!

Our spooky class!

Happy Halloween!

Silly faces!!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and the update!  Have a fantastic weekend!  Stay warm!!!!

:) Ms. Petrucci

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Halloween!  Stay tuned for pictures from our Halloween party!

Also- make sure you check your child's folder for their report card.  Please make sure to keep the actual report card, but send the envelope SIGNED back to school on Monday with your child.

Here's a weekly recap:

Reading:
We started Unit 2 this week (after a week of testing on our skills from Unit 1).  We read the story "Dan's Pet" and learned what the setting of a story is.  We also learned how to use "and" to combine naming parts (the subject) of a sentence.

Math:
We started Topic 2 which is ALL about subtraction.  We focused on missing parts at the beginning of the week and then started making subtraction number sentences.  We will continue Topic 2 for the next 2 weeks.

Social Studies:
We have begun to talk about Our Government and will continue learning about leaders in our community, state and country next week as well.

Writing:
We have started writing 3 sentences in our journals.  We are working on finishing a topic sentence with a prompt and writing 2 detail sentences.  We are focusing on the trait of conventions in 2nd quarter, which deals with using proper mechanics and grammar in our sentences.  We will be trying our very best to always start our sentences with a capital letter and end with a period (we may still need reminders to this ;))

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while!  I'll try to be better about it!

Have a SPOOKTACULAR weekend!
:) Ms. Petrucci

This week in 1st Grade…

Reading:

This week we read “ Todd's Box." In this story Todd is very excited about things he finds on a walk to the bus. At the end he gives his mother a box full of everything he collected. We had our "Box" presentations today and the kids loved it! We will continue presenting on Tuesday. If your child forgot their box please have them bring it on Tuesday. Today we independently read the story at our desks before taking our reading test, and everyone did well.

For grammar this week we focused on asking sentences. The students enjoyed sharing asking sentences of their own with the class. Ms. Petrucci and I are very impressed with all of the bats the students have been bringing in for the Going “Batty” for Books! reading incentive program. Every book read earns the students 1 bat and 10 bats equals a prize from Ms. Petrucci’s prize box! 

Spelling:

We took our spelling test today and everyone did great! The students practice their spelling words on their white boards whenever they have down time in class.Thank you for practicing with them at home and making sure that they complete their weekly spelling homework!

Math:

This week we continued Topic 5, had our test on Thursday, and began Topic 1. The students all did well on their Topic 5 test. 

Social Studies:

This week I read many books about family and neighbors to the students. We also talked about people and places we see in the Itasca community. 

• This week we earned 5 classroom brownie points for being respectful and working hard in class. 

• Today is my last day student teaching at Benson Primary. After my next placement I plan on visiting! Your children are very lucky to have Ms. Petrucci as their teacher. She has taught me so many things that I will forever cherish as an educator. Your children have taught me so many things as well. I hope they enjoy the gift I sent home with them!

Have a great weekend! 

Ms. Pagano :)

This week in 1st Grade…

Reading:

This week we read “Jack and Rick." In this fantasy story Jack wants to play with Rick, and Rick wants to play with Jack, but there's a river between them. The author, David McPhail’s purpose was to reveal that friendship can bridge any river and that when it comes to having fun, two is always better than one! We reviewed some pre-reading strategies and practiced answering questions about the story after reading. We talked about what makes a story a fantasy. We continued reading our story in 4 different ways! First, we read it echoing Ms. Pagano. Second, we read under our desks as a whole class for Wacky Wednesday. Third, we each took turns reading a page aloud to the class from the story while sitting in a circle on the carpet. Last, we independently read the story at our desks before taking our reading test. 

We are getting the hang of proofreading using our D.O.L. (daily oral language) sentences from our story. The main focus of D.O.L. is to give the students an opportunity each day to learn what a complete sentence is. They’ve been learning how to correct mistakes like missing capital letters, missing periods and changing the word order so the sentence makes sense. For grammar this week we focused on telling sentences. The students enjoyed sharing a telling sentence of their own with the class. Ms. Petrucci has started her Going “Batty” for Books! reading incentive program and sent home a flyer this week on how that works. Every book read earns the students 1 bat and 10 bats equals a prize from Ms. Petrucci’s prize box! 

Spelling:

This week we continued to build our spelling words on our pocket chart with letter cards. The students all had a chance to demonstrate how to blend and spell the words aloud to the class. We have also been practicing our spelling words using spelling cheers, which they love! We took our third spelling test today and everyone did well. Thank you for practicing with them at home and making sure that they complete their weekly spelling homework!

Math:

This week we continued Topic 5. Some new strategies we learned are: Doubles Plus 2, Problem Solving/2 Question Problems, Making 10 to Add, Making 10 to Add 9, and Making 10 to Add 8. We also use a ten-frame and draw counters to help us solve these math problems.

Social Studies:

This week I introduced a unit I created on Christopher Columbus to the students and we had a lot of fun with it. We learned a new song about Columbus to the tune of “Yankee Doodle” and I sent home a copy on Thursday so you can sing along with them at your leisure! This unit was very literacy heavy so you will be seeing a lot of writing assignments coming home, as well as coloring pages which do not need to be turned back in. I read many books about Christopher Columbus to the students this week and they were very fascinated by him.  

• This week we earned 6 classroom brownie points for being respectful and working hard in class. I started quiet table points this week and the students have been working hard as a group to ensure their table gets up to 20 points so they can each get an extra punch on their behavior chart punch cards. Once their punch card is full they are able to earn a prize from Ms. Petrucci’s prize box! 

• We had our fire drill with the fire department on Tuesday while the kids were in gym class and I heard they did great!  

• This coming week will be my last week student teaching at Benson and I am very sad :( to be leaving. I hope to visit these little guys when I am done with my next placement. 

Have a great weekend! 

Ms. Pagano :)

This week in 1st Grade…

Reading:

This week we read “Ants." In this nonfiction story there are real pictures of ants and their homes. We reviewed some pre-reading strategies and practiced answering questions about the story after reading. We continued reading our story in 4 different ways! First, we read it echoing Ms. Pagano. Second, we read under our desks as a whole class for Wacky Wednesday. Third, we took turns reading pages aloud from the story. Last, we independently read the story at our desks. We are still learning how to proofread sentences using our D. O. L. (daily oral language) sentences from our story. For grammar we are focusing on word order. The students have been practicing how to sort mixed up words into the correct order to make a complete sentence.

Spelling:

This week we continued to build our spelling words on our pocket chart with letter cards. The students all had a chance at some point to come up and demonstrate how to blend and spell the words to the class. We have also been practicing our spelling words using spelling cheers, which they love! We took our second spelling test today and everyone did well. Thank you for practicing them with them at home!

Math:

This week we had our Topic 4 quiz on Monday and our Topic 4 test on Wednesday.

We began Topic 5 Thursday, and are learning how to use doubles to help us solve addition problems.

Science:

This week we continued our unit on Weather and began our Seasons unit. We focused on clouds, the 4 seasons, and Johnny Appleseed. We will continue working on more seasonal activities, and the students are so excited to show you all they’ve been working on.

• This week we earned 5 brownie points for behaving so well and working hard in class. 

• We had our lockdown drill with the police on Wednesday and the kids did awesome! They were very patient considering it was a longer drill. 

• This Friday was Special Friends Day! I really enjoyed meeting everyone and doing the Cloudette activity with you. The students were so happy that their special friends came!

Have a great weekend! 

Ms. Pagano :)

This week in 1st Grade…

Reading:

This week we read “Sam and the Bag." In this story a kitten finally joins two other cats playing in a bag, and the three of them have a great time. We reviewed sequence (the order things happen in a story so it makes sense) and practiced answering questions about the story while reading. We continued reading our story in 3 different ways! First, we read it echoing Ms. Pagano. Second, we read under our desks as a whole class for Wacky Wednesday. Third, we took turns reading pages aloud from the story. We also learned how to proofread sentences using our D. O. L. (daily oral language) sentences from our story. For grammar we are focusing on starting a sentence with a capital and ending with a period. 

Spelling:

This week we built our spelling words on our pocket chart with letter cards. The students all had a chance at some point to come up and demonstrate how to blend and spell the words to the class. We have also been practicing our spelling words using spelling cheers, which they love! We took our second spelling and reading test today and everyone did great!

Math:

We continued Topic 4 and learning different strategies for adding and subtracting. One of those strategies being drawing and using pictures to help us solve addition and subtraction problems. There will be a quiz on Topic 4 on Monday and a test on Topic 4 on Wednesday.

Science:

This week we began our unit on weather. We focused on temperature and clouds. We will continue our weather unit this coming week and focus more on clouds and seasons. This coming week we have a lot of fun activities planned, one being cloud observations! We read "Clouds" by Cassie Mayer and discussed all the different types of clouds together as a class. We also read the original "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" by Judie Barrett and then watched the movie!

• Last week we earned all of the brownie points we needed to have a classroom party for good behavior, and chose a stuffed animal and blanket movie day. 

• We had our second fire drill today and the kids did awesome!

• Don’t forget that Friday, September 26th is Special Friends Day! 

Have a great weekend! 

Ms. Pagano :)

Thank you! And a Weekly Recap

First Grade Families-

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who came out last night to Curriculum Night.  It was nice to meet you all and to see some familiar faces from the past!  Your support means the world to me and your child.  They LOVED reading your notes you left them this morning.  Some of them even kept them in their unfinished work folder to read over and over again.  How sweet!  If you were not able to make it last night, I am sending all the information home with your child today.  Also- my presentation in on the District 10 website if you'd like to view it.  Please let me know if you have any questions about anything you read in the packet or on the presentation.

This week was another busy one in room 7!  Here's what we did....

Reading

• Read "The Hat" about two friends who help each other out when a hat flies off one of their heads.  
• We learned about a story's sequence (the order things happen in a story so it makes sense) and practiced answering questions while reading.  
• We read the story 3 times this week in different ways!  
• First we read it echoing Ms. Petrucci.  
• Second we read under our desks as a whole class.  
• Third, we each took turns reading pages of the story (we ALL got a turn to read a page, so we read the story a few times that day).
• We also learned about what makes a complete sentence and how to write complete sentences.

Spelling

• We practiced our spelling words EVERY day this week!
• We built the words with letter cards to blend AND spell our weekly words.
• We also spelled in a wacky way by using our white boards to spell the words three times each.
• Finally, we learned a spelling game, Sparkle that we will play every week.  It's pretty fun!
• We took our test and everyone did very well!

Math:

• We continued Topic 4 by learning different strategies for adding.
• We also started learning strategies for subtraction.
• Topic 4 will also continue into next week with the quiz being a week from Monday.

Health:

• We wrapped up our unit on Safety last week.
• This week we focused on Feelings.  
• We read "The Feelings Book" by Todd Parr and discussed all the different feelings mentioned in the book.  We then got into partners and talked about times where we felt happy, sad, excited, etc.  We colored a feelings chart each time we talked about s different feeling on the chart.

Remember:  Picture Day is on Wednesday!  Make sure to send in the order form by Wednesday (our pictures are in the morning so it needs to be at school on Wed AM) if you would like to order school pictures!

Have a wonderful and safe weekend!  Stay warm in this chilly weather!

Change of Plans

Hello First Grade Families,

I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!  I know I did!  We packed in our 4 day week with lots of activities.  Before I go over what we did, I would like to inform you of a schedule change.

OUR NATURE CENTER FIELD TRIP FOR THIS MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 HAS BEEN CANCELED.  I will reschedule it as soon as I can.  I sent a note home with the students, but also wanted to post here just in case the note was misplaced.  Thank you for your understanding!

Ok... here's what we did this week!

Reading:

• Finished reviewing our letters, sounds, short vowels and high frequency words.
• We sang silly songs to help us remember what our short vowel sounds are- ask them to sing one for you!
• We are getting ready for next week when we will have our first official spelling words and our first story!
• Please practice reading the blue high frequency word cards that go in the blue envelope with your child every night!

Math:

• Finished Topic 3 and took our first ever math quiz and test!
• Started Topic 4 today and will continue with that topic for the next couple weeks.  We will be working on different addition and subtraction strategies.
• For reinforcement at home, start practicing math facts with flash cards every night.
• Soon we will be starting to take timed math fact "tests" to practice our facts.

Health:

• We talked about Safety this week and ways we can be safe at home, outside and at school.
• We also brainstormed careful and careless behaviors.
• Next week we will talk about feelings.

Don't forget.... the book fair is coming next week!  Our browse date is Monday and our buy date is Wednesday.  Also- Curriculum Night is on Thursday evening.  I hope to see you all there!

Check out the side pages to see what else is going on next week.

Have a great weekend :)

Ms. Petrucci

Quick Friday Update

Hello First Grade Families!

Here's just a quick update to send you off to enjoy your long weekend!

The All About Me posters are due Tuesday, so please finish those up over the weekend!

We finished our first topic in Math so I sent home a "study guide" for the students to complete to prepare for their first quiz on Tuesday.  If they complete it and turn it in on Tuesday, they will get a smelly sticker.  We will be completing the quiz together to teach them how to take a quiz.

I have not updated the pages yet... I will try to do that by Tuesday!

We had a great first FULL week of school!  I am looking forward to seeing these guys on Tuesday!

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend :)

"Pages"

Hello First Grade Families!

I hope you've taken some time to explore this blog to see what we've been up to so far in school.  I'd like to introduce you to the Pages section which is located on the right hand side of this page.  You will see several different links.  If you click on those links, they will take you to a different page where you can find even more information.  I'll briefly go over each page, so you know what to expect when you click on that link.

Spelling Corner:
This is where you will find our weekly spelling and bonus words.  You will get a paper copy of these words, but I know sometimes those can get lost!  This way you have the words whenever you need them.  You will also find a weekly fun spelling activity that you can complete with your child at home.  If it's something they can turn in on paper, they will get a smelly sticker if they bring it back to school.  Just an extra incentive to practice spelling words at home!  Once we get past our review in reading, we will have weekly spelling words that will be posted in this section.

Weekly Schedule:
This is where you will find what is happening in our classroom/school/district for the week.  Our specials schedule is on there as well as any special events happening before, after or during the school day.

Homework:
This is where you will find a list of our daily homework assignments and when they're due.  I will also post when certain forms (permission slips, etc.) are due so you're never wondering :).  I am going to try to give homework 3-4 times per week in addition to daily spelling and reading practice.

Scholastic:
This is where you can find a link to our classroom's Scholastic Book Club page.  Our online class code is also on there so you can complete your Parent order online without having to send the order forms or money to school.  MUCH easier and we get special incentives for online ordering!  Win win!

Please take the time to check out those links and as always, let me know if you have any questions!
Have a great day,
:) Ms. Petrucci

The First Friday News!

Hello first grade families!

We had a great first week in first grade!  We're getting adjusted to going to school for a FULL day and learning how to be Respectful, Responsible, Safe and Proud in our school.  We have already visited a handful of our special classes, but we will get to go to Art on Monday and meet Ms. Marino!  If you have not yet brought in an art smock or portfolio, please do so as soon as possible.  If you have any questions about those items, please email me and I will try to help you as best as I can.

I'm an enjoying getting to know your children and am excited to get into the swing of thing with our first full week of school next week.  There will be no homework in Reading this week, but you will see a page go home for math on Tuesday.  It will be on green paper.  This is due on Wednesday.  There are also a few projects that will be coming home the next few weeks.  There was one sent home today, the All About Me poster.  Please read the attached note and let me know if you have any questions.  Feel free to turn that in before the assigned due date.  As soon as I start receiving posters, I will have the students start presenting them!

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe weekend!
:) Ms. Petrucci

First Day Hooray!

Hello and welcome to my classroom blog!  We had a wonderful first day in first grade and I am so delighted to have all of your children in my class this year.  Please feel free to subscribe to this blog and post comments!  Also, make sure to send me an email so I can create a class email list.

I look forward to seeing you all at Curriculum Night in a couple of weeks.  Please feel free to email me if you have any questions before that day arrives!

Here's a couple of photos from our very first day!  Enjoy :)

OFFICIALLY First Graders!

Silly Faces!

Our class with Miss Pagano (left) and Ms. Lash (right)

Ms. Petrucci and her lovely 23 First Graders :)

Mother's Day

We had a fun week in room 7 getting ready to celebrate Mother's Day.  I hope you all have a fabulous weekend celebrating the most important ladies.... MOMS!  I know I owe a lot to my mom and I am very lucky that all my students have such great moms in their lives.  Enjoy the day ladies (don't worry Dads, your day will be here soon!)  You all deserve it!  I hope you enjoy the gift your child made you.  I thought they were very sentimental and cute.  They were incredibly excited to make it and give it to you all!  I hope you cherish it forever and ever!

This week went by pretty fast!  We were finishing up some testing and now we can officially say WE ARE DONE WITH STANDARDIZED TESTING FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR!  YAHOOOOO!

We read the story "Frog and Toad All Year" for Reading and we focused on the comprehension skill of cause and effect.  The students came up with some great scenarios and examples (some of them may have been from their own experiences ;)).  I heard a lot of "The cause is having a messy room after playing..." with various effects.  They had a great time comparing different cause/effect situations.

In math we are finishing up our very short fraction unit.  They are just getting a little taste of fractions and getting exposed to words like "halves" and "quarters".  This will give them a little background knowledge as they dive deeper into fractions in the upper grades.  Once we finish that, we will be Stepping Up to Second Grade to give them a little taste of what's to come next year.

We are still studying organisms in Science and will dive into Animal Families next week!  I have some fun writing projects planned and I can't wait to see what they come up with!

There's lots of fun coming up in the next few weeks of school!  I can't believe the entire year has already gone by!  I hope you all have an amazing weekend!  I'll see some of you on Monday for our Nature Center Field Trip!

May!

It's been awhile since my last blog post!  Let's do some catching up!

In Reading we are on our very last basal reader!  We just read "The Story of the Bluebird", which is about a little bird who is a afraid to learn how to fly.  He ends up on a little adventure and eventually forgets his fear of flying.  In doing so, he learns how to fly and is able to make new bird friends.  Our phonics/spelling skill was "igh".  This is a difficult vowel sound, but the students did very well with it.  We learned a rap to help us remember the "igh" in the words.  We also discussed what the plot of the story is.  We discovered the plot is all the "meat" in the story.  It's all the important events that happen to move the story along.  Next week, we will read the story "Frog and Toad All Year" and focus on the long a sound (ai and ay) as well as supporting details in the text.

We are just finishing up our Geometry unit in Math.  We discussed plane (flat) shapes and solid figures! Some of those solids are really hard to pronounce (hearing them try to say Sphere for the first time was quite entertaining)!  We got the hang of our pronunciations and even learned how to tell different shapes and solids from one another by using the number of sides, corners, flat surfaces, vertices and line types (curved or straight).  Our next and FINAL math unit will be on Fractions.  After that short unit, we will do some step up to 2nd grade lessons and review some concepts taught earlier in the year!  Time is FLYING by!

In Science, we are studying Organisms, Animal Families and the pond habitat.  We kicked off our unit by getting a visit from some batty bats!  We had such a great time learning more about these interesting, but misunderstood creatures!

We were able to see the musical Aladdin at Peacock on Monday.  It was AMAZING!  If your family has time, you should definitely check it out this weekend.  The middle schoolers and their teachers did an excellent job with this one!  The kids LOVED it!  A lot of them haven't seen the movie version of Aladdin so I'm thinking of showing it some time next week to do a compare/contrast activity on the similarities and differences!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Ms. Petrucci

Happy Spring Break!

I hope you all have a wonderful Spring Break!  If you're going anywhere warm....bring some of it back with you!  I'm ready for some real spring weather!

Your child brought home a kite project to complete over Spring Break.  Please let me know if you have any questions and feel free to turn it in early if you finish it over break.  It is not due until Friday, April 11.

We also did not have a spelling test this week as a Spring Break celebration.  They were very good about practicing their words and had a great grasp of the OW/OU sounds.  Nice job!

3rd quarter ended today, so report cards will go home the Friday after we get back from Spring Break (can you believe it?)  WHOA.  Time is FLY-ing by!

Enjoy the week and I'll see you in April!

:) Ms. Petrucci

Monday Monday Monday!

Hello First Grade Families!

Long time, no update!  Sorry about that!  Let's get back into the swing of things!

Reading- We just finished reading the Science Fiction story "My Robot" about a boy from the future who gets a robot for his birthday.  The robot can do many things, but the best thing the robot can do is be the boy's friend!  We will read the non-fiction interview story "On The Job with Dr. Martha Smith".  It is a story about a real veterinarian and her furry patients.  We have been discussing describing words.  This week we are focusing on words to describe our senses.  We had a great time brainstorming different words to describe what we see, smell, hear, taste and feel! 

Spelling-  Last week we worked on the spelling skill for a c that sounds like an s.  The students worked SO hard to make sure these words were spelled correctly.  They worked so hard that they ALL received a 10/10 on their spelling test!  I am SUPER proud of them!  They have earned a special reward.  We will brainstorm and vote on something tomorrow.  I told them they can choose a class reward or something funny/silly for me to do or dress up as... we'll see what tomorrow brings!  I'm a little nervous about their suggestions.  They have very creative minds!

Math- We are finishing our very short unit on Time this week with our quiz and test.  Keep practicing telling time at home.  We have learned how to tell time to the hour and half hour, but the students do know that they can count the minutes by 5's on the numbers around the clock.  Try to challenge them by doing random "time checks" or even asking them how many minutes it will be to the next hour.  This will only help them to continue to practice, apply and master this essential life skill.  We are moving on to graphing and data analysis next.  We will look at different types of graphs and gather information from them.  We will also make our own graphs using data collected.  This unit is much longer than the time unit and will be continued after Spring Break.

Health- In Health we have been learning about our body and how to keep our body healthy.  The students got to see what the inside our of bodies look like and even see some organs.  We learned that we need to exercise, eat right, and keep bad things out of our bodies to keep them healthy and strong!

Social Studies- We are moving on to Social Studies after we finish Health.  We will be learning all about work, different jobs people have and how we earn money to use in our lives.  This is a fun unit because we get to talk about what we want to be when we grow up!

As always, keep working hard at home on spelling words, math facts and reading skills!  I have been testing students the past couple of weeks to get ready for report cards, so you should see some new books coming home this week (if I get everyone tested!)  If not, I'll send books home after spring break!

Animal Reports

Today your child is bringing home an animal book with a yellow packet inside.  This is for their animal report.  They will be doing research on their animals at home and then filling out the attached form.  In school we will type up the reports and they are making a mini habitat for their animal in library.  These reports will be on display during Celebration of Learning!  If there is any information you cannot find in the book they brought home, feel free to do some online research.  These projects always turn out REALLY great and the kids are very proud of all their hard work!  We will celebrate them for finishing their reports with a special animal celebration!  This will happen in April.  Have fun researching!

And now a little preview of our week....

Math- We are finishing Unit 11 and moving on to measurement at the end of this week.  We measure with a lot of non-standard units to get them prepared to use standard units.

Reading- We are reading the story "At Home Around the World" which is a nonfiction story about how houses can all look different in different places but still provide us with the things we need for shelter.

Spelling- We are focusing on the Phonics skill where y makes the long e sound at the end of the word.  All of our 6 new words have a double consonant (jackpot letters) with a y that sounds like an e at the end.  Please practice every day!

Science- We are wrapping up our dental health unit by taking an inside look at what a tooth would look like if we sliced it open.  We had a lot of fun sharing different teeth stories during this unit!

I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend!
:) Ms. Petrucci

Wrapping it up!

It was another short, yet productive week in first grade.  Last week was pretty uneventful due to our Reading Assessment.  This week we were back in full swing!

In Reading we read the story "A Bed Full of Cats".  It was about a boy who thought he lost his pet cat, but when she finally comes home, she comes back with new kittens!  We focused on the skill of Alphabetizing and Predicting Outcomes.  The students did a great job with both skills!  Next week we will read a story about maps!

In Spelling, we learned about the long e sound and how it can be spelled in a variety of ways.  We learned that "ee" and "ea" can make the long e sound.  The students were able to identify which words were spelled with an "ee" and an "ea" by looking at them and seeing which words looked correct.  Next week we will focus on the long a sound with a silent e at the end.


In Math, we just wrapped up Topic 10, Adding with Tens.  I was VERY impressed at how well the students grasped these concepts, including regrouping!  Some were even regrouping in their heads!  My mind was BLOWN.  Today we started Topic 11, Subtracting with Tens.  We will cover the same concepts as Topic 10, only with Subtraction.

We just wrapped up our Social Studies unit on Famous Americans: Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.  The students loved sharing what they already knew about these famous presidents AND learning new information about them.  Here are two fun facts we were surprised to hear.  Did you know George Washington really didn't want to be president?  He was basically forced to by the American people and didn't even have anyone running against him!  Also, did you know Abraham Lincoln had a pet pig?  We learned LOTS more about these two former presidents and had a great time reading books and making projects about them!  We will be studying Dental Health for the next 2 weeks!  If you have not turned in your toothpaste tube design, please send it in on Monday.  We will be using them for a special project!  Thank you!

I think that just about wraps up this week!  Remember, next week is a 4 day weekend for you all!  I will be in meetings on Friday and Monday out of the building.

Hopefully I'll see some of you at the District 10 Foundation's Trivia Night!  Benson has a table and we're ready to score some points!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Short week in review

Well.... we had another shortened week, but the students were able to get everything done!

I was very pleased to see how well they did on their spelling tests with only 2 days to practice!  Way to go!  Next week we will complete our last story from Unit 3 in Reading and then we will have a week of testing to assess all the skills we learned in this unit.  Please continue to practice spelling the weekly words and reading all the blue word cards.  This is their homework every day!  Thank you!

We finished our final lesson in Topic 8 today, so the quiz is scheduled for Monday.  I sent home a study guide with the students to get them ready for the quiz.  We focused on tens and ones in this lesson.  The students showed a good grasp of the concept and were very good at using the manipulatives to trade ten rods in for ones units.  I was very impressed!  We will start topic 10 on Thursday (hopefully! my schedule's been messed up by all this snow and cold we are having lately!)

We are wrapping up solids and liquids in Science and moving on to Social Studies in February.  We will be learning about the two famous presidents with birthdays this month, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.

A big thank you to everyone who was able to make it to see the Informance today!  The students were SOOOOO excited to perform for you today!  They were literally wiggling with excitement (he he!)  I thought they did a wonderful job singing, dancing, playing music and reading for all of you!  I'm super proud!  I can't wait to see them strut their stuff on stage next year for their second grade program!

Have a good weekend!  Hopefully we don't get TOO much snow!  Oh and enjoy the Superbowl!  I'm pretty excited for the halftime show!

Friday

Another week has flown by!  Here are just a few notes about our week:

• Math- we finished Topic 9 with a test on Tuesday.  The students did very well on this test and a lot more asked for help if they couldn't read a question!  Way to go!  We started Topic 9- Tens and Ones on Wednesday.  So far they are doing a fabulous job understand this unit and completing their independent work on their own!
• Reading- We read the story "On the Way to the Pond" and focused on setting.  The students learned that the setting is where and when the story takes place.  They were able to identify all the different settings of this story.  The students were also introduced to the program Read Naturally in computers today.  This is something we will be doing weekly to help increase their reading fluency, rate, expression and comprehension.  It's a great program that helps them see how much they can improve their reading by practicing a story.  They're pretty excited about it!
• Spelling- the words this week were pretty challenging.  PLEASE make sure you practice their words EVERYDAY!  That is their daily homework.  We practice in school everyday, but additional practice is needed at home as well.
• Science- We are wrapping up our unit on Matter.  We brainstormed different items that we thought would sink. float or both on Thursday.  We did not get to the experiment today, but will complete it on Monday.  I wonder if our predictions will be correct?!?

Please make sure to go over your child's report card with them over the weekend.  Please keep the report card at home and return the SIGNED ENVELOPE to school on Monday!  Thank you!