Winter Wrap Up: March 6, 2011

Spring is almost here and it’s time to look at what we’ve been up to in room 56.  Parent conferences will be held at the end of the month so I look forward to sitting down with all of you to tell you how wonderful your child is.  If you have any questions before then, please email me or talk to me any day after school.

The fantastic first grade students have been having a ball performing skits from our reader’s theater collection.  I am impressed with the students’ expression in reading and how their dynamic personalities shine as they perform the roles of a variety of characters.  We have been using these theatrical strengths to enhance our literature circles, as well as bring to life the stories that we’ve been reading that correlate with our current language arts theme of “Games”.

In math, we’ve been studying place value.  The students learned a game where they roll a dice to see how many one cubes to pull from a bag.  They keep rolling until they have 10 and then they trade them for a ten rod and move it over to the tens place.  They keep playing until they get to 100.  The kids love it! Please let me know if you’d like to borrow materials so that you and your child can play at home.

Next week, we will be studying money and learning to count coins.  You can give your child a jump-start if you start looking closely at coins and begin to name them and their value.  You can play grocery store and ask your child to pay you simple amounts such as, “That will cost a dime.” or “That will be $0.25.”  Soon they will be combining coins to count larger values.

Thank you to all the parents who allowed their children to bring in pictures from their favorite trips.  The students were so proud to share their pictures and tell about their experiences.  It really helped the kids write fantastic personal narratives!  The kids learned to enhance their writing by using their five senses to describe what they saw, heard, smelled, tasted, and felt on their trips.

The students recently learned the format for writing a friendly letter and wrote letters to their friends and to President Obama.  Be expecting little love notes from your little love bugs!

Finally, it was Dr. Seuss’ birthday last week and we were delighted to read many of our favorite books by him.  The students had a blast meeting their new reading partners in Mrs. Kester’s third grade class and reading Dr. Seuss books with them.  Following our reading of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, your creative little artists painted these silly fish and collaborated to write the poem you see posted with them.  Are

What We’ve Been Up To

We’ve been busy learning and growing in room 56.  We have been listening to stories and learning spelling patterns so that we can blossom into fluent readers.  We have been exploring addition and subtraction through story problems.  We have worked hard to practice different strategies for solving our problems.  Some of the strategies that your child is familiar with include, using manipulatives (such as beans or pennies,) drawing pictures, counting up or back, acting out the problems, and using the number line.

As you know, the students have found a new hobby of collecting rocks.  We studied rocks for our science unit and this has sparked their interest and curiosity about rocks.  If you have a shoe box at home, have your child decorate it and use it as a place to store their most special gems.

Here are some cute pictures of your kids from our President’s Day project.  Enjoy!

[View with PicLens]

Welcome to First Grade

It is a joy to welcome the 2010-2011 first graders to room 56.  The students are in store for a year full of learning, fun, and many hands-on experiences.  We will explore many interesting science and social studies topics, as well as use our imaginations to create unique pieces of art.  The students will blossom into expressive readers, thoughtful problem solvers, and joyful learners.  Our classroom community will become a second family for all of us and parents are welcome to come in and help out whenever possible.

I ask that students read with a parent every evening for at least 20 minutes.  You can read to your child for now and ask them questions about the story.  In no time at all, your little ones will be reading you a bedtime story.

Please contact me via email or in person anytime you have questions or concerns. We are a team and the stronger our relationship is, the greater academic success your child will endure.  I look forward to a wonderful school year!

[View with PicLens]