Happy Friday! It sure was a busy first week back to school. Our first graders have learned so much this week! We have been reading stories and poetry about winter in preparation for an upcoming writing piece. The students have been working as detectives, looking for words that authors use to describe winter using the five senses. We read the fiction story Owl Moon, one of my personal favorites, and discovered that readers feel like they are along on the adventure in the story when the author uses strong descriptive language.
We finished our 4th math unit and will be starting our unit on place value on Monday. As part of our review of the work we did in unit 4, the students were asked to answer questions using the data presented in a bar graph. We have created and used graphs about what superpower our students would like to have, what time people eat dinner, and today we made a graph showing what time the students go to bed. Wow, did we collect some interesting data! Take a look at the picture of today's work below.
We finished our 4th math unit and will be starting our unit on place value on Monday. As part of our review of the work we did in unit 4, the students were asked to answer questions using the data presented in a bar graph. We have created and used graphs about what superpower our students would like to have, what time people eat dinner, and today we made a graph showing what time the students go to bed. Wow, did we collect some interesting data! Take a look at the picture of today's work below.
I found this information very interesting. This made me wonder about how much sleep really is needed for individuals (myself included) to be able to perform to the best of their abilities. Below is a link that you might find interesting. How much sleep do you think your child really needs each night? You might be surprised!
http://www.sleepforkids.org/html/sheet.html
In the upcoming week, we will be reading an expository nonfiction selection, called Life in the Forest. We will be learning about how plants and animals are part of a community. We will read more winter stories and continue using sensory words in our writing. Spelling words will have long u and long e sounds.
What can you work on at home? Some children still need to learn to tie their shoes. They really need to be able to tie by this point in first grade. Also, when your child completes a task, such as an art project, or a math problem, encourage them to explain how they knew what to do, and/or how they found their answers. Students need to get out of the habit of saying, "I used my brain to get the answer". That really isn't an explanation. Maybe they counted by 5s, or drew a picture to match the problem, or counted back on a number line. They should be able to explain their thinking.
Have a great week!
http://www.sleepforkids.org/html/sheet.html
In the upcoming week, we will be reading an expository nonfiction selection, called Life in the Forest. We will be learning about how plants and animals are part of a community. We will read more winter stories and continue using sensory words in our writing. Spelling words will have long u and long e sounds.
What can you work on at home? Some children still need to learn to tie their shoes. They really need to be able to tie by this point in first grade. Also, when your child completes a task, such as an art project, or a math problem, encourage them to explain how they knew what to do, and/or how they found their answers. Students need to get out of the habit of saying, "I used my brain to get the answer". That really isn't an explanation. Maybe they counted by 5s, or drew a picture to match the problem, or counted back on a number line. They should be able to explain their thinking.
Have a great week!