Grade 1 Happy Full Week of First Grade!

Welcome to our First Grade Blog, families!   This blog is used to get updates on what your child is learning and how you can support the learning at home. Moving forward, each week you can expect a blog post informing you of the work that we’ll be focusing on within our units of study

We had a wonderful first full week of first grade.  The beginning of the school year is all about learning the routines of the classroom.

Our goals for the first week were:

• Building an inclusive learning community
• Expanding friendships among peers
• Learning and practicing routines
• Learning about classroom systems, tools, and centers
• Learning habits as a reader, mathematician and writer

Here is what we did and how you can support your child at home…

We practiced routines! Please ask your child to teach and show you:

• How to unpack and put away his/her things (folder, backpack, snack, coat)
• How to walk in line in the hallway and down the staircase
• How to listen attentively
• The signals/gestures that we use in the bathroom
• How morning meeting works (Greeting, Activity, Share)
• How to greet someone (eye contact, use the person’s name, handshake)

  Reader’s Workshop

In Reader’s workshop we have been introducing students to new books!  Feel free to ask them about their favorite read aloud and why they enjoyed them. We have also started to launch Readers’ Workshop.  Students have been reading familiar books from kindergarten, which they LOVE. We are working on building stamina and reading like a storyteller!  At home ask your child to read a book they love, being sure they sound like a story-teller or you can read one to them and ask them to point out what you did to sound like a storyteller.

Next week we will continue working on building good habits as a reader and they will begin to get their new book baggies!

 Math Workshop

In math we learned a game called Double Compare to practice adding single digit numbers.  You can play this game at home.

Double Compare

Play with a partner. Use an ordinary deck of cards with the face cards removed.

1. Deal all cards face down.
2. Both players turn over their top two cards.
3. The player with the larger total says “Me” and takes the cards.
4. Keep turning over two cards.  Each time, the player with the larger total says “Me” and takes the cards.
5. The game is over when there are no more cards.  Who ever has more cards wins.

Variations:

*The player with the smaller total says”Me” and gets to the keep the cards.

*Play with 3 players.

*Play with jokers as wild cards.  A wild card can be any number.

Writer’s Workshop

In writing this week students began making  different types of writing!  Some wrote cards, others made stories (both fictional and informational) some students even decided to write letters.  We are hoping to instill a love of writing, while developing good habits.  We will continue this work next week.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Luka & Ms. Rachel