Handwriting

A daily handwriting component has been incorporated into our structured literacy instructional minutes this year. Students are receiving direct instruction on proper and fluent number formation and upper case and lower case letter formation. Focus includes pencil grip, body position, and the 4S's of printing: shape, slant, size, and space.

 

Literacy

 During Word Study First Graders learned about two new sounds (/an/ and /am/) that we call, “glued sounds.”  Glued sound is a term for word families in which one or more sounds are altered a bit.  We teach these as word families because the sounds are not easily segmented.  Heart words that were taught in this unit include: from, have, do, does.  

The big idea we have been exploring during Literacy is: How do habits of character help us do work?  To understand the habits of character (initiative, perseverance and collaboration) students took on various challenges: cup tower challenge and jump rope challenge. Students participated in a close reading of, “The Most Magnificent Thing” and spent time writing reflections on their challenges. 

Zipping, Buttoning, and Tying Shoes

 

One of the goals of first grade is to develop academic and personal independence in six-and seven-year olds. It is especially important that your child is prepared to gear up for colder weather with little assistance from adults.  Please work with your child now on those essential winter fine motor skills: zipping, buttoning, layering, lacing, velcro-ing, and tying. Thank you!

Math Workshop: How Many of Each?

First grade mathematicians continue to work on solving story problems about making combinations of green and red apples or orange and blue balloons to compose a target number. The task became a little more challenging as students took on the work of finding strategies to represent the apples independently. Our math curriculum uses student friendly language to call these problems "How Many of Each?" problems and the Common Core State Standard calls them Put Together/Take Apart problems with both addends unknown. Unlike many addition and subtraction story problems that we've worked on so far this year, nothing is changing in these story problems. Instead, mathematicians must keep the whole (the target number) and two parts (some green apples and some red apples) in mind in order to come up with possible solutions to the problem. This is challenging work! Above, you can see an example of a mathematician working systematically to determine ALL of the solutions for some green and some red apples to make a whole of 7 apples. 

Second Step: Empathy

Our Second Step social emotional program has a new focus this week as new skills for developing empathy are being introduced and practiced in the classroom. Experts say that empathy is a key ingredient in the development of prosocial behaviors and interpersonal problem-solving skills. Being able to identify understand and respond in a caring way to how someone is feeling provides the foundation for helpful and socially responsible behaviors, friendships, cooperation, coping, and conflict resolution, all of which help students succeed in school. Currently, first graders are learning to identify physical (face and body language) and situational (challenging work or play experiences) that help us understand others' feelings at a given time.  Specific attention will be given to feelings such as happy, sad, disgusted, surprised, curious, and frustrated.

Halloween Parade!

 

Billings Farm and Museum: Tools Make Work Easier!

First graders enjoyed a beautiful fall afternoon at the Billings Farm and Museum last Friday extending their classroom language arts learning. They have been reading, writing, and talking about tools and how they make work easier. Thank you Woodstock Elementary School PTO for funding this learning extension!