Wednesday is Library Day!

 

Literacy: Resarch, Informational Reading and Writing, V-C-E Syllables

First Graders are engaging in small group research using the text, “Beaks” by Sneed Collard.  Students are reading, writing and talking about the text as they answer the research question, “How do birds use their beaks to survive?”  During the next week students will engage in a series of beak challenges.  Their learning from this portion of the unit will culminate in an individual writing piece about birds beaks.  

During word study students have learned a new syllable pattern: vowel-consonant-e. V-C-E syllables are syllables that contain a vowel, consonant, and silent e pattern, resulting in a long vowel sound (hike, bake). First Graders continue to practice reading with accuracy and prosody during our daily fluency block.  Please practice the following heart words at home: friend, other, another, none and nothing. 

Math: Addition Within 100 by Making 10

 First graders continue to grow their understanding of place value this week, applying what they learned about adding one-and two-digit numbers to any numbers within 100, with and without composing a ten (regrouping). Students apply the associative and commutative properties as they count on, add tens and tens, and add ones and ones. Students see that no matter which order they use to combine parts of the addends, the sum remains the same. They continue to use, interpret, and connect different methods and representations (including equations) that show a new unit of ten being composed from 10 ones. 

Second Step: Fair Ways to Play

The third lesson in our Second Step problem solving unit focused on fair ways to play this week. Students explored the idea of sharing, trading, or taking turns as a solution for solving problems. They gained experience with defining and differentiating the terms, identifying and stating the problem for a given solution, generating possible solutions, and demonstrating fair ways to play. Sharing, trading, and taking turns are solutions intended to promote the goals of fairness and mutual enjoyment, so students are less likely to use aggressive solutions. 

Silly Sock Day!

 

Math: Adding Within 100

First graders began a new unit in math this week which builds on their understanding of place value and the properties of operations to solve double digit addition problems. In the previous unit, students composed, decomposed, and compared numbers within 100. In this unit, students begin by adding a two-digit number with another two-digit number or with a one-digit number where it is not necessary to compose another ten (regroup...yet). With the support of connecting cubes and ten frames to model the quantities, two broad methods for finding sums are being explored: adding on by place (adding on tens, then ones), and adding units by place (combining tens with tens and ones with ones). This is meaty stuff for 6-and 7-year olds and sets the scene for working within 1000 in second grade. 

Literacy: Researching with Informational Texts:

 First graders continue their study of birds during literacy.  The guiding question for this unit is, “How do birds use their body parts to survive?”  Throughout this unit students will read, write, talk, draw, experiment and sing about two key bird body parts: feathers and beaks.  Students are continuing to build their research skills through whole class research anchored by the text, Feathers, Not Just for Flying.  In addition to the research about feathers, students continue to hone their scientific drawing skills through the process of close viewing.