First Grade News October 19, 2015 Curriculum Highlights

• Math – Even and odd numbers, number grid patterns • Science – Tools for measuring the weather • Writing Workshop – The writing cycle • Reading Workshop – Fluency and Expression

Reminders

• If you’ve not yet returned your child’s portfolio to school, kindly do so.

News From Ms. Tindall’s Class Our students are excited about writing and are having some good discussions about what real authors do. We continue to talk about the writing process. It is not critical at this moment that your child fully understands this process as it will be revisited throughout the year. Right now exposure is the goal. You can support this learning at home by talking about the process you go through in your writing. Let’s look at a letter you may write to grandma and how you can talk about each stage of the writing process. Planning – writing on sticky notes or scrap paper things you want to remember to tell grandma; first draft – writing the letter in an email; revising – reading back over the letter and making any changes to ensure it makes sense and you have all the important information; feedback – asking another family member if you’ve included everything Grandma might like to know about; editing – checking for spelling, punctuation and capitals, using the spell check; publishing – adding a photo or changing font and sending it to grandma. Spelling - I encourage children to use their invented spelling in school as they move toward more conventional forms of spelling. The children should be gaining in the number of high frequency words that they know how to spell at this point in time (the – for – it – in – etc.). For more difficult words, please ask children to do their best (they might try the word “invitation” and write it “invutashun”). This is certainly acceptable at this point. We want children to be able to get their ideas down on paper and take a risk with their writing. If they feel that they need to spell every word correctly this slows them down and they select only those words that they know how to spell which, as you can imagine, is very limiting. When they move into the editing stage of their writing, this is their opportunity to make corrections for spelling, punctuation, capitalization and grammar.

In partnership, Ms. Tindall

Monday Reading: Talk to an adult about what a ‘fluent’ reader sounds like. Word Study: Find words that have <ck>. What patterns do you see? Where is the <ck> usually located? Math: Play the game Coin Grab. Put coins ( 1s, 5s and 10s to start) in the middle. With one hand behind your back each player grabs a handful of coins. Each player sorts their money into groups – 1s, 5s, 10s and then counts the total amount. Keep a score board with players names and the amount they grab. Circle the highest amount for each round. *** Extend this activity by including other denominations such as 10s, 20s, 50s.

Tuesday Reading: What are some things you can do to improve your fluency? Math: Have another game of Coin Grab.

Wednesday Reading: How do different types of punctuation guide your fluency and expression? EG What do you do when you see a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark? Math: Go on a pattern hunt. Do patterns always occur in a straight line? Are there other ways that make patterns? Make your own definition for what is a pattern.

Thursday Reading: How do speech marks guide your fluency and expression? What do they mean? How do they change your reading? Math: Play shop. Label a few items in your home with price tags in cents. Play purchasing items giving the exact amount using 5s and 1s. * To extend use higher amounts and higher denominations of coins/ only give a 50 cent coin and ask for change to be given for each item.

Friday Reading Poem Collection: Recite poems and songs to your family and friends. Please return the folder to school on Monday.