Unit 2 Week 4 Preview

Continuing our exploration of families and neighbors, we ask the question: what is a home? Our oral vocabulary words are collapse, company, construct, entire, and material. Our high-frequency focus words are again, could, make, one, then, three. For spelling we will focus on short-vowel 'u'. Our grammar rule will be proper nouns and capitalization.

Monday we will read our class president speeches and Tuesday we will vote. A copy of our voting ballot with those children making speeches will be sent home. This, along with a copy of their speech may be an example of those documents you might consider scanning or typing to your child's flash drive.

For discussion: What constitutes a home? (A family or dweller, the building materials, and the neighborhood or community.)

Forty-Eighth Day of School

Today we worked on our Tree Map describing our neighborhood worker. Four students have completed this task and have begun work on the draft of their worker report. We will publish our work as a poster for the worker.

In Social Science we discussed how the climate of a particular region affects the transportation, dress, and recreation of the people who live there (tested) We discussed how the resources of an area largely determines the materials used to build shelter (tested).

We took our topic 7 math test today and results will be forthcoming.

We will soon be ready to begin our timed math tests for facts up to 12. Perfect scores achieved on these tests receive a star on the star chart.

For discussion:

Why do the people of Alaska and the people of California dress differently?
What can the people of Spain and the people of California both do for fun that people who live in Alaska can not do? Conversely, what can the people of Alaska do that we cannot?

Thirty-Second Day of School

Eight students have made it through the seminar process so far. One student felt motivated enough to go through seminar twice (having written 2 personal narratives) and already has word processed one which was copied to a flash drive. Three students have published their narratives. Several more students are on the verge of the seminar process.

We will take the topic 5 math test on Thursday.

For discussion: What is the topic of your personal narrative? Tell me some of the details of that topic.

Fifteenth Day of School

Some students were sent home with extra homework in reading or math based on recent test score performance. This will continue until those students show consistent satisfactory performance on tests or other performance measures. Additionally, all students have in their possession a reading log for the month of September.

Some students should be able to describe the characteristics of a fairy tale and relate details from the story The Princess and the Pea. Some students will have a working knowledge of the words: cheerful, unique, interest, prefer, and genuine.

Last night's math homework had the perfect example of a question I spoke about at Back-to-School. A variety of answers were acceptable; a concise answer would look like: "I know this is true because 8 + 0 = 8." Some answers were actually better and more descriptive. When writing lines are provided for a response, make sure your child responds with a complete sentence. Grammatically, it is unnecessary to spell out numbers unless a number is beginning a sentence. For example: Eight is the answer because 8 - 0 = 8. Sentences should begin with a capital letter and end with a period; otherwise, they do not qualify as sentences.

Discussion questions: What activities do you prefer? What makes you unique as an individual? How did the prince know that he had found a genuine princess? 

Unit 1 Week 1 Preview

As a part of our theme: What Makes Us Special, our focus questions are: What do we like to do, and how do the things we like to do make us special? We will discover that the things we like to do help to make us who we are. Our vocabulary words for the week are cheerful, interest, unique, prefer, and genuine. We will analyze story structure for the beginning, middle, and end (comprehension strategy). We learn that this is the way that most realistic fiction stories are structured and that good readers pay attention to these parts (R 1.3.1). We will also pay special attention to the characters and setting of stories (comprehension skill). In phonics we will blend words and identify rhymes with short 'a' and short 'i'. Our reading sight words for the week are jump, not, up. In grammar we will discuss how a sentence tells a whole idea. We will continue with our Unit Project while referring to our 2 previously constructed Thinking Maps. We will analyze the structure of the fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea. We will analyze how an author develops character by what they say and do. In writing we discuss and practice how using describing words adds detail and interest. We will listen to the fable, Town Mouse and Country Mouse, and discover how preferences make characters unique. We will read an informational text and use structure to deduce main idea.

In Science we will make a connection between what we have been learning in music and what we know about Alexander Graham Bell and discuss the discipline of acoustical science and engineering. In life science we discuss basic needs of people and animals using the vocabulary: shelter, energy. We will also begin our physical science unit on matter.

In P.E. we will work on balance, catch and toss to ourselves and to a partner.

In Math we will continue with our notion of parts of a whole and joining groups to come to an understanding of addition and how to relate those ideas in standard notation. Special note to parents: In past years, 1st grade students have not only been asked to find the sum on the right side an addition sentence, but to also balance equations presented in somewhat unexpected manner for 1st graders. For example: find the missing part in:

• 2 + _ = 7 
• 7 = 2 + _
• 2 = 7 - _
• 7 __ 2 + 5  (choose the correct symbol)

Topics for discussion:

• How are you different than other people in your family/class? How is your family different than other families?
• What are the states of matter?
• What does an animal need in order to survive?