Forty-Ninth Day of School

As discussed at Back-to-School this is the time the memorization of the doubles addition facts will come in handy. Up to 20 is ok; up to 30 is suggested.

Forty-Eighth Day of School

Please find with your child a sheet to cut and tape/paste a number line for use with tonight's and future night's homework.

Reminder:

Reading Logs are due on Friday.

Chapter 2 Math Test Results

Of 23 students taking the test 22 students passed with an adjusted score of  15 or better. The modal average was 21. The high score was 25.

Forty-Sixth Day of School

In Math we used the strategy of counting on 1, 2, or 3. Those children that needed them were given only 3 counters to complete the classwork.

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. Our grammar rule will be proper nouns and capitalization. In phonics and spelling we will tackle the complicated idea of the open-syllable long-vowel spelling beginning with 'long-a'.

Reminders:

Every year Room 11 has the tradition of electing a class president. This supports the government portion of our Social Science standards. Those students interested in running for Room 11 Class President 2014-15 will work on a speech at home to be delivered to the class on November 3, 2015. Speeches will be filmed using chroma key technology and saved to flash drives.

Students who would like to have their videos edited, will make sure they are not wearing any shade of green in any part of their outfit.

On this day we will also try to film our expert interviews. Those students wanting their interviews to be edited will also need to remember not to wear green on that Monday. Make sure to practice these and these questions to improve oral fluency.

Forty-Fifth day of School

In Writing we wrote to extend the beginning by adding interesting details or character descriptions.

In Science we made observations of a substance to decide if it was a liquid or solid.

In Reading we worked on summarizing.

Forty-Fourth Day of School

We practiced inflectional endings on verbs with long and short vowels (hop, hopping, hopped; hope, hoping, hoped). 

We will take Chapter 2 Math Test either tomorrow or Monday.

Forty-Third Day of School

Some families have still not returned their lunch program application. Tomorrow is the deadline for next years funding. Mr. Brooks personally hand delivered an application today to those students whose parents have not returned an application. Please fill out your application even if you are not interested in participating in the program as the number of qualifying applications affects the school's budget and API scoring.

Forty-First Day of School

In Music today we compared the difference between the beat and rhythm of music.

Unit 2 Week 3 Preview

We begin looking at maps to find our place in the neighborhood, city, state, country, and world. We review the strategies of finding main idea and details to aid comprehension and continue our work with summarizing. Our oral vocabulary words are amazed, frequently, service, useful, variety. Our sight words are live, many, out, place. In spelling we take a look at blends with 's' and 'r' (spill, still, grab, drip).

Math Test Results

Of 23 students taking the mid chapter test all students passed with an adjusted score of 10 or better. One student scored perfectly and 2 students only missed 1 point.

Thirty-Eighth Day of School

There is no homework tonight.

In Social Science we compared the past to the present and learned (tested) (HS 1.2.4):

• Streets were unpaved.
• There were no oil burning vehicles.
• Long distance transportation systems were dependent on beasts of burden.
• Schools often only had one room shared by students of all ages.
• It could take weeks to deliver the post which was carried by riders on horses.

Thirty Seventh Day of School

For discussion:

• Which elements of a narrative are generally presented at the beginning (of a story)? (the setting and the characters)
• What element of a narrative is contained in the middle? (the plot/problem)

Note: This is the traditional structure of the Western narrative whereas Eastern narratives often will not include conflict/problems to be surmounted but rather a twist or surprise which is presented in the third act followed by the reconciliation (fourth act).

Notes on the District Assessment

The November and January assessment questions have been selected and reviewed by the first grade team. There are no surprises on the test. The questions are very similar to the questions on the regular chapter tests.

Thirty-Sixth Day of School

We will likely take a mid-chapter test in Math on Wednesday. The district Math assessment questions will be finalized this week. Optional practice questions will be posted soon. If you would like to have your child's practice-test work reviewed before the assessment, have your child bring it to school along with their regular homework assignment.

In Social Science we compared the past with the present. In particular how many items (toys, candles, horseshoes) were made made by hand (tested).

For Oral Language we practiced our interview skills on the subject of Roberto Clemente.

Unit 2 Week 2 Preview

This week we discuss cooperation and our role in helping out. We discuss families and neighbors working together to help each other. Our oral vocabulary words are appreciate, partner, cooperate, responsibility, and delectable. This week we will continue with the comprehension strategy of summarizing. We will focus on short vowel 'e' (tell, went) in spelling and touch on long 'o' spelled 'o_e' (hope, note). Our sight vocabulary words are eat, no, of, some, who. For grammar we will pluralize nouns requiring '-es' (lunches, dishes).

In Writing are strategy will be to work on a number of settings for a collection of realistic fiction pieces. Then once we have some detailed beginnings, we will choose from among those some which will be developed into full stories.

In Social Science we will discuss at length how physical environments affect the way people live (food, shelter, clothing, transportation, recreation) (HSS 1.2.4) (tested). We will compare the environments of Alaska, Spain, and California.

In Science we will continue with our examination of liquids.

Thirty-Fifth day of School

For the first time we recorded in our Sort Journals today and took a dictation test on 'long-a' spelled 'a_e'

The Math homework was optional tonight. Some students who were originally not going to take the homework changed their minds when they were aware that parents would be told about it. Interesting.

In Writing we brainstormed settings for our realistic fiction pieces. We began the slow process of digitally processing our personal narratives from the last unit. This is where our flash drives come in handy.

In Science we observed a collection of 7 liquids and generated a list of properties for liquids. Among our vocabulary were: bubbly, viscous, translucent, and opaque.

We listened to a selection on the life of Alexander Graham Bell. We generated several questions based on the reading:

• What was Alexander Graham Bell known for?
• Why was he interested in studying sound?
• What were some things he attempted to do when he was young?

Soon we will record our interviews about the 2 famous people we have studied.

Thirty-Fourth Day of School

Students will be bringing home their word study collections today. Your child's collection is based on their individual spelling ability levels. If you like, the words can be recut at home and y our child can show you how they sort the words into their respective categories. The words may be kept at home.

A Scholastic article is being brought home with notes taken in class. Your child should be able to retell the selection by reading their notes.

In Writing today we started our own list of problems our realistic fiction characters might have in our stories we will write.

Thirty-Third Day of School

You should find a packet of ungraded personal narrative writing work from the last 5 weeks of school being sent home. Things to look for as you review work:

• Stories with a clear beginning which tells who, where, and when
• A story which tells two or more details of a single event being told in a logical order
• Stories with closure
• Time order words (next, then)
• Black ink writing with blue revisions and red ink editing (some children may have chosen blue or red pencil)
• Punctuation at the end of sentences and personal pronoun 'I's' and proper nouns capitalized.

For Health we discussed making wise decisions. The criteria for making a wise decision :

• Is it healthful?
• Is it safe?
• Does it follow laws?
• Does it show respect for others?
• Does it follow family rules?
• Does it show good character?  

Homework Reminder

As discussed at Back-to-School, homework will not be returned unless corrections need to be made. If this is the case, have your child make the necessary corrections and return the corrected homework to class.

Thirty-First Day of School

Today we took our personal narrative Writing test. Our next writing unit will be realistic fiction.

Unsatisfactory notices will be sent this week. This notice is for parent information only. It does not need to be discussed with your child. The good news is that for the first time ever, no notices will need to be sent for the subject of Math. Keep in mind these notices are only for those subjects which have been assessed to date (Writing, Reading, and Math). Bear in mind, the reading notification is for measurements which do not necessarily reflect instruction for the present school year. They are basically an indication of where your child may be beginning the year relative to beginning of the year standards for first grade. You will receive an unsatisfactory notice for your child's reading scores if they performed below standard on 2 or more beginning of the year reading assessments.

We began word sorting exercises today based 3 different student ability levels. We also took an in-depth look at the 'long-a' sound spelled 'a_e' (bake, take).

In Music, we discussed the elements of a song with an emphasis on beat (rhythm to be discussed soon).

Unit 2 Week 1 Preview

Our weekly themes in this second unit will center around our families and our neighbors, (having already examined ourselves) our abilities and our growth. Our last idea about teams was that families are the most important kind of team. This week, we will explore the idea of families taking care of each other. Our oral vocabulary words are guide, protect, provide, separate, wild. Our sight words are her, our, they, two. Our comprehension strategy this week will be to focus on summarizing a selection. We learn to summarize by developing the skill of distinguishing main ideas from details. Summarizing a selection is a different skill than a retell. Where a retell would be to tell a story in our own words with as much interesting detail as possible, a summary isolates only the most important ideas answering the basic questions of who? what? where? when? why? and perhaps how? This story is about a girl walking in the forest who seeks food and rest in the home of 3 bears. In phonics and spelling, will take a more detailed look at some long vowel spellings this week beginning with 'a_e'  (cane) and 'i_e' (ride) along with inflectional ending '-ed'. In grammar we will discuss sentence subjects and nouns.

In Writing we will test our understanding of the genre personal narrative and begin work on the genre realistic fiction.

For Social Science we will continue comparing and contrasting the past with the present (HSS 1.1.4) (tested). We will examine photos of schools long ago.

In Science we will begin our exploration of liquids.

In PE we will combine several skills practiced so far to play a fast-paced, high-energy game of sockball.

Twenty-Ninth Day of School

In Writing today we began "publishing" our best personal narrative.

New Reading logs were sent home today.