Weekly Update ~ 12/10/11

Greetings from Room 136!  It’s been another exciting week in first grade!

-In Language Arts, we worked on identifying the main idea of a story, and providing supporting details from the text.  The students also learned all about maps.  You can use a map to gain more information about a place.  Check out the following video of our students hard at work! 

-We introduced our Author of the Month, Jan Brett.  Jan Brett is a best-selling American author/illustrator of childrens' books, with over thirty-seven million books in print.  Her books are known for colorful, detailed depictions of a wide variety of animals and human cultures ranging from Scandinavia to Africa.  Her best-known titles include The Hat, The Mitten, The Three Snow Bears and Gingerbread Baby.  You can visit Jan Brett’s inspiring website at the following web address: http://www.janbrett.com/index.html.  Enjoy coloring activities, games, art tutorials and more! 

-We read The Mitten, and practiced restating the main idea, as we wrote a one-sentence summary of the story and created our own mitten display.  Ask your child to summarize the story! 

-We also enjoyed reading Jan Brett’s Gingerbread Baby.  Last week we read the Gingerbread Man during our folktale study, so this week we compared the two gingerbread stories.  Ask your child to compare and contrast the two stories.  How were the stories alike?  How were they different?  Which story did they like best?  Were they surprised by the endings? 

-Our Grammar lessons focused on irregular plural nouns.  Try making these nouns plural:

child	foot	tooth
woman	goose	deer

-In Math, we continued to practice using subtraction strategies.  We learned about Fact Families, which include related addition and subtraction facts.  


Addition and Subtraction Practice:

http://www.ezschool.com/Games/FactFamily1.html

http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-1/fact-families

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/fireflies/index.html

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/count_back_numberline/

-The children decorated their own Fact Family Gingerbread Houses.  Check out a few samples of our work. 

-Please continue to work on addition and subtraction facts each night.  We will begin to do skill drill practice in the classroom, and the more facts your child has memorized, the better he/she will perform. 

-In Science, we discussed the importance of recycling and reusing materials.  The students practiced collecting fruit and vegetable scraps such as orange peels, apples, and carrots to be used for compost.  By reusing this food for compost, soil is enriched, thus helping plants to grow hearty.  For more information on composting, click here: http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/wm/recycle/facts/compost.htm

-We finished off our week with another Mystery Reader visit! After reading clues, the students were quite sure our Mystery reader was Mrs. Cullifer.  However, both Mr. Cullifer and Mrs. Cullifer surprised us as they entered the classroom with (1) blonde hair, (2) blue eyes, and (3) glasses!  We all enjoyed the silly story, The Great Reindeer Rebellion, written by Lisa Trumbauer and illustrated by Jannie Ho.  The children laughed out loud as they made predictions about how Santa would deliver the toys when the reindeer went on strike, and watched the story unravel!  A big “thank you” to the Cullifer Family for the donation of this hilarious book to our classroom library!  Just as the story ended with a celebration, the students enjoyed a tasty treat as they reflected upon the story.