Happy Friday! We are SO excited to share our American Heroes play with you next Thursday! The kids have done very well in play practice this week and Mrs. Rumburg and I love watching them. They really are amazing!
January 17th 10:00 AM American Heroes Play: Our play will be in the Middle School Black Box and you are welcome to join us in our classroom afterwards for some refreshments. Please have your child wear their costume to school that morning. Remember, it doesn't have to be anything elaborate! Nice, dressy clothes are always perfect. Parents, grandparents, and siblings are all welcome to attend! We just ask that if your little one gets fussy during the play, you step out in order to respect the hard work of our first graders. Thank you!
January 21st: No school...Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!
February 20th 10:00 AM Huntersville Oaks Field Trip: Our class has the special opportunity to go on a field trip to Huntersville Oaks for service learning. Chaperones are welcome to come! The program will run from 10:30-11:30 am.
Math:
After conducting the North Carolina State Mid-Year Math Assessment, I have been able to see where students have holes in their learning and we are going back to reteach/practice some of these concepts. We started a new activity this week as we work on addition, subtraction, place value, before/in between/after, greater than/less than, and navigating the hundreds chart. The activity is called "Number Tiles" and the students are addicted! It is similar to the game "Sudoku" where you have to use the numbers "0-9" and each one can only be used once. Basically, if you put a number tile in the wrong box the entire puzzle will be off. We have over 10 different games that work on different concepts (addition, subtraction, one more/one less/ten more/ten less, place value, and before/after. The level of difficulty varies between each game so there is always room for growth! This is also great for differentiation within the classroom to meet all student's needs.
Literacy:
We took a break from guided reading groups this week as we practice for our play. Play lines have been a great learning opportunity for the students to practice reading, memorizing, and reciting something other than books. We will pick back up with guided reading next week! :) I will also begin doing assessments next week so you may notice your child bump up a level or two depending on this. Students did great with their first week of 10 word study words! I know that this was a big jump and the words seemed to also increase in difficulty this week. I really encouraged the students this week to practice these words throughout the week since there are more and they are harder to learn. Remember to always make it fun! Sidewalk chalk, paint, bath tub crayons, jump roping as they spell the words, bounce a basketball, etc.
Thematic:
This week we studied Helen Keller for our American Heroes unit. The students enjoyed learning about her and how she overcame a difficult situation. Studied illustrated a mini-book, learned how to write their name in Braille, and had a real life learning experience where they wore an eye mask and headphones around the school. Each student had a partner that would guide them around the hallways to feel what Helen felt. They also had to find the braille that is written on a lot of our school signs. We will study Martin Luther King Jr. next week in anticipation of MLK Jr. day!
Have a great weekend and see you next Thursday!
Love,
Mrs. James
