It is hard to believe that the first trimester is here and that we are one third through our year in 1st grade. I'm very proud of the hard work and the progress the students have made and I look forward to the rest of the year. Grades went out on Tuesday afternoon. Please look these over with your child and discuss ways in which they could improve and perhaps make a few goals for them over the next trimester.
This will serve as the last blog post until after we return from our holiday break. Here's the latest from room 130... Language This week we will be learning all about characters, how they change within the story, and how their actions impact others. We will read Jack and the Wolf (aka The Boy Who Cried Wolf), and infer how the characters were feeling in various spots within the story, and finally what is the lesson that Jack learned. Writer's Workshop We finished up our unit on narrative writing last Friday with a publishing party. In preparation, the students edited and created covers for their stories. They sat in pods with their peers sharing their finished products with each other, and then we sat down and had a series of 'toasts' with glasses of lemonade. Almost every student came to the front of the room and toasted either the class, or individual stories they felt warranted more attention. They had a blast! During this gap week, we will learn about letter writing before we begin informational text writing when we return from the holiday break. Math We finished up Unit 3 last Friday, and with this gap week, I decided to take a break from our normal curriculum to focus on money and coins for a few days. This week the students will be learning about pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters as well as basic counting strategies and equivalent sums. This is a good pre-cursor to our next unit on base -10 that will begin in December. Science The young scientists will be experimenting with liquids this week. There will be six bottles of unknown liquids for them to observe, and we will discuss more vocabulary words to describe their properties. We will watch a few videos and I will perform a few experiments of my own. Miscellaneous -Happy birthday to Adrian who turned seven on Monday, and to Isha will celebrate his birthday on Thursday. -Thank you to all of you who donated left over Halloween candy to our troops. As a school, we collected over 100 pounds for our veterans. -Don't forget to keep sending in those box tops! Help room 130 collect the most over the course of the year. -Please consider donated a dollar to our "Wear a Hat on Monday" campaign. All proceeds will go to buying new playground equipment for the students at Middleton. And the best part is that your child can wear any hat they want to wear, all day next Monday. -Parent/teacher conferences are coming up in a week, and I look forward to seeing all of you then. Please understand that I will be on a tight schedule, and that we only have 15 minutes to meet. I will try my best to cover everything in that time and also answer all your questions. I apologize in advance if we have to cut things short. Keep warm out there. It is frigid! Take care and happy holidays, ~ Mr. Layes
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Whew! It is getting cold out there. Please don't forget to send your child to school with a warm coat, gloves, scarf and hat. We will continue to have outdoor recess if it stays "relatively" warm (the kids need to run off some steam too), and they need stay warm outside for up to 25 minutes a day.
Additionally, we were visited by Officer Friendly (aka Officer Jacobsen of the Skokie PD) on Monday afternoon to discuss stranger danger. Stickers and coloring sheets went home for you to discuss this important topic with your child. Today we had picture retakes and vision and hearing test done as well. With the holiday and all the extra little things happening, we are trying our best to cover the necessary academics before the break. Here's the latest from room 130. Language The students will learn strategies on how to retell a story using the text A Napping House. We will read and listen to the story multiple ways, and finally act out each character while reading the book together. During Daily 5, I am taking this week to perform running records on many students in order to complete grades, which are due at the end of the week. Writer's Workshop Unit 1 of narrative writing is finally wrapping up with a publishing party at the end of the week. The students will be using another checklist to make sure their stories are ready for Friday. Points to check include proper use of spaces, punctuation and capitalization, legible writing on the lines, and clarity of writing. Creating covers and peer sharing will be covered tomorrow. Math We are finishing up Unit 3 on story problems. The students have worked hard on identifying addition vs. subtraction problems, finding either the missing partners or total while using equations, circle drawings and math mountains to help them find a solution. Thank you to all of you for helping your children through this difficult unit. We will be assessing students on Friday. Next up, Unit 4 and base-10! Science This week we finished our Science Notebooks (finally!), and the students will take a short quiz on matter, properties, and solids. We will begin the next phase of this unit next week that deals with liquids. On a social studies note, the students learned more about Veteran's Day from their Scholastic Newsletters last Friday. We also read a short chapter book about the holiday on Monday. I hope all of them have a better understanding of what a veteran is, why we have the day off, and why it is important to thank all those who have served or are currently serving our country in the armed forces. Miscellaneous -Emily Mathee will celebrate her 7th birthday on Friday, and Adrian will celebrate his next Monday. Happy birthday to you both! -One reminder: please make sure that there are no toys coming to school. Recently there have been several students bringing dolls and action figures in their backpacks, and I have had to talk with each student individually. Toys are not allowed in school, and I'd hate to either have to take one away or for one to go missing accidentally. Thanks for your help on this matter. -There is nightly math and reading homework for every student. I consistently see math homework handed in every morning, but not necessarily the Reading Log finished by Monday. It is imperative for your children not only to read each night, but to fill out these sheets, as it helps them with their reading comprehension, fluency and text to self connections. Thanks. -Many of you have already scheduled your time slots for parent/teacher conferences online. I'm still waiting on about six parents. If you have yet to do this and you need assistance, please reach out to Nereida in the office. She can help you on this matter. If you are unable to meet on that Tuesday, please let me know as soon as possible. Thanks. Bundle up everyone, and take care. ~Mr. Layes Hello everybody!
Halloween was a success in room 130. The kids looked great, our party went off without a hitch, and our indoor parade was really fun too. Check out the pictures of the party and whole group photos on the picture tab. We had some awesome food set up for the students, as well as four center activities for them to rotate through including: spoon/eyeball race, Halloween bingo, witches hat toss, and skeleton/mummy craft table. Thanks again to all of you who helped out. Language The students will be reading from a non-fiction text titled A Good Night's Sleep. We will be holding discussion to illicit text-to-self connections through peer-to-peer sharing. We will also learn more about what parts of the book look differently in a non-fiction text versus a fiction story. Accuracy strategies to cover will include how to use pictures to give the reader clues, and reading the beginning and ending of words or sentences to give the reader context clues. Writer's Workshop During this week of lessons, we'll be looking at mentor texts to find special 'craft moves'. For instance, students will learn about how to use ellipses to build excitement or suspense. They will read about authors who use bigger or bolder type to get an important point across or use more emotion in their writing. And how an author can use small exact actions to make their characters come to life. On Friday, we will choose one story to revise and publish the following week. Math We are knee deep in Unit 3, learning all about story problems. The students are creating a special tool belt to give them strategies on how to go about solving multiple types of story problems. Theses included using drawings, math mountains, circle drawings and addition or subtraction equations to help solve these problems. Science The young scientists will be wrapping up their Science Notebooks this week. Inside, new vocabulary words will have been written with definitions and a few sorting experiments will be included also. On a side note, we will learn more about bats from our Scholastic Newsletters at the end of the week. Miscellaneous -We at Middleton had our first lock down drill on Monday. In light of many events in the recent past, I'm sure you all can understand why we do this and safety of your children is our utmost concern. If your child is showing signs of anxiety over this drill, don't hesitate to let me know. Thanks. -I see many of you have started to complete the online forms to schedule your parent/teacher conferences. I look forward to speaking with all of you in the near future. Have a great week. ~Mr. Layes |
AuthorMr. Layes hails from the Pacific NW, cut his teeth on the streets of NYC, and now calls the Midwest... home. Archives
September 2017
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