Hello everybody,
There was a new moon out last night, that none of you could see. Of course the first clear night gave us an invisible moon. Take a close look tonight for a thin sliver of a crescent moon and fill out another Moon Journal entry. Thanks.
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The reading letter went out today. Please note that I began the wrong words of the week yesterday (I forgot that we are a week behind since we took a week off in November.) We are still working on magic 'e' this week. Study up.
Also, please do at least one moon observation each day from now until next Friday in the Moon Journals. If there are clouds, please draw some clouds and include date. I hope everybody had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday break. It was great spending time with most of you last Tuesday for conferences. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out via email or phone. Four more weeks until the real break. Here's the latest...
Math We are wrapping up our first topic and will have our mid-Module assessment tomorrow. We have been working with place value and base-10 for the last several weeks, so the kids will 'show me what they know' tomorrow. We will continue along the same path, but break down story problems with teens numbers this week. The same standards apply from last post as well. Science It's all about the moon for the next two weeks. We'll be learning all about the patterns the moon makes, why there are craters on the surface of the moon, and more. There is a moon journal coming home tonight. Please observe the moon on a daily/nightly basis for the next two weeks. Record the date, where the moon was in the sky, and draw a picture of the shape of the moon too. We will discuss our findings every morning. Please keep these in their purple folders. Thanks. Language We will be using informational texts to learn about the moon. The kids will learn to identify specific text features in non-fiction books including, headings, table of contents, labels/captions, glossary, index, etc. ***No Reading Letter today. You should see it tomorrow. See word work for words of the week. Word Work We are working on ck endings this week. Here are the spelling words: clock, pack, lick, stock, track, stick. Word wall words: are, an, if, will, play, this Writer's Workshop We will begin a new unit in writing this week: personal narratives. Students will have an opportunity to focus on one special event that happened to them and use various strategies to help their story come to life. Miscellaneous -Katherine Hall will turn 7 on December 1st ! -The 1st grade musical is coming up (see the reminder coming home today). It will be held on December 16th at 9 am in the gym. That is all for now. I'll post more later. ~Mr. Layes Good afternoon everybody,
Grades are due this week, and conferences are next Tuesday. If you are having difficulties signing up on powerptc, please contact me so I can forward your questions to our tech manager. I'm also swamped, so my apologies if I don't get back to as promptly as I would normally. Here's the latest... Math We are diving into place value in Module 2 this week (we will be learning about this topic until the winter break). Students are working on seeing a 10 in different stories/number sentences (e.g. 9+1+4 = 10+4). They will be using their math drawings and manipulatives to create a ten out of different parts. Here are the related standards for this week: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.OA.A.1 CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.OA.A.2 CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.OA.B.3 CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.OA.C.6 We also introduced another math tool: The Osmo! It's hard to explain in words so here's a link for you to learn more. At the moment we are using Osmo Numbers and Tangram. https://www.playosmo.com/en/ Science We are looking more closely at the sun this week, and specifically any patterns we see in the sky. We will look closely at sunrise/sunset times and see if we see any patterns there as well. We will also read about the sun. Language This week we will be reading all about the sun, both fiction (folktale) and informational text (Gail Gibbons!). We will also read the Napping House by Audrey Wood and work on retelling stories and reading the repetition words in order to build our fluency. Word Work Magic 'e' words are still the name of the game (pun intended). We will not have any new words next week. Thanks for all the help you give your students with their weekly words at home. Also, I am going to slowly roll out a new tool called Spelling City on the iPads. It's a fun app that allows kids to test their knowledge using a word list (in this case, our 12 words this week). Writer's Workshop We will be finishing up our Question and Answer books this week. The kids have been working hard showing me with their words what they are an expert at. We will focus on editing/revising this week and have a publishing party on Friday. Miscellaneous -The Book Fair is happening all week. We will preview the selection as a group on Tuesday. If your child wants to buy a book (wish lists will come home with titles and cost), please, PLEASE send money in an envelope that is labeled. I will collect these throughout the week, and on Friday those kids that brought money from home can go and buy their books. You are not obligated to buy, fyi. -On that note, thanks to those of you who recently bought books from our Scholastic Reading Club. The books have shipped and will arrive shortly. -Fall Enrichment end this Friday, November 18. There won't be any blog post until after the Thanksgiving Break. I hope to see all of you for conferences. If I don't, enjoy your break. Take care, ~Mr. Layes I'm excited to let you know that Middleton Elementary is participating in a special reading program called Read to Succeed. This helps motivate students to read at least six hours of recreational reading in order to earn a free ticket to Six Flags. Please read the letter that comes home for more information. Please note: these 6 hours have to be in addition to what they read for the reading log. Use the student reading log to document what your child is reading. As per my earlier post, have students take responsibility to fill in their entries, with only parent initializing the reading. If you have any further questions, please reach out. Thanks,
~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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