For the week of 1/29/18

What We’re Learning This Week:

Reading:  We will be reading the non-fiction book, “Penguins” by Anne Schreiber and comparing it with the story, “Little Penguin’s Tale” by Audrey Wood.  Students will work on retelling the stories (beginning, middle, and end) and explaining the differences between fiction and non-fiction texts.

*Please continue to read your child’s book-in-a-bag nightly with them.

Writing:  The first graders will continue their informational writing unit.  We will also be continuing to work on capitalization, end marks and writing detailed sentences through mini-lessons.  During this unit, each child will write information books about lots of different topics and revisit his or her writing to self-assess and revise (they will name a topic, give facts, and provide a sense of closure).

Word Study/Spelling: 

Fry Words: look, two, more, write, number

Feature/Pattern of the week: ag, eg, ig, og, ug

Grammar: Adjectives (continue to review)

Phonics: Consonant clusters: s family and possessives

Math: Our math lessons each day will include computational fluency, fact fluency, and core math instruction focused on the first grade common core math standards. Computational fluency will help the students to use the most effective and efficient strategies.  Fact Fluency is working with both addition and subtraction facts within 10.  Our end-of-the-year goal is to have students complete 15 addition facts in one minute and 15 subtraction facts in one minute. Our core lessons will include hands-on math activities and games that support the common core.

1st grading period Science and Social Studies:
Science: Comparing living and non-living things
Social Studies:  Geography/Places and Regions

Extras:

-Feb. 1^st: Musical, “James and the Giant Peach” at AHS/Happy 100th Day of School!

-February 2nd: Groundhog Day

-February 14th: Pass out Valentine's Day cards (non-consumable treats only)

-February 15th: Valentine's Day party!

-February 16th: Teacher in-service day: no school for students 

-February 19th: Presidents' Day: No School 

Mission Possible

A message from Ms. Mazzella (we are participating in this fun acts of kindness mission):

Some of our classes at Craddock are partaking in a Secret Agent Assignment! This mission, should they choose to accept it, has to do with Acts of Kindness!

As we continue to talk about kindness during my lessons, we thought this would be a great next step for the students. I am introducing the lesson with this video and then we discuss what they saw happening in the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwAYpLVyeFU

After that discussion, I play this music and distribute their Secret Agent Assignments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAYhNHhxN0A

Oh my goodness ~ I wish you could see their excitement as they find a special spot in the room, get their envelope and sit patiently waiting for their next instruction!

Included in these envelopes are acts of kindness ideas, a checklist to record their acts of kindness (or as one 2nd grader called it 'a mission log') and information about their mission.

Stay tuned and watch for acts of kindness that may appear in your world.......your child just may be a Mission Possible Secret Agent!!

For the week of 1/22/18

What We’re Learning This Week:

Reading:  We will be reading the story, “Little Penguin’s Tale.” by Audrey Wood. Students will ask and answer questions about the key details in the text. They will use the illustrations and details in the story to help describe its characters, setting or events. We will also discuss and identify who is telling the story at various points in a text.

*Please continue to read your child’s book-in-a-bag nightly with them.

Writing:  The first graders will continue their informational writing unit.  We will also be continuing to work on capitalization, end marks and writing detailed sentences through mini-lessons.  During this unit, each child will write information books about lots of different topics and revisit his or her writing to self-assess and revise (they will name a topic, give facts, and provide a sense of closure).

Word Study/Spelling: 

Fry Words: like, him, into, time, has

Feature/Pattern of the week: ad, ed, ab, ob

Grammar: Adjectives

Phonics: Consonant clusters: s family and comparative endings

Math: Our math lessons each day will include computational fluency, fact fluency, and core math instruction focused on the first grade common core math standards. Computational fluency will help the students to use the most effective and efficient strategies.  Fact Fluency is working with both addition and subtraction facts within 10.  Our end-of-the-year goal is to have students complete 22 addition facts in one minute and 22 subtraction facts in one minute (the second quarter goal is 15 addition problems in one minute and 15 subtraction problems in one minute). Our core lessons will include hands-on math activities and games that support the common core.

1st grading period Science and Social Studies:
Science: Comparing living and non-living things
Social Studies:  Geography/Places and Regions

Extras:

-Please remember to keep your child’s report card and return the signed envelope. Thank you!!!
-Tuesday, January 23: Class Pictures
-Feb. 1^st  Field trip to watch the Harmon Musical at AHS
 Please return signed permission slip. 

What We’re Learning This Week: Week of January 16th

Reading:  We will be comparing the fiction stories, “Frog and Toad Together, in the Garden” and “Frog and Toad all Year: Down the Hill” from our reading anthology book.  We will continue to focus on the characters, setting, and major events in the story.  We will also focus on asking and answering questions about a text.  Finally, we will be comparing and contrasting adventures and experiences of characters in a text. Your child will continue to come home with a guided reading book to read in their “book in a bag.”  Please remember to practice reading your child’s book-in-a-bag with them.  Ask them comprehension questions, such as, “Who are the characters?”-discuss if the characters change and compare and contrast any characters, “What is the setting of the story?”, “What is the main idea?”, and “Tell me what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of this story.”  Please continue to practice reading the book in bag with your child when they do bring it home.  If they do not bring a new book home, they can read another book or work on raz-kids.  

Writing: We will continue our new informational/non-fiction writing unit.  We will explore non-fiction mentor texts.  Then we will chart topics that we feel we can write an informational book about.  This week, the children will really explore table of contents in the mentor texts, and they will write their own table of contents, which will include introduction, headings about their topic, and conclusion.  The students will use their table of contents as a planning sheet to help them write their informational books.  As the students write, they will of course continue to make sure their sentences make sense, start with capital letters, end with punctuation, include correct spelling based on what we have learned, and are written neatly.  I will continue to conference with students and reinforce the application of what we are learning.

Word Study/Spelling:

-Letter Name- word families: an, un, in

-Read and Write Fry Words- so, some, her, would, make

-Grammar- compound words and review of verb tense continued

Math: Our math lessons each day will include computational fluency, fact fluency, and core math instruction focused on the first grade common core math standards. Computational fluency will help the students to use the most effective and efficient strategies.  Fact Fluency is working with both addition and subtraction facts within 10.  Our end-of-the-year goal is to have students complete 15 addition facts in one minute and 15 subtraction facts in one minute.  Our core lessons will include hands-on math activities and games that support the common core.  This second semester, we will really focus on quickly adding and subtracting numbers to 10 and using that to add and subtract to 20.  This week we will also be working on number sentences with missing numbers in all positions.  Students will solve word problems within 20 and higher.  

3rd grading period Science and Social Studies:
Science: Basic needs of living things
Social Studies: Geography/Places and Regions

Homework: Continue working on homework log for the month. Thank you for your continued home support!

Extras:

-Please make sure you are sending your child with a peanut-free snack!

- Monday, January 15^th- Martin Luther King Jr. Day: No School

-Please remember to keep your child’s report card and return the sign envelope. Thank you!!!

-Field trip to Harmon Middle School: James, and the Giant Peach- Thursday, February 1^st. Please return signed permission slip.

 -Tuesday, January 23: Class Pictures

      -Princess Prom: Saturday, February 3^rd