Well two weeks have flown by and they have been packed with activities both in school and at home. We have jumped into reading, writing, math, social studies, science, and phonics all while learning to navigate laptops, google classroom, google Meets, dual screens in school, and technical issues that were bound to arise with so many students online simultaneously. A huge thank you to families for helping your kids succeed with this. They are fast learners!
I just love seeing how focused they are when they are writing, drawing, or otherwise engaged in activities- the seriousness and conscientiousness that they show as they do their best work is so endearing and appreciated!
Writing lessons have focused on letter formation, using lower case instead of capitals, and practicing a feature often seen in non-fiction books- writing labels. The kids are so artistic! They have created their own drawings to label and have labeled pictures that coincide with other topics we have explored. Yesterday after our lessons on Johnny Appleseed and apple trees, they drew a labeled life cycle of the apple tree- so detailed and accurate! They labeled a poison dart frog after we learned a bit about animals of the Rain Forest, and they drew and labeled an American flag after we read and learned about our flag and the Pledge of Allegiance. Next week, we begin 'Writers Write Lists'.
Our read-alouds this week have provided a chance to practice comprehension strategies. We have identified characters and main characters in books as we read Little Bunny's Sleepless Night, compared and contrasted characters as we read Fred and Ted, and observed how characters can change when we read the funny book Ten Apples Up On Top. Reading The Red Eyed Tree Frog was a good introduction to non fiction books as was reading books on Johnny Appleseed. How do readers sound when they read? We practiced expression while group reading several books on epic and while reading the The Spooky Old Tree and There's A Monster Under My Bed. The kids did the follow-up response pages to many of these books- thanks for helping them find them in their many papers sent home!
Have we been moving and dancing these last weeks? YES! Sitting at desks or home with a laptop for lengths of time mean we really do need movement breaks. We have daily sight word review dance and movement opportunities along with numerous chances to be active with other online videos, brain breaks, and content related songs. Let's keep in shape!
Vibrations, sound waves, volume, pitch- we have certainly had fun in science learning about SOUND! We've tried experiments, watched fun and informative videos, and practiced making sound, feeling and seeing the vibrations, and recording or drawing the results. Next week we begin LIGHT energy!I have seen that this is a group of very responsible kids! In social studies, we began with 'citizenship'- being responsible, understanding and following rules, and practicing the Golden Rule of treating others the way we would like to be treated. We had some companion stories and songs that reinforced these character traits, and we certainly have some wonderfully caring children here in our class!
Ten frames, number bonds, cube trains, math notebooks- these have been daily tools as we have learned how to use them, how to record number sentences, and how to make combinations of a number. We have explored the commutative property of addition- adding in any order as we made cube trains in 2 colors and then flipped the train to record the new order of numbers. Nice work everyone!
In reading and phonics we have reviewed letter sounds, sung sight word songs, introduced all short vowels, and have worked with rhymes and syllables. Rhyming is such a great foundation for isolating sounds within words and for reading and spelling words with similar ending patterns (win, fin, thin, chin...). It was loads of fun 'feeding' our Feed Me Monster with silly rhyming food and seeing what rhyming object My Aunt Came Back With on her travels!
There have been many firsts in these last 2 weeks of first grade. Everyone is doing so well! We are even managing a little google classroom work and learning how to turn in or mark as done. I will send more info about that. Enjoy the weekend and thank you everyone once again for your incredible commitment to your kids education!
See you Monday,
Mrs. Dagley
