It's that time of year again...report card time! I'm happy to report on your child's successes and hope you're eager to find out how your child operates at school! The first and second grade classes are sending home report cards on Monday so you should be looking in your child's homework bag for this quarter's report. With all of the wonderful things your child can now do, I hope that reading is still a priority each night. It's easy to skip, but the best way to skills fresh. Read, read, read!
I have to say, it was a very strange thing to be using an UMBRELLA today as I made my way into school on January 27th! The class is hoping for snow and frankly, so am I!
Our penguin unit is well under way and the class is very excited to learn about each penguin. So far they've learned about the king penguin and the rockhopper. Ask you child to tell you about each penguin.
Today the class took the unit 6 Fundations assessment. Even though the class did pretty well overall, there were several skills which need more work and we'll be reviewing unit 6 again this week. At this point in the year, children should be using capitals at the beginning of most sentences and punctuation at the end of sentences. Even during this very controlled situation, many kids are forgetting to use capitals and punctuation. So we'll...practice, practice, practice!
On the subject of spelling...the trick words are getting trickier and trickier! And each week there are three new words to learn! Eek! So I found a website which I think your children might like to use at home and may help with spelling, especially the trick words. The site is called "Spelling City". I'm able to make spelling lists for each unit and by need. Click here to go to Spelling City. Once on their site, you'll see blue tabs...the first says "Home" and the second says "Find a list". Click on "Find a list." A red label says "Find a list" and below that it says "advanced search." Enter the name "Miss Lass" and it is set to look for teacher's name. Once you find me, click on my name. Now you can scroll down and should see the four lists I've made so far. Where is says "Unit 6 List 1" you will find phonetically regular words for this unit. List 2 simply has more words to practice. None of these are "the" spelling words for the week. Kids learn a skill, not a list of words. The list called "Trick Words Cumulative" includes ALL trick words taught this year. The list titled "Trick Words Unit 6" only has the nine words taught this unit. If you only allow a certain amount of time online for your child, I'd try the trick word lists first. They're the hardest to learn! We only have access to the free activities but the kids don't seem to mind! Enjoy!
Have a great weekend!
Friday, January 27, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
January Cold! Brrr!
Wow! What a chilling week! Thank you for making sure your children had all the cold weather gear they needed for this frosty week! Wednesday they came in from recess early...not because of the cold, but because the playground was blanketed by a sheet of ice! (Much like my driveway!) Luckily, that didn't last long!
The marking period is coming to a close and so we're hurrying to finish up our assessments to report progress. I'm happy with the reading progress and the kids love books! What more can you ask for!
I was out Thursday to attend a math class here at HCS. It's the third seminar held this year where all first and second grade teachers along with one of our kindergarten teachers, a special educator, one tutor, our math coordinator and Mr. Goudreau meet with math specialist Clare Earley to learn about best practices in math. We spent a week together this summer and now we meet every few months to reflect and observe a lesson. It's very informative and I come back to math the next day with new ideas! I miss being with the class, but I stopped in to see them and check on them!
Speaking of math...this week we began the penguin math unit! They've made the first game, Journey to Antarctica, and played it several times. They are thrilled to think the games will come home at the end of the unit. They were so excited that they asked to use their choice time in the morning to color the game folder! Today's activity was a measurement task. Students were given a cup and a thermometer and access to cold water, hot water and ice. The task was to put water in the cup that was 60 degrees. The sheer determination on their faces shows how seriously they took the challenge! Perseverance was the word of the day!
Have a great weekend!
The marking period is coming to a close and so we're hurrying to finish up our assessments to report progress. I'm happy with the reading progress and the kids love books! What more can you ask for!
I was out Thursday to attend a math class here at HCS. It's the third seminar held this year where all first and second grade teachers along with one of our kindergarten teachers, a special educator, one tutor, our math coordinator and Mr. Goudreau meet with math specialist Clare Earley to learn about best practices in math. We spent a week together this summer and now we meet every few months to reflect and observe a lesson. It's very informative and I come back to math the next day with new ideas! I miss being with the class, but I stopped in to see them and check on them!
Speaking of math...this week we began the penguin math unit! They've made the first game, Journey to Antarctica, and played it several times. They are thrilled to think the games will come home at the end of the unit. They were so excited that they asked to use their choice time in the morning to color the game folder! Today's activity was a measurement task. Students were given a cup and a thermometer and access to cold water, hot water and ice. The task was to put water in the cup that was 60 degrees. The sheer determination on their faces shows how seriously they took the challenge! Perseverance was the word of the day!
Have a great weekend!
Friday, January 13, 2012
A New Year Begins...
Hi Folks,
I'm looking out at the dreary day and thinking how lucky I am to spend my days with such sunshine-y little friends! It's bright in our classroom! We've had a wonderful week! I love this time of year! They can do so much more than they could even last week!
It's been a very busy week...I've begun the January assessments of reading and math. I've been meeting with each child one at a time to read and talk about books. It's so exciting to see them unraveling the mystery of reading! They are so proud to do what everyone else can do! Such big kids already!
Our current Fundations unit is about suffix -s. They are learning how to add -s to words to mean more than one. When I dictate words with suffix -s, they say the base word and then say the entire word with suffix -s. For example, if the word is "pins", they say "pin-pins". This way they learn to think about spelling the base word first. It really, really matters when spelling words like "gifts". You don't hear the "t" sound and often kids spell "gifs". Obviously, that's a problem! By thinking about the base word first, kids avoid this common confusion!
We are just finishing up unit 3 in math and will be starting unit 4 on Tuesday. This is our big penguins unit! The focus of the unit is measurement. They will be studying penguins as a medium for measuring length, weight and temperature. There are a series of games that the kids learn to play and make in class. At the end of the unit, the games come home to keep! Very exciting! They will each draw and paint a life size penguin!
Our current writing unit (small moments with mini-lessons on good beginnings and partnerships) is drawing to a close. We will have an in-class celebration with kindergarten buddies and then beginning a study of non-fiction writing.
Remember...no school on Monday! Have a great long weekend!
I'm looking out at the dreary day and thinking how lucky I am to spend my days with such sunshine-y little friends! It's bright in our classroom! We've had a wonderful week! I love this time of year! They can do so much more than they could even last week!
It's been a very busy week...I've begun the January assessments of reading and math. I've been meeting with each child one at a time to read and talk about books. It's so exciting to see them unraveling the mystery of reading! They are so proud to do what everyone else can do! Such big kids already!
Our current Fundations unit is about suffix -s. They are learning how to add -s to words to mean more than one. When I dictate words with suffix -s, they say the base word and then say the entire word with suffix -s. For example, if the word is "pins", they say "pin-pins". This way they learn to think about spelling the base word first. It really, really matters when spelling words like "gifts". You don't hear the "t" sound and often kids spell "gifs". Obviously, that's a problem! By thinking about the base word first, kids avoid this common confusion!
We are just finishing up unit 3 in math and will be starting unit 4 on Tuesday. This is our big penguins unit! The focus of the unit is measurement. They will be studying penguins as a medium for measuring length, weight and temperature. There are a series of games that the kids learn to play and make in class. At the end of the unit, the games come home to keep! Very exciting! They will each draw and paint a life size penguin!
Our current writing unit (small moments with mini-lessons on good beginnings and partnerships) is drawing to a close. We will have an in-class celebration with kindergarten buddies and then beginning a study of non-fiction writing.
Remember...no school on Monday! Have a great long weekend!
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