September 23rd Update

For the past two weeks we have been in full swing! In math we have been reviewing coin recognition, value and combinations. Students are also reviewing time to the hour and half hour. Many students are still reversing their numbers so we are also practicing writing our numbers in the correct direction. 

In reading we have been focusing our learning on retelling a story in sequential order. We discuss the events in the story and work together to retell the story while including the important events. This is a skill that can be hard for children to do which is why we practice it a lot and I would encourage you to work on this at home when you are reading with your child. Ask simple questions like “what happened after/before _____” or “tell me what happened in this story”. If they can recall the story and state all major events with detail, that is great. What I often see from children is a very basic retell but they don’t always use character names, setting and/or include details. For example, let’s pretend you and your child just read The Three Little Pigs. Many times a first grade retell would be “The pigs built some houses. The wolf kept coming and saying he was going to blow the house down, he blew the two houses down and then the third house he couldn’t blow down so he went down the chimney and fell in the pot”. That is a retell but it is lacking detail. So the following a response that I look for when giving reading assessments “There once were three little pigs. They went out to build some houses. The first pig chose to build his house out of straw. The second pig built his house out of sticks. The third pig built his house out of bricks. The wolf came along to the first pigs house and said “Little Pig, Little Pig, let me in”. The pig said “not by the hair on my chinny chin chin”. The wolf huffed and puffed and blew the house in. Then the wolf went to the next pig’s house….” etc. 

I think you get the point. But notice the difference in details from the first retell and the second. I work with the students and using character names and including important and relevant details. 

In writing workshop the students are “publishing” their first stories. I conference with them and help them with spelling, grammar and conventions. During our conference I talk with them about starting our sentences in a variety of ways rather than “And then we, and then we, and then we”. Like I said at Curriculum Night, writing is one of the hardest things for first graders to learn but they are working hard and doing a great job! Not all of the stories are up yet but they should be by next week. Please feel free to come up and take a look on our hallway bulletin board. 

We’ve been so busy I haven’t had a chance to take any great pictures this week so I apologize for that. Hope you enjoyed the update. Panthers play the Vikings on Sunday at 1:00!! Goooo Panthers!! 🙂 

Shabbat Shalom!