Weekly Wrap Up

What a busy, busy week we had here in first grade. We thankfully did not have too many assessments like last week. We also were drill and assembly free, which meant we were able to get to a lot. Let’s see what we were up to….on to the highlights!!!


Math:

It was a big week in math. We spent some time exploring doubles facts on Monday. This was the first time we brought doubles facts up, but we will focus on them a lot this year. Tuesday and Wednesday had us tackle our open response problem. This two-day lesson offered us a terrific opportunity to talk about how to best use pictures to help solve story problems. Thursday saw us tackle the number line and how we can use it as a tool to help solve addition and subtraction problems. Friday was catch-up and game day, which always goes over well.


Phonics:

In phonics this week we focused a lot on word families and the patterns they represent. We touched on over eight different word families during the week. We also talked a lot about consonant clusters and digraphs. The kids enjoyed these concepts quite a bit, which means we will do more with them next week!


Science:

We tackled two big lessons in science this week. On Tuesday we learned about cirrus, cumulus and stratus clouds. We even had an opportunity to make models of all these clouds using cotton balls. These fabulous models can be seen hanging in the classroom. On Thursday we talked about how water can change form. Partners got to select one item in the classroom to go into a cup of water that will be placed in the freezer. We discussed the results of this experiment this afternoon. I cannot wait.


Writing:

I have focused on writing these past weeks. I want the class’ writing to improve so we are adding several new facets to our pieces. I spoke about how we are trying to focus more on the setting of the story these past weeks. This week I introduced the 5 W’s and how we should incorporate them into our first page of writing. For those of you unfamiliar with the 5 W’s, they are who, what, where, why and when. I have told the class that I want to see these 5 W’s in the first page of their writing. They have really enjoyed this.



Although this was not all that occurred throughout the week, these were the highlights. If you have any questions, comments or concerns please let me know and until next week…all told.