First Grade Tiger Tales - Central Elementary January 2014

Reading Aloud
This month we have been reading biographies about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We will learn respect for others rights and their opinions. We will also continue our author study of Jan Brett, reading many of her winter books.

Shared Reading
We will add poems to our poetry collection that support this months themes. They included a poem about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a snowman poem, and a winter poem. We will read the book Snowballs; in class perform a readers theater based on the book. We will also read two poems about 100 when we celebrate the 100th day of school. Throughout all of our reading instruction the students practice asking themselves three key questions when they attempt to solve an unknown word. Does that sound right? Does that look right? Does that make sense?

Foundations
We continue to learn about long vowel patterns with final -e and vowel teams. We will also learn about prefixes and suffixes. We will learn to decode words by breaking them into syllables and we will learn that every syllable must have a vowel.

Writing
This month we are learning to write informational text as we write together about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We continue working on sequence and organization in our writing. We will use a graphic organizer to outline the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We will follow the outline as we write about his life. In February, the students will be asked to use the same process to write stories independently about the life of Abraham Lincoln. This month the students will independently write the directions for building a snowman, in order, from first to last. We continue to work on rereading our writing to check for proper sentence formation and the use of correct punctuation and capitalization. We are learning to revise and edit our writing.

Math
In math we have finished our unit on place value. We will learn to compare numbers using the terms greater than, less than, and is equal to. Well also use symbols to compare. We will learn how to figure out 10 more and 10 less than a given number. We will also work on adding and subtracting within 20 using place value and making ten to assist us in adding and subtracting. At times we are unable to finish all the worksheets provided by our program in class. We encourage you to help your child finish the extra worksheets at home.

100-Day Party

On January 31st we will be celebrating the hundredth day of school. Please help your child collect 100 pieces of one thing to share. Put them in a baggie and bring them to school by January 28th. During our 100th day celebration the students will trade some of their collection with their classmates. Each student will go home with an assorted collection of 100 items. It will be important for each student to have 100 things for sharing.

SEPs February 5th and 6th

Be looking for information regarding signing up for SEPs. Thanks, Mrs. Arens, Mrs. Bodily, Mrs. Steveson, & Mrs. Tingey