First Grade News

Curriculum Highlights

February 18, 2013

Math Applying Rules, Progress Check Science animal adaptations, habitat Word Study question words and qu review Writing - information report parts of a paragraph - topic sentences, fact sentences, concluding sentences Reading Monitoring comprehension

Reminders
Parent/ teacher conferences - March 7th & 8h. Grade One Performance, 8:30am Friday March 1st February 22, Friday, No school for students Teacher In-service February 21, Chinese New Year Cultural Day

Word Study

what where

when how

why quick

which quiet

who queen

News From Ms. Tindalls Class

From the research: It is recommended for children under the age of 8 to spend no more than 1 hour per day in front of a screen. This includes combined computer, TV and video games. How much is your child getting each day? From Jane Healy, Failure to Connect. (Parents this is an amazing book if you have ever wondered what roles computers/technology should play in a childs life.) I also highly recommend Your Childs Growing Brain: Brain Development from Birth Through Adolescence by the same author.
This week in Writers Workshop we will start working on our first draft taking our dash facts (plan) and writing them into sentences. We will be learning about the structure of a paragraph introduction (topic sentence), body (fact, explanation and example sentences) and conclusion (concluding sentence). You can support this learning at home by looking for these features in the books you are reading together. Some sections you read may or may not have all three parts. Topic sentences tell the reader what the section will be about EG Dogs eat different types of food. or Dogs eat many kinds of foods. or Dogs dont have a varied diet. or There are only a few things that dogs like to eat. or Do you know what dogs eat? I do. The topic sentence shouldnt tell any specific fact. The concluding sentence is very similar. It doesnt tell any new information but sums up the main points of the section. EG As you can see dogs have a limited diet. or Clearly dogs have big appetites. or Dogs really do eat a lot of food. or Obviously the size and type of the dog will determine how much food it eats.

In partnership, Ms. Tindall

Monday Reading: Show an adult how you get your mind ready for reading by taking out your mental file on the topic you are about to read about and talking about what you think you already know. Demonstrate at the end of reading how your file has changed. What new information did you add to your file, what incorrect information did you have to throw out? Word Study: Sort the words into groups. (There is no correct answer you might see many different patterns.) Math: Homelink 5.12

Tuesday

Reading: Show an adult how you get your mind ready for reading by taking out your mental file on the

topic you are about to read about and talking about what you think you already know. Demonstrate at the end of reading how your file has changed. What new information did you add to your file, what incorrect information did you have to throw out? Word Study: Circle the words that are used to ask a question? How are they alike? How are they different? Math: Practice telling time to the quarter hour. Homelink 5.13
Wednesday Reading: Tell an adult what is the purpose of a topic sentence? How does it help you when reading? Word Study: Make up a sentence using each question word. Math: Homelink 5.14

Thursday Reading: Find some fact sentences. Talk about how the author has explained the facts or given examples. Word Study: Find question words and <qu> words in your reading books. Math: Get fact power! What can you do so that you know the addition facts for single digit numbers automatically? Do it. J

Friday Reading Poem Collection Find photos, pictures, charts, diagrams, graphs etc that you might like to include in your information report. Send them to school on Monday.