Monday, November 9 - Sunday, November 22
*We do not have school on Monday, November 23rd.
*Please send final reading logs and money to school on Tuesday, November 24th.
Wow! G1A ended the week with a total of 1,628 minutes. Great job everyone! Let's keep reading and raising money to donate to the Project Aware foundation.
Every time a G1A student reads for a total of 30 minutes, they color and add an animal to our ocean scene to help create our Read-a-thon display on the 3F. Look at all the animals G1A, G1B, and G3B added this week!
UST's spare change project is another great way to donate to the Project Aware foundation. You can send 1 and 5 yen coins to school to help us fill our donation jar. Thank you!
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School Decorations - Diwali
*Note from UST PTA*
In celebration of Diwali this Saturday, a group of UST parents decorated the ground floor elevator hallway with beautiful handmade decorations for everyone to enjoy.
What is Diwali?
Diwali is the Indian festival of lights. Hindus normally celebrate with lighting many diyas (indian lamps), puja (prayers), baking delicious biscuits and sweets, buying new clothes for the day, home decoration and fireworks at night.
This festival is linked to many different gods and goddesses within the Indian culture, depending on the region of celebration. However, Diwali in general symbolizes the spiritual "victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance".
You can read more here:
National Geographic Kids
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/diwali/
Times Now - Diwali: Know why we celebrate Deepavali, the festival of lights
https://www.timesnownews.com/spiritual/religion/article/diwali-know-why-we-celebrate-deepavali-the-festival-of-lights/678274
Times of India - What is Diwali and how to celebrate the festival of lights?
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/events/happy-diwali-2018-what-is-diwali-and-how-to-celebrate-the-festival-of-lights-diwali/articleshow/66475100.cms
Mystery Reader *ZOOM*
Parent Sign Up
Mr. Hassey and I would like to invite parents to read books to the G1 students this year as Mystery Readers! G1A and G1B classes will join the Mystery Reader on Zoom.
When you have a moment, please visit the G1 Mystery Reader calendar.
Mystery Reader Calendar - CLICK HERE
*Calendar has been updated to December 2020*
If you are interested in being a Mystery Reader, you can choose a week that's highlighted on the calendar. After you pick a week that is open (no one has signed up) please complete the section on the left side of the calendar with your name and child's name. You can also write on the calendar to show the days and times that work best with your schedule. Once you have filled in the calendar, please take a moment to email your child's homeroom teacher letting us know that you are interested in being a Mystery Reader for Grade 1. We will work with you to schedule a day and time during the school day to sign onto Zoom for the read aloud.
Remember, it is a mystery! Please do not tell your child if you are the mystery reader. We would like to keep it a surprise for the students. We hope to have many parents volunteer and participate! Thank you!
Writing Narrative Writing During writing this week, students began sharing their published writing pieces with one another. They also started one more personal narrative by following the writing process. They will complete this work independently and it will be graded as a final assessment to end our narrative writing unit. Writing Process: Prewrite, Write, Revise, Edit, Publish Please check your child's Seesaw Journal next week to see a photo of their final published work. |
Math
Shapes
Our focus this week was 2D shapes. Students practiced using shapes (triangles, rhombuses, trapezoids, hexagons) to complete shape outlines and worked on tangram activities.
Students also cut out different shapes and folded them to make two new shapes that are alike and two new shapes that are different. After discussing which shapes showed equal and not equal parts, our class was introduced to halves and fourths.
Halves
Students divided circles into halves to make their own half and half pizzas. They also colored different shapes two colors and practiced saying, "One half of the _____ is _____!" (Ex. One half of the triangle is blue!).
Fourths
This week our class also practiced fourths (quarters). Students divided shapes into fourths (squares, rectangles, and circles) and chose four different colors. They practiced saying, "One fourth of the _____ is _____!" (Ex. One fourth of the rectangle is pink!).
Science
Sounds
During Science our class took a sound field trip to the 7th floor. Students drew pictures and wrote about what they were hearing outside. After the field trip we talked about what information sound gives us.
"Outdoors I hear __________."
"The sound told me that __________."
- What did you observe with your ears?
- What did you hear?
- What is the source of the sound?
- Did you hear any animals?
- Did you hear a vehicle? Did you see it?
- Was that a loud or soft sound?
- What was vibrating?
- What information did you get from the sounds you heard?
We also explored using a tone generator to learn more about sound. When the tone generator was turned on, we listened carefully to hear a sound. The students confirmed that the speaker cone was vibrating by touching it. Next I placed a lid above the speaker, then put coffee grounds on the lid. I switched the tone generator on and we observed the coffee grounds moving. We discussed that the sound is moving through the air, making the lid vibrate and the coffee grounds move.
Vocabulary: sound, vibration, sound source, sound receiver, hear, loud, soft
Next week we will investigate changing sound (volume, pitch).
Reading
Tackling Trouble
We’ve been learning about how to read new, tricky words. This week students worked together to help their reading partners use reading strategies and fix mistakes by using a kind voice to say, "check that." Students listened to their own reading and asked themselves:
Does that make sense?
Does that sound right?
Does that look right?
After correcting their mistakes, the class also learned that good readers go back and reread the sentences they fixed up before continuing on with the story.
We also reviewed how to use our best storyteller voices when reading aloud.
- read in a just right speed
- not too fast
- not too slow
- voice changes
- make your reading sound interesting
- match what's happening in the story
- think about how the character(s) feel
- pay attention to end marks (. ! ?)
We ended the week reviewing how good readers retell stories they've read. Students retold stories across their fingers by using words such as first, then, next, after, that, and finally.
Recess
Have a wonderful weekend!
- Ms. Allison