This week we reviewed short a and short i. Our spelling words included examples from the word families -am and -it.
When we practice during the week students are encouraged to use words they know to help them read and spell other words.
“If I can read/spell am, I can read/spell jam, ham, and swam.”
“If I can read/spell it, I can read/spell hit, sit, and split.”
During Reading, we continued learning about different ways to read. Last week we learned that one way you can read a book is by reading the illustrations. This week our class was introduced to two new ways to read: read the words and retell a story. Students chose a familiar “just right” book and practiced retelling the story with another classmate during partner reading. They also completed reading response journal pages to write about what they remembered from the story they read.
Last week our class was introduced to the writing process. This week we read about a writer who followed the writing process to publish a story. We focused on what a writer should do during each step of the writing process.
The Writing Process
Prewrite: Think, List, Choose, Draw
*Think about your topic
*List your ideas
*Choose one idea as your topic
*Draw a picture about your topic
Write: Look, Think, Write
*Look at your picture to get ideas
*Think about what happened
*Write your first draft
Revise: Read, Listen, Change
*Read your first draft to a partner
*Listen to your partner’s questions
*Change your writing
Edit: Read, Check, Correct
*Read your revised writing
*Check your sentences for capital letters, end marks, and spelling
*Correct your sentences
Publish: Think, Write, Share
*Think of a title
*Write a neat final copy and finish illustrating
*Share your writing with others
This week we learned about number bonds. Students practiced making number trains with connecting cubes (whole), then breaking their number trains into two parts. We used our connecting cubes to help us make number bonds on the whiteboard to show the parts and the whole.
We related number bonds to addition and wrote equations to match the number bonds we were representing with connecting cubes. We also challenged ourselves to create number bonds showing three parts.
During these activities, we explored different ways to combine parts to create the same whole.
Example:
Three ways to make 5: 0+5=5, 1+4=5, 2+3=5
We have been talking about good citizenship and how we can be good citizens at school and in our community. This week our class talked about conflict and cooperation. Students brainstormed different ways children can work together to end conflict.
Social Studies Vocabulary
Cooperation: Working with others
Conflict: Not getting along
Student Council Elections
We had student council elections this week! Each year, one boy and one girl from every class are elected to join student council for the school. Nine students in G1A were interested in becoming a member of student council. These students wrote a speech to present to our class: “I think I would be a good member of student council because…” After we listened to each student share their speech, everyone had an opportunity to vote. They circled one name on each ballot and put their vote in a basket. I counted the votes and announced to the class that Emily and Elijah are the UST student council members from our G1A class! I am so proud of the first grade students who participated in our election and tried out for UST’s student council!
Our Science question this week was, “What are Inquiry Skills?” We learned that inquiry skills are skills that help you learn and scientists use these skills to help answer questions they have.
Inquiry Skills:
Observe
Compare
Measure
Predict
Classify
Communicate
Hypothesize
Plan an Investigation
Infer
Draw Conclusions
Make a Model
Sequence
Each student illustrated one of the inquiry skills we learned about. These posters will be up in our classroom for the entire school year. We will reference them during our science lessons and investigations.
We ended our week with a birthday celebration for all of the Grade 1 September birthdays!
- Miss Allison