HI,
We had a busy week and fun week! We enjoyed an assembly on Friday by a magician with a message about working hard and staying drug free. It was entertaining and educational! Savanna got to be one of the volunteers on stage! She did a great job and was very funny!
We performed our reader's theaters for our first grade reading buddies on Friday afternoon. Mrs. Garcia had a microphone set up for us and everyone read well with expression! One of them was a realistic fiction piece about kids having a car wash to save the bookmobile program in their neighborhood. Another was a Japanese folktale with a message about listening to parents. The last one was a trickster tale about a sticky coyote. Ask your child about the plays.
Reading: We learned about media literacy this week. We explored a PBS website that taught us how advertisers try to persuade us to buy or do things. We looked at some commercials and evaluated them. We learned how photographers alter food and models to make them look better on film. Hopefully, the kids will think critically before asking you to buy something or believing everything they read or see online or on tv. We are continuing to read independently and talk about the books that we are reading. Be sure that your child is writing reading responses on Mondays and Tuesdays at home and that they are filling in their reading logs. They should be increasing their at home reading time as the year progresses.
Writing: We took a writing benchmark on Thursday and wrote about a surprising time. The revising and editing part was a bit tricky for most of us so we will be practicing those skills in a multiple choice format a little more. We have been working on more personal narrative entries and looking at quality published personal narratives to examine what authors do to make us feel like we are there with them in their story. We are working to make our readers feel like they are in our stories as well. Be sure that your child is writing entries at home on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Math: Fractions and decimals have been our focus this week. We use manipulatives and pictures to help us understand these concepts. We also are always practicing problem solving using addition, subtraction (especially with regrouping), division, and multiplication. Thank you for practicing facts at home so that they become automatic and then can focus more on the problem solving strategies than on the computation. We will be doing some more work using decimals than will be working on geometry.
Social Studies: We are beginning to research two important women in Texas history. One is Bessie Coleman, a Texas born pilot who was the first African American Aviator, and Barbara Jordan, an influential Texas politician. We will then be writing essays about these women and submitting them to our district's Black History Month writing contest.
Science: We finished up our Properties of Soil unit and will be learning about Changes to the Land which includes weathering, erosion, and deposition.
Reminders:
Monday, January 23-Checkpoint #4 is due (attached)
Tuesday, January 24-Math Club-2:45-3:45 in Mrs. Washburn's portable
Thursday, January 26-Writing Club 2:45-4:00 in the library
Tuesday, January 31-Service Club-2:45-4:00-glaze bowls for Empty Bowl Project in Mrs. Arnold's room, filmed by Mrs. Rollans-need permission from you to be filmed
Thursday, February 2-Science projects are due-Math Science Night at FCE
Tuesday, February 14-Pen Pals visit and we will glaze bowls with pen pals for Empty Bowl Project and then have our Valentine's Day party!
Have a great weekend! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thanks,
Pam Bartholomew
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