First Grade May News

Reading Workshop This month the student are going on “reading adventures” and meeting characters along the way. In the Meeting Characters and Learning Lessons unit the children are focusing on retelling their books with details, learning important lessons, learning about characters and how they change. We are also working on fluency and stamina. The students are working on developing language skills to produce a class discussion about stories they read.

Writing Workshop We will continue with our Realistic Fiction unit. The children have come up with their own characters and some real life problems their characters will have. The children will be working on writing several books in their character series. They will be working on elaborating their stories by adding dialogue, character thinking and feeling. Tell parts of the story in small steps.

Math We will be finishing up our current math unit - Number Games and Crayon Puzzles. The children are doing very well at finding a combination of 10 to solve 3 digit problems. Next we will be moving into our place value unit - How Many Tens? How Many One? Children will be working on adding and subtracting groups of 10, playing math games that promote understanding of place value (tens and ones) and learning strategies for Adding within 100.

Science The first grade students will continue their final unit of study on air and weather. The students will be studying the weather, clouds and wind - How the wind moves clouds to help change the weather. The students will explore wind by making pinwheels, kites, and whirly-gigs and observing how bubbles move when wind is present.

Social StudiesThe students will begin a new unit which is called “Families Now and Then” that focuses on the past, present and future. They will learn to use new vocabulary words such as transportation, communication, education, and settlers.

Word StudyIn word study the students will continue to focus on long vowels, and the parts of speech, and punctuation. They have learned to read and write almost all of their high frequency words! You can continue to practice the former words of the week at home.

Upcoming Events: May 3rd – Trip to Botanical Garden

May 11th – PTA Plant FundraiserMay 16th - Parent Teacher Evening 4:30-7:30 p.m.May 18th- Family Fun Night with Alastair King May 29th- Memorial Day- School Closed