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First Grade News

Curriculum Highlights

October 7, 2013

Math Addition & Subtraction Number Models, Progress Check Word Study ung, ing, ang Writing Workshop Writing Cycle Editing, Publishing Reading Workshop Decoding strategies What do you do when you come across a word you dont know? Parent/ teacher conferences October 24th & 25th - no classes for students. These days have been set aside especially to cater for conferences as meeting during the normal busy school week for teachers is difficult. Please plan to be available for these conferences as a lot of preparation goes into planning between teachers and admin to ensure that siblings are scheduled around the same time and support teachers such as EAL can be in attendance too. This is your opportunity to ask questions, bring up any issues and find out about the progress of your child. Please start thinking about what you would like to get from the conference ahead of time so that you can get the most out of your allotted time with your childs teacher.

Reminders

News From Ms. Tindalls Class


In our Writers Workshop we have been talking about different types of writing and purposes for writing. It would be very helpful if you could continue this discussion at home. Notice different types of writing in your environment and what purposes they serve. For example, the newspaper is generally non-fiction and its purpose is to let people know whats going on in the world. A street signs purpose might be to let people know where they are. A poster may be trying to get you to buy something or let you know when a special event is on. A letter may be to share information with someone or to persuade. A history book may be used as a record of past events. Next we will be working on a form of writing called a narrative, which is just another name for a story. What is the purpose of stories? Why do we record them? Why do you read stories? What are your favourites? In our Weather unit we will be learning how to measure different aspects of the weather cloud cover, wind speed, temperature and precipitation. See if your child can tell you which tool and unit we use for measuring each part. EG for cloud cover we use our eyes and we record the cloud cover with fractions saying how much of the sky is covered with cloud 0 (blue no cloud), (a little bit of cloud, lots of blue), (about half blue, half cloud), (mostly cloud, a little blue), or 1 (all cloud, no blue). We also look at the type of clouds and make predictions based on what we see such as, low dark clouds will most likely bring rain. Air temperature we can feel with our sense of touch, but we measure it with a thermometer in degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit. In Malaysia we use degrees Celsius. Both direction and speed of wind is measured by scientists using a wind sock, weather vane or anemometer. We use our senses to see, hear and feel the wind. In partnership, Ms. Tindall

Monday Reading: What strategies are you using to figure out words you dont know? How does using more than one strategy help you become a better reader? Math: Grab handfuls of 5 cent and 1 cent coins. Practice counting the money. Remember to put all of the fives together first and then the ones to make it easier for counting. EG 5, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18 = 18 cents. Tuesday Reading: What strategies are you using to figure out words you dont know? How does using more than one strategy help you become a better reader? Math: Practice telling time to the hour. Heres a game you might like to use on the computer to help you practice: http://www.abcya.com/telling_time.htm

Wednesday Reading: Teach an adult how you can use more than one strategy to figure out a word. Math: Keep practicing telling time to the hour. Heres another game you might try: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/maths/telling_the_time/play/popup.shtml Review long and short hand. Review where the hour and minute hands actually point remember the short hand points to the hours (big numbers on the clock), the minute hand does NOT point to these numbers, it points to the small marks on the outside of the clock, the minutes. Review clockwise. If youre not sure how can you check? Thursday Reading: Teach an adult how you can use more than one strategy to figure out a word. Math: Practice skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s. Its best to find real objects to group and count. But you might also like to try: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/mathgames/earlymath/BalloonPopSkip.htm

Friday Reading Poem collection: Sing/ recite to your family and please return it to school on Monday.

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