First Grade News October 21, 2013

Curriculum Highlights
Math number patterns, addition and subtraction, time to the half hour Writing Progress check Reading Fluency and expression Learning Reflections Conferences Thursday and Friday. Please be on time. Oct 23-25 Book Fair have a browse before or after your conference or join us at 9:20am Wednesday October 23rd as our class takes a look.

Coming Up

News From Ms. Tindalls Class

Its a busy week with conferences this Thursday and Friday. Please account for traffic and parking so that you can be on time. Arriving late may mean you miss your conference and will have to wait until another space becomes available. If you have not already returned the pre-conference questionnaire, please send it via email today. This is a vital time to share information about how we can together help your child grow. I am just as interested in getting information from you about how to best help your child as you are from me. Please be prepared to shareJ. Take the opportunity to talk with your child this week about how they perceive their learning progress in first grade. Initially children will typically respond that they know everything, however as they become accustomed to knowing that we learn from our mistakes and that there is always more to learn they will become better at this selfreflection. Articulating learning progress, how we are learning and what we want/ need to learn next are key skills in becoming independent and self-motivated learners. You might start by asking your child some general questions such as: What are you good at? What do you like to do? Whats something thats hard for you? Whats something you would like to do better? Taking one of your childs answers you might then go into some more specific dialogue such as: What are you doing well in writing? (eg, spelling, getting ideas, revising, thinking of interesting words, writing exciting beginnings, remembering to add punctuation to the end of sentences etc your child may need prompting to begin with.) How could you make your writing better? What are you working on now? What strategies do you use to improve? The second part of this self-reflection process is discovering who they are as a learner by reflecting on how they learn. Ask your child what he/she knows about him/herself as a learner. What is the best learning environment for him/her? EG Does she prefer a quiet space or does he find it helpful working with a partner? What types of things help him/her to understand? Seeing work visually? A physical model? Does music help ideas to stick? With this knowledge what can he/she do when trying to learn something new? Thanks for your continued support. I look forward to seeing you at conferences. In partnership, Ms. Tindall

Monday Reading: What clues do you see that help guide your expression? Word Study: Be a detective. Go on a hunt for words that have the long a sound such as day, train, cake What different ways can you find to make the long a sound? Math: Take cubes, Legos, any materials you have multiples of and make your own patterns. Why is it a pattern? Are all patterns linear? (in a single line?) Discussion: Ask an adult about things that help them to learn? Do they like to see things? Hear things? Do things? What makes learning stick for them? Tuesday Reading: What clues do you see that help guide your expression? Math: Use a number grid (sample attached) to create and solve your own number problems. EG Now I have 57 books. If I give 12 away to charity how many will I have left? Use the number grid to hop forward and back to solve the problems you create. Discussion: Talk with an adult about who you are as a learner? What things help you to learn? Do you like to work with a partner or by yourself? Do you need a quiet space or do you like to work with music in the background? Do you remember things better when you see them, hear them, do them? Wednesday Reading: What clues do you see that help guide your expression? Math: Odd or even? Write numbers that are important to you EG your age, birthdate, mum and dads age, house number etc. Decide if each one is odd or even. Explain to an adult how you know. Discussion: Think about where youre going as a learner? What things do you think it is important to know/learn? What are a few things you want to learn this year?

Thursday Reading: What clues do you see that help guide your expression? Word Study: Identify words with long and short a in your reading books. Math: Use the number grid to play Rolling for 100. You can make up your own game by colouring squares. EG Colour 10 squares on the grid red (this means go back 10 spaces). Colour 10 squares on the grid green (this means go forward 5 spaces). Colour 5 squares yellow (this means miss a turn.) The first person to 100 loses/ wins. (the point is to practice moving up and down the number grid in correct numerical order watch for transitions at the end of the line) Portfolio Reflection: Share your portfolio with your parents. Tell how you are progressing in grade one. What are you doing well? What are you working on? What strategies are you using to improve? Ask your parents what they do when they want to get better at something. Friday Reading Poem collection