Mrs. Adler’s and Ms.

Zimmermann’s First Grade

Weekly Review
January 26, 2018

Past Week’s Review

WELCOME TO THE FIRST GRADE!
Let’s catch up on this last crazy week and a half! Last week we had Israeli dance lessons
and this week we played drums and other instruments with Utay Concerts of Love. We had a blast!
On Shabbat we had our musical play “We Come from Everywhere”. The students loved performing
for you as well as the rest of the school and we are so proud of all of their hard work.

In Language Arts, this week we have been continuing to learn about opinion writing as well as
practicing our persuasive writing skills. In Writer’s Workshop, we know that when we write an
opinion letter it is not enough to say something is “fun” in order to convince the reader of our idea.
We have to support our opinion with at least three or more different reasons. We also need to write
catchy introductions and conclusions to keep the reader interested. In phonics, our lesson focused
on words beginning and ending with ‘sh’. We know that ‘sh’ is a consonant cluster, but it is also a
consonant digraph because it makes a new sound rather than the independent ‘s’ and ‘h’ sounds.
We also learned about pronouns. A pronoun takes the place of a noun. For example, in the sentence
“Sam can run very fast.” We would change the noun Sam to the pronoun He in order to make a new
sentence like this one, “He can run very fast.” During Reader’s Workshop, we learned that when
readers are stumped, or what we just read didn’t make sense, we stop and think about what word
would fit to make the sentence logical.

In Spelling, we had our spelling test on words that began with sp, sm, and sk. The students were
challenged by our two bonus words: directions and country. The three sight words this week
included: come, down and made. Please make sure that you are continuing to review these words
with your children.

In Math, we finished our math textbooks and workbooks and took our fifth math assessment
over everything we have learned thus far. We also practiced analyzing and making bar graphs. We
know the difference between a bar graph and a tally chart and we are ready to learn more! We
started our next Sprint which is also a review of number bonds. The children will have around a
minute to complete 30 math problems. We will do this on a daily basis. Lastly, please continue to
practice addition and subtraction MATH FACTS with your child every night! Flash cards are a great
way to reinforce the skill!

In Social Studies, we continued our unit on maps and globes. Our ‘Weekly Reader’ was called
“Go Team Go”. We read many different interesting facts about penguins. We learned that penguins
are very team oriented. They team up to parent, hunt for food, stay warm and even make their
feathers waterproof. Our ‘Studies Weekly’ was called “Earth”. We learned the difference between
our state, and our country. We also know that our planet is Earth and a model of it is called a globe.
We discussed various landforms, different types of bodies of water, plains, and desserts. Lastly, we
noted that not every city or town may be shown on a map as there are so many other important
features that it would be too difficult to list every detail in one place.

Last but not least, if there is one thing we can suggest or encourage for you to be doing at home
is to read with your child every night. It is important that you let your child read to you so he/she
can practice reading aloud. This is a wonderful bonding time for you and your child. Please make
sure that you are also recording in the daily reading log what your child is reading at home and
returning the reading logs to school on Monday’s. Please make sure that your child is reading for at
least 15 minutes every day.

Important Dates Ask Your Child

 Wednesday, January 31st Tu B’Shvat  Why is a bar graph called a bar graph?
 Thursday, March 1st – Purim Dress Up Day
 List 3 pronouns.

 What is the difference between a

state and a country?

 What is another word for persuade?

Important Info

 Please remember to send snacks with your child every day! They get very hungry and a mid-
morning, as well as mid-afternoon, snack helps out! These should be healthy snacks that can
be eaten in a 5-minute time frame!
 Every Monday is Spirit Dress Day! Students may come dressed in a spirit dress shirt and jeans!
If there is no school on a Monday, Tuesday becomes Spirit Dress Day.

We love school!