First Grade News 

News   

ISSUE 7 OCTOBER 19, 2018 

Mitchell Spirit Day Fundations  

Fundations
First graders had so much fun at Mitchell Spirit Day! In the  First graders continued practicing the 
morning, we gathered together for a flag raising ceremony.  tapping strategy to spell and read CVC 
First graders engaged in fun ​stations outside and  (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. They 
participated in "touch-the-trucks" with the police and fire  enjoyed completing word transformations, 
departments. We gathered together at the end of the day as  trying to identify sound and letter changes in 
a Mitchell Community to celebrate and reflect on our special  a string of words (i.e. 
day!  mat→cat→cut→cup→cap→zap). This 
  week we also practiced sentence dictations 
Reading  
Reading on white boards. The sentences for 
dictation always include current unit words and trick words 
This week in reading, first graders dropped  and also help first graders remember the important parts of a 
bad habits, like “freezing” at a challenging  sentence (capitals and punctuation). 
word, and picked up good habits! When   
tackling tricky words, we learned to break the  First graders learned that the tapping strategy cannot be used 
word into smaller parts and look at the picture  to “sound out” trick words - that’s why they’re tricky! Ask your 
to gather clues. Many first graders used their  child to spell the six trick words we learned this week: 
Fundations skills of “tapping out” to decode   
challenging words in their stories.  the a and is of his 
his 
   
Writing  
Writing Many children are still working on their letter formation and 
using the Fundations writing lines as a guide. At times, 
First graders are authors! This  students are forming letters from the bottom-up rather than 
week, we worked on stretching  top-down, which is incorrect formation. Please continue 
out words to spell them, hearing  practicing uppercase and lowercase letter formation at home. 
and recording all the sounds.  Thank you!  
First graders also worked on   
“zooming in” on their small moment seed ideas. Instead of 
focusing on an entire vacation or birthday party, first  Pumpkin Explorations at Home! 
Home! 
graders learned to “zoom in” on those experiences and write  Are you looking for a way to practice 
instead about building a sandcastle on the beach or  science and math at home? If you are 
opening presents at a birthday party. Many first graders  planning on carving a pumpkin, have 
also brought their small moment stories to life! We learned  your child make an estimation of how 
how writers can “unfreeze” characters in their stories by  many seeds they think are inside! When 
making them move and talk. Many students have added  you scoop the seeds out of the pumpkin, 
quotes to their stories and even speech bubbles to their  have your child sort the seeds in groups 
illustrations!   of ten and skip count to find the total! It’s 
a great way to practice making estimations and number 
Math  
Math counting skills! 
 
This week, first graders explored teen 
numbers and noticed how teens are 
composed of 10 plus a few more. We used  Save the Date  
new names for the numbers greater than 10  October 22nd​
22nd​: Field Trip to Science Center (Mrs. Denby) 
to remember how ten is “hiding inside” of 
October 24th​
24th​: Field Trip to Science Center (Mrs. Teehan) 
those numbers (i.e. 15= “ten five” 16= “ten 
six” 17= “ten seven” etc.) To emphasize this  October 29th​
29th​: Field Trip to Science Center (Mr. Daitch) 
concept, first graders worked with number bonds. We  October 31st​
31st​: Field Trip to Science Center (Mrs. Hasenfuss) 
learned that “bond” means to stick together - number bonds  October 25th​
25th​: Early Release Day (12:15pm)  
show two numbers that “stick together” to make a new   
number. See an example of a number bond above.    
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