Class 1M News 1/17 to 1/31/11

 We have had a very busy and snowy past two weeks in Class 1M! The children finished writing their non-fiction bear books. They learned how to write captions and used many details in both their writing and illustrations. Stop by our room and read some of these wonderful books.

We had a "beary" fun time learning all about bears. We had our Teddy Bear Sleepover. The children had a great time wearing their pajamas and spending the day with their bears. The bears even got to go to Art and Library. After a long day the bears went to sleep in their den and we thought that they would hibernate but I guess they weren't ready... 

The bears participated in Morning Meeting

We made Text-to-Self Connections with our bears.

Our bears made a trip to the nurse's office.

They helped us write our Bear Books.

They went to art with Mrs. Howard and we sketched them. Check out our bear portraits in the hall.

Mrs. Burg read Paddington Bear to the bears.

In Math, we worked on estimation, greater than, less than, and we started place value today. We also continued to work on our Fact Pacts and Math Challenges.

In Reading we finished reading our Cam Jansen books. We learned how to use context clues to help us read and we made text-to-self connections and text-to text connections. We began our fairy tales unit and learned what the elements of a fairy tale are. We read a few different versions of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We made connections, compared and contrasted two versions, and we identified the setting,magical element, characters, and the problem and solution. We acted out The Three Billy Goats Gruff in Reader's Theater and practiced reading with expression. The children had a blast!

We have also been reading many books by Jan Brett as part of our author study. We have read The Mitten, The Hat, and Trouble with Trolls. We created a large mitten and did a Reader's Theater skit based on The Mitten.

In Writing we worked on our FCA's. We listened to the story Snowmen at Night and then we wrote about what we think our snowmen do at night. Stop by and read their pieces on our bulletin board next week.

In Science, we learned about clouds and the three main types of clouds. Our last topic in our weather unit will be the water cycle.

The Valentine's Dance is on Monday, 2/14. it is a dress down day and the children can wear red, pink, and white. We will be going to the dance in Laidlaw from 10:30 to 11:00.

Have a great week!


Sincerely,
Jennifer Molloy

This week in Class 1M Week of 1/10-1/14/11

The Teddy Bear Sleepover will be on Wednesday, January 19th. Please make sure your child wears his/her pajamas to school. They do not have to wear their uniforms. Each child needs to bring in their favorite teddy bear. The bears will be "hibernating" in our classroom for the night. stop by Thursday morning to see what happens...


Today we had our first Publishing Party! The children did a fabulous job writing, illustrating, and sharing their books. They were so happy to have their parents at the party to hear their wonderful stories. Here are some photos of the authors in class 1M...

This week we learned how to give a book talk. The children picked a classmate's book, read it, and then did a short book talk about it. I hope you enjoyed seeing their videoed book talks today at the publishing party. They had a lot of fun doing the book talks. I posted the book talks below...

                                              

I hope you enjoy the pictures and the short videos!!! Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Jennifer Molloy

Class 1M News 1/3/11 to 1/7/11

Happy New Year! We had a great first week back. The children were so happy to see each other and talk about what they did during their break. The children wrote their New year's Resolutions. Stop by and take a peek at our bulletin board and read our resolutions.


This week in Reading we finished up Main Idea and Details. We read various non-fiction books about bears and we worked on identifying the Main Idea and Details. We also read fiction stories and did the same. We learned that authors write for a purpose. They write to entertain, persuade, or inform. We read various stories and identified the author's purpose. After reading a book with your child ask them to think about the author's purpose. We started reading Cam Jansen mysteries in our reading groups. We worked on skipping and returning if we get stuck on a word, reviewed word chunks, and identified the author's purpose and the main idea.

This week we started Spelling. The children worked on the long spelling patterns, which are ai, a-e, and ay. They did a fabulous job on their first spelling test.

We had fun in the snow on Friday. The first Grade and Kindergarten went outside to catch some snowflakes! We used black paper to catch some snowflakes. Ask your child why the snowflakes actually stuck to the black paper.

In Math we finished up using function machines to add/subtract, reviewed adding three numbers, and began estimation. Each group was given a circle(snowball) and had to estimate how many cotton balls they would need to fill it in. Then together they glued on the cotton balls and counted them. Then we put the three snowballs together and estimated how many cotton balls there were on the whole snowman! Stop by and estimate and we'll tell you if you estimated correctly!

In Science/Writing we wrapped up our study of how animals get ready for winter and bears unit. We learned there are eight different types of bears and we learned where they live, what they eat, what they look like, and other interesting facts. Each child chose a specific kind of bear and has started to write a non-fiction book about that bear. As a class we came up with chapter topics and they have been busy reading up on their bears and using that information to write their book. They are doing a "beary" good job!


We have a busy and exciting week ahead of us. Here are some reminders...
1. On Wednesday the First Grade will be having a Teddy Bear Sleepover. Please send your child into school on Wednesday in his/her pajamas. They need to bring in one teddy bear. If your child does not have a teddy bear or forgets we will have extras on hand. The bears will be hibernating in our classroom Wednesday night.Those bears are very mischievous. Stop by Thursday morning to see what happens.

2. Friday, January 14th is our first Publishing Party! It is from 9:30 to 10:30 in our classroom. I hope that you will be able to attend. The children have worked so hard on their books and we have a special surprise for all of you!