Week of February 10, 2014

We have a week full of lots of fun things.

Literature: We will be talking about friendship all week in celebration of Great Hearts' Day.  We started by talking about friendship today and writing a letter to a "secret" friend.  We will make these letters into a card later this week and then they will exchange these cards on Friday.  We will also read the poem, "Sing a Song of People" by Lois Lensky and read The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.  

Science: Today we talked about the lantern fish and we will get to make one this week.  We will also be talking about what makes the ocean salty.  We have two experiments that we will get to do in relation to the salt in the ocean.  At the end of the week we will talk about waves and what causes high and low tides.  

History: We started the week off talking about Thomas Jefferson and his important role in writing the Declaration of Independence.  The rest of the week we will be talking about Benjamin Franklin and the important contributions that he made to our nation.  In connection with this, we will read Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares in reading groups.  If you have not sent yours in, please send it in as soon as possible.  

We will also have a small celebration on Friday in honor of Great Hearts' Day.  Our classroom liaisons are helping to plan the celebration and it should be a fun time for the kids.  

Please remember to send in your Ben Franklin books and to register for the Field Trip.  The registration for the field trip ends on Wednesday.  You can register here: http://archwaychandler.org/component/content/article/92-general/409-wildlife-world

Have a wonderful week.  

Week of February 3, 2014

Welcome back to a new week!  We are excited to announce that we are going to have a 1st Grade field trip on Friday, February 21 to the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium.  I will send you a link sometime this week in order for you to sign your child up for it.  We will also be looking for 7 parent volunteers to join us.

Here is the curriculum for the coming week.

Literature: Today we discussed the saying, "It could always be worse."  Tomorrow we are going to start studying Rapunzel.  We will spend the week talking about the story and its different story elements.  We will also get to talk about adjectives that describe Rapunzel.

Science: This is our week on Whales.  We will talk about the two different types of whales.  This afternoon we made the Orca Whale (which can also be considered a dolphin).  We will also talk about the Norwahl, the Beluga Whale, and the Humpback Whale.

History: We will continue to talk about Colonial America.  We started the week talking about Paul Revere and his midnight ride.  We will also talk about the first battle of the Revolutionary War.  Finally, we will end the week talking about the Declaration of Independence and making our own Declarations of Independence.  
We hope you have a marvelous week!  

January 27, 2014

Hello First Grade Families!

I hope that you had a fabulous and relaxing weekend.  Just for your information, Mrs. Figueroa will be started her maternity leave today.  Baby Owen has not been born yet but we are hoping that he will be born within the next few days.  We will let you know when he has been born.

We have some exciting things planned for this week.

Literature: We started the week talking about the saying "sour grapes."  All your students should be able to tell you what it means.  We will also continue our Aesop's fables unit with "The Goose the Laid the Golden Eggs." On Friday, the students will get to try to create their own fable.

History: We wrapped up our unit on Early American Explorers and Settlers today.  A book was sent home with all the work from this unit.  Tomorrow we will start our unit titled "Colonies to Independence."  We will start by talking about the 13 colonies and the Boston Tea Party this week.

Science: Your students have really been enjoying the Oceans unit.  Today and tomorrow we are learning about Manatees.  We will also learn about dolphins and Orca whales this week.

Reminders: 

• Yearbooks are on sale now.  A note went home with your student today.  You can buy them online at http://www.archwaychandler.org/yearbooks. They cost $20 until February 21 at which time the price goes up by $10.  
• Friday is a half-day.  All students will be released at either 12:15 or 12:30.  

January 21, 2013

Hello wonderful first grade families!  We hope that you had a fabulous 3-day weekend especially with such beautiful weather.  We had a nice week last week getting to know Mrs. Hill and we are very excited to have her in our class.  Here is a summary of what we are studying this week.

Literature: We will be studying two new fables this week, "The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" and "The Fox and the Grapes."  Ask your students to tell you about these fables and what the moral of each story is.

Science: The students have been really enjoying our ocean unit.  This week we will be learning about sea horses, invertebrates that live in the Abyss, sea stars, and angular fish.  Angular fish have a special feature called bioluminescense that the children will be able to tell you all about by Friday.

History: We are excited to learn about the pilgrims this week.  We will talk about the Mayflower and the First Thanksgiving.  We will also talk about the Puritans along with similarities and differences between the Pilgrims and the Puritans.

Have a wonderful week!

January 13, 2013

Welcome back to school!  With conferences happening last week, I did not get a chance to update the blog. We told everyone at conferences that I (Mrs. Pratt) will be taking over teaching for Mrs. Figueroa when she goes on maternity leave.  She is due on January 27 and is planning on working up until then.  We will be sure to let you know when the baby is born.  The other changes that we have in the classroom are that Ms. Noori was asked to move into Mrs. Mott's classroom and we have a new assistant teacher that started today.  Her name is Mrs. Hill.  She will be here full-time with me while Mrs. Figueroa is gone.  She is excited to get to know the kids and start working with them.

Please feel free to contact Mrs. Hill (chill@archwaychandler.org) or me (cpratt@archwaychandler.org) with anything that you need.

Here is what we started last week in our curriculum and will continue this week.

Literature: Last week we started fables.  We discussed what fables are and read "The Country Boy who Cried Wolf."  We also made masks and had the students put on a play with this fable.  This week, we will be reading "Dog in the Manger" and "Maid and the Milk Pail."

History: Last week we started our unit on Early Explorers and Settlers.  All of last week we talked about Christopher Columbus, where he came from, what he was trying to find, and where he did find.  This week we will talk about the first settlers along with some of the hardships they faced as well as their successes.

Science: We have started our unit on Oceans.  This is always a favorite unit for the students.  We started by talking about where the oceans are as well as their names and also the continents and their names.  This week we will also talk about the five different layers of the oceans.

We also started reading groups up again today.  Mrs. Schubring created a new sign-up genius for you to sign up for reading groups.  Please remember to sign-up and come help us with reading groups. Here is the link for the sign-up genius: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F044CABA92F4-classroom1.

Please remember that next Monday is a Martin Luther King Day.  There will be no school that day.  Also, mark your calendars for January 31 which will be a half day.

We hope you all have a wonderful week!

December 13, 2013

Wow!  This semester went by so quickly.  We are already to the last week.  Not only is it the last week but it is only a three day week.  The students are very excited for Winter Break.  We have a fun week ahead of us.

Literature/Reading: Since it is a short week next week, we will not be doing reading groups.  We will also not be sending the reading bags home at all (unless your child has a chapter book they would like to finish before Wednesday).  We will keep reading bags here during the break but we encourage you to please still read with your child.  You can use the link on the side of the blog that links you to book level lists of trade books at their level.  In literature we will be learning two poems and discussing them.

History: We will be wrapping up our World Religions unit by talking about Islam.  We will discuss the three pillars of the Islam religion and talk about the major symbols and holidays that they have.

Science: Next week we will review the body systems that we talked about in class.

If you have not signed up for conferences, please do so.  They will be the first week after we are back from Winter Break.  You can sign up here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A4EAAAC22A57-parent2.

Also, please remember that Wednesday is a 12:15/12:30 release with no extracurricular clubs.  After break, students will return on January 7.  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday that week will be half days and Friday will be a full day.

We hope that you have a wonderful and safe Winter Break.

   

December 6, 2013

Hello Families!  I missed updating the blog at the beginning of the week, so I decided to do two weeks in one.

History: We started a new unit in History this week.  We are studying the major world religions.  This week we introduced that religion is a shaping force in teh history of civilization.  We focus on the major symbols, figures, and stories.  Our goal is to be descriptive, not prescriptive and to maintain a sense of respect and balance. We also studied about Judaism.  Some of the things we talked about with Judaism were the story of Moses being found in the rushes and saved by Pharaoh's daughter as well as the crossing of the Red Sea.

Next week we will wrap up our studies of the Jewish religion and then begin Christianity.  We will focus on The First Christmas and who Jesus was.

Literature: The saying we learned about this week was "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."  In addition, we read The Princess and the Pea.  We practiced sequencing events; brainstorming parts from the beginning, middle, and end; a then writing summaries of the story.

Next week we will be reading a story called Snowflake Bentley.  The children will learn a little more about snowflakes and the importance of perseverance.  We will also talk about the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Science: This week in science we focused on two different systems.  The first system that we talked about was the circulatory system. The students learned about the heart and how it works with veins and arteries to move blood to different parts of the body.  We also learned about the nervous system and the three main parts of this system: the brain, the spinal cord, and the nerves. Of course, we also attached hearts, veins, arteries, and brains to our bodies in the hallway.

Coming up next week,  we will be learning about being healthy and how we can take care of our bodies through our healthy habits.  Additionally, we will review all the parts of the human body.  We will end the week talking about Louis Pasteur and Edward Jenner and the contributions they made to science and medicine.


Reminders and Notes: 

• The link for Parent-teacher conferences has been sent out.  Parent-teacher conferences are mandatory this semester.  Please sign up for one soon.  
• Please remember to send a snack with your child.  It helps them to focus if they have that snack part way through the morning.  We do not have very much extra snacks in our classroom so please help them to remember their snacks.  
• Also, we are trying to promote independence in eating lunch.  Please help your child out by sending containers they can open or helping them learn how to open them.