Week of April 30, 2012
I want to apologize for the lack of updates recently. My goal has been to update the site every week and now I am trying to get back on track. Recently, our class won 1st place for the 1st grade in the science fair! It was very exciting and shows how hard all the students have been working. We also began our final reading unit and the theme is big ideas.
Here is a look at the week.
Reading: Mole and the Baby Bird; phonics skill is -ou- makes the ow sound, syllables VCV. Comprehension skill is sequencing and summarizing.
Math: Chapter 6 on time. Please be working with your student at home on how to read an analogue clock. We will be making clocks from paper plates and labeling the parts this week, which will hopefully help with any residual confusion.
Writing: Introducing antonyms and making personal books of antonyms.
Important note: Friday, May 4th our class will be taking their final reading MAP test. I will be speaking with the students in class about the test measuring growth and ability. Furthermore, I will be encouraging students to take their time understanding the question and selecting the best answer. Please, discuss these matters with your student at home so they are prepared and comfortable on Friday.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Have a great week,
Megan Braun
Week of April 9, 2012
I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing spring break! This week we will be picking up right where we left off. We are concluding our unit on the food cycle and farming by have a discussion about the responsibilities a farmer has to his or her plants and animals. Student are also writing letters to farmers at The Wagner Farm, in Glenview, expressing their point of view on farming. The letters began as four-square writing and have transformed to so much more!
A look at this week:
Reading - Peter's Chair; comprehending characters, setting and plot; identifying compound words; -ui-, -ue, -ew make the long U sound.
Writing - transferring four-square writing into 5 sentence paragraphs.
Math - 5.14, 5.15, 5.16: non-unit fractions and reading charts. The chapter test will be Thursday.
There is no school Friday, April 13th so all tests will be taken on Thursday. Parent-Teacher conferences are Wednesday, April 18th. I will be sending home a letter early this week to schedule times for meetings.
Best,
Ms. Braun
Week of March 19, 2012
We have been so lucky with this weather, so I hope everyone got to go outside and enjoy their weekend! We are back with a full week of school. Today, we had the 6th graders come read to us about Greek mythology. The 1st graders did a wonderful job listening and asking questions, they really made those 6th graders work, and the 6th grade teacher was very impressed! Students have been working hard to become good readers by asking questions, going back into the text to find answers, and drawing conclusions.
This week:
Reading - Mr. Bones: understanding author's purpose and biography
Identifying -oa- and -ow as ways to make the long O sound
Using adjectives to describe size
Math - 5.10 - 5.14: Equal parts are the same size and same shape
Understanding a fraction is part of a whole
Writing - Students are working with the 4-Square writing model and beginning to use adjectives in their writing.
This is a reminder that next week is Spirti Week. A note went home last week with your student. It is a dollar a day to dress up, EXCEPT for Tuesday, March 27th, for PICTURE DAY.
Library is Friday, students need to remember to bring their books.
Have a great week!
-Ms. Braun
Week of March 12, 2012
Thank you for all your cooperation during ISAT testing. This week we are back to normal. This was a great weekend to spend some time outside enjoying the weather - let's hope it lasts!
Last week we started using a 4-Square writing model, and the class took to it very nicely. This is something the 2nd grade teachers use, so this will only help with the later transition. In reading we worked with ai and ay as long a sounds and introduced adjectives. The comprehension skill was drawing conclusions. In math, we continued our study of geometry, looking at symmetry.
This week:
Reading - The Dot; -ea- in the middle of a word is a long e sound, adjectives, drawing conclusions, theme
Math - geometry: flips, turns, slides
Writing - 4-Square, writing a letter to an artist
Reminders:
Please make sure you have signed and returned your child's progress report
Library is Friday, if students want to check out a new book, they must return their current book
Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
-Ms. Braun
Week of February 27, 2012
This week the whole school will be celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday! Therefore, our class is taking a week off from the reading curriculum to study Dr. Seuss and use his stories for character studies and story mapping. This week's spelling words include words from some stories and math vocabulary as well. A list of spelling words will be sent home with your student tomorrow. The spelling homework will reamin the same.
Reading
We will be reading The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss to learn about story mapping. This is identifying the title, author, characters, setting, problem, solution and theme. We will also be looking at character traits and some symbolism.
Math
Students have taken to the new unit on shapes very well. This week we are exploring vertices, faces and the difference between plane figures and 3-dimensional shapes. The class is working with cones, rectangular prisms, spheres, cubes and cylinders.
Writing
This week we will be introducing adjectives and defining them as "describing words". Students will work with putting nouns, verbs and adjectives in order to be making sentences.
A few quick reminders:
Please keep sending your students with pennies for Pennies for Peace. Collection is on Friday.
ISAT testing beings March 7th. Although 1st grade is not tested, the students must remain silent in the hall and the bathroom, especially because there is a 4th grade class next door. Please talk to your student at home about why it needs to be silent to help reinforce what I tell them in class.
Week of February 21, 2012
Sorry for the delayed update - I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy these past couple of long weekends. Last week, we learned about how to choose a "just right book" to read independently. Students should be able to look through a book and decide if it is just right, by seeing how many words they are sounding out on each page, whether or not it has enough pictures for them and if the book is long enough. Everyday we are working on becoming better silent readers and working to comprehend what we are reading.
This week's story is Where are my Animal Friends? Students are working on identifying words with the -dge ending and using the -er and -est comparative endings.
We just started a new math unit that wors with shapes, and later on, introduces fractions. Today, we introduced the sphere, rectangular prism, cube and cone. The students found many of the shapes around the classroom.
Keep an eye on the site for more pictures to come soon!
-Ms. Braun
Week of February 6, 2012
Please note the changes to the site, based on feedback I have gotten from students and parents. If you click on the "Schedules" tab, you will find our class' auxiliary and homework schedule. We do have a NEW homework schedule, starting this week. I will go over what I expect tomorrow in class.
This week we will be begin celebrating Black History Month in our classroom. We will be reading some great books that tell stories of the rich African-American history. We will be discussing the privilege of freedom and working on creating a class patchwork quilt, much as our country's enslaved people did years ago. Toward the end of the week we will be learning about Abraham Lincoln, in honor of his upcoming birthday.
Here is an overview of our objectives this week in the core subjects
Reading - I'm a Caterpillar; drawing conclusions, sequencing
- Introduce r-controlled -er-, -ir-, -ur-
- Create contractions for is ('s), have ('ve), are ('re)
Math - We are continuing to explore more ways to perform subtraction and making connections between addition and subtraction. There will be a quiz Tuesday, Feb. 7. The quiz will cover counting back, using a number line and solving word problems.
Writing - Students are journaling every morning and will be doing writing activities for Black History Month
This is a full week of school, which means we will be going to library on Friday. Please make sure your child brings his or her library book to school, so he or she can check out a new one.
Pennies for Peace is still going on! Please keep sending your students to school with pennies. The 6th graders collect pennies every Friday for a weigh-in!
As always, feel free to contact me with any questions.
-Ms. Braun
Week of January 30, 2012
Welcome to a new quarter of 1st grade! 205 worked so hard this past week, they deserved a relaxing 3 day weekend. The level at which the students are thinking is continuously impressing me. This past week, students were able to make connections between addition and subtraction, as well as talk about how they have changed since the beginning of the year. I am so proud of the way each student is growing.
What we will be learning this week:
Reading - Frog and Toad Together: The Garden; understanding plot, words ending in -ed and -ing, and containing -ar-
Math - continuing our work with subtraction, including counting back and using doubles to subtract
Writing - Valentine's Day writing activity
There is no school Friday, Feb. 3, therefore, all tests will be taken on Thursday.
Dates to remember:
Feb. 1 - Report card pick-up
Feb. 3- No school
Hope everyone has a good week and that the groundhog does not see his shadow on Feb. 2, so spring will come early.
-Ms. Braun
Week of January 23, 2012
I hope everyone got home safely Friday, and got to have some fun in the snow over the weekend. We have another short week this week. There is no school Friday, January, 27th; therefore, the spelling and reading tests will be on Thursday.
Students should be working on the following skills in each subject:
Reading - Jan's New House
- Add either the -s or -es ending on nouns and verbs
- Identify the /or/ sound as -or- or -ore
- Define "theme" as the main idea or lesson learned in a story
Math - 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
- Counting back for subtraction
- Identifying the direction to move on a number line
- Applying subtraction to daily events, such as making change
Writing -
- Students are finishing up their "12 Things I Want To Do in 2012" assignments nicely. I am expecting those to be completed this week.
As always feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.
-Ms. Braun
Week of January 16, 2012
I hope everyone had a relaxing 3-day weekend to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Last week, we read two books to learn about who Martin Luther King was, what he did and why we honor him.
This week:
Reading - Ruby in her own Time
- Focus on words ending in -nk and -ng
- Understanding and identifying compound words
- Recognizing the plot of the story: what happens in the story's beginning, middle and end
Math - Unit 3: 3.9 - end *Test is scheduled for Friday
- Using pictures to solve problems
- Identifying doubles
- Review
Writing - 12 Things to do in 2012
Students learned about the writing process. We are working on making final drafts of our lists of 12 things we want to do in 2012 and then choosing one to write about.