Non-fiction Chapter Books

Our current writing unit is all about non-fiction books. We started by exploring and creating short non-fiction books with a few pages about one topic. This week we began the next step in our work with non-fiction writing. We will be creating non-fiction chapter books. Each student has chosen a topic that they are experts on. We started our project by creating tables of contents to help us outline what our book will be like. Starting next week we will begin the work of writing our chapters with a focus on methods non-fiction authors use to teach their readers (labels, vocabulary, facts and details, etc.) As we prepared to do this very grown up work we set goals for ourselves as non-fiction authors. Students used a checklist to evaluate their work, chose a goal, and conferenced with me on their choice. Throughout the remainder of the unit I will meet with students to check in on their goals and help them reevaluate their own writing as they continue to grow. 

Reading Stamina Goal

This week we reached (and actually surpassed) an important goal! Students have been practicing sustained independent and partner reading since the beginning of the year. The time that a child spends reading has a huge impact on their reading progress, so building stamina is an important part of first grade. We started the year at 5 minutes with a goal of 20 minutes. As of this week we have built our reading stamina all the way up to 22 minutes. Congratulate your first grader on their accomplishment! When I told them that my third graders usually read for 30 minutes last year they decided that their new goal should be 32 minutes by the end of this year. :)

Holidays Around the World- Update

Today we learned about the holiday Diwali celebrated in India. We learned that Diwali is known as the Festival of Lights and people decorate with many lights including paper lanterns. We watched a video about Diwali, which you can check out below. We also made our own paper lanterns and recorded some of the information that we learned. 

http://youtu.be/HrrW3rO51ak

Holidays Around the World- Update

Today Globe Trot Scott sent us a package from Israel. We learned about the holiday Hanukkah. We were lucky enough to have a guest speaker, Mrs. Kravet, come in to tell us all about how her family celebrates. She even taught us how to play dreidel! 

Holidays Around the World

In first grade we are learning all about holidays and traditions from around the world. To help us learn, we are following the travels of Globe Trot Scott. Each day he sends us a package from a new part of the world that he is visiting. The package contains information about the country, a letter to our class, and a souvenir that shows how people there celebrate a December holiday. We have also been reading books, watching videos, and listening to guest speakers share about their traditions. 

So far Globe Trot Scott has sent us packages from the United States where we've learned about Christmas and Kwanzaa. Today our package was from Italy and we learned about Italian Christmas traditions.

We are excited to see where Globe Trot Scott takes us next! 

Teen Numbers and Place Value

Last week in math we worked on teen numbers and recognizing place value in numbers between 10 and 20. We looked at double ten frames that showed numbers in the teens, built the same numbers out of unifix cubes, and wrote and solved addition problems to match. This will help to begin building our understanding of place value, and our computation up to 20. 

Folktales

In reading this month we have been studying folktales. We began by reading different stories about Johnny Appleseed. We studied him by identifying his character traits and his actions during his lifetime. We have begun to explore other common folktales. Today we read one version of Jack and the Beanstalk. In the story they describe Jack as kind, hard working, and brave. We used evidence from the story to support each of these character traits. Tomorrow we will read a different version of Jack and the Beanstalk (called Kate and the Beanstalk) and use a Venn Diagram to compare the two stories.