Hello Families,
Wow! Time is certainly flying by... it's hard to believe we are already in November! I am looking forward to the new concepts and topics we are starting, one of the biggest ones being community!
We are looking at the idea of community through an interdisciplinary approach. Right now, we are in the beginning phases of our community exploration. On Tuesday, we created a KWL chart about community. The K's are things we already know about community. The W's are things we want to know about community. The L section is currently blank, but it will contain what we learn, and we can add to it as we develop a deeper understanding.
We also spent some time looking at Google Earth, and identifying various elements of physical geography such as hills, mountains, and rivers. The next step will be to use the Montessori Landform Materials to classify and identify other landforms that are not in our physical environment (ie. islands, shores, etc.). This is just the beginning phase, our final product will include cross curricular ideas from social studies, science, and mathematics!
In addition, we are continuing to deeper our understanding of the patterning and sorting mathematics curriculum. This week, we are focusing on patterning word problems, where students can show their understanding of how the elements in patterns change, while developing number sense to identify that the last number in a set identifies "how many". Students are working with materials, and recording their answers in their math journals, with emphasis on the organization of their work. Here's our sample problem about repeating patterns from today:
We used these three cute and hilarious photo prompts for our writing work today. This was an extension of the MindUp work we have been doing about labelling emotions and feelings. The students thought these animal photos were really funny:
After selecting their favorite photo, they responded to the question, "How is this animal feeling? Why?" There was a mixed range of responses, but it was amazing to see the students being able to label their understanding of a wide range of emotions, while responding to a fun and creative writing question!
A new Scholastic order went home yesterday, the order due date will be November 30th. Please let me know if you'd like to keep any ordered materials secretive for holiday gifts and I am happy to assist with that! In addition, each first grade student in the school will be given a book today as a gift from "The TD Grade One Book Giveaway, a program from The Canadian Children's Book Centre". These are yours to keep! :)
The Parent-Teacher conference booker will be open this Friday, November 9th, at 4:00pm for you to schedule a conference time!
Also, our library schedule has changed and after this week we will be visiting the library on Wednesday mornings! Furthermore, we have a Remembrance Day assembly on Friday morning.
Have a great week!
Lindsay Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment