Mrs. V's All Star Learners Classroom: 12/14/13 Newsletter

Dear Parents of First Grade All Stars,

As your child probably told you, I was out sick the end of last week and Monday and Tuesday of this week. (I had pleurisy, and it honestly knocked me "down and out" in a way I thankfully cannot ever remember feeling.) Even though many teachers and some parents told me I looked terrible on Wednesday, I was oh-so-happy to be back with my kiddos! I sure missed them LOTS and their welcome-back smiles and hugs were the "best medicine"! Thanks to all who sent me kind get-well emails, too!

Our literacy work this week focused on long a words and readings. We brainstormed and developed our class-anchor chart of long a words. We worked on a long a poem/song called "Play Dates". The students read short books like Kate and Jake, The Same Game, Jake and James, Snail Brings the Mail, etc. All these books are "chock full" of long a words. The students worked to be called "word detectives" by finding long a words when reading their just-right books. I started listening to individuals read leveled stories to me to check progress on accuracy, ability to self correct, fluency, expression, and comprehension. These one-on-one progress checks will continue next week. Students were again the stars of our D.O.L. (Daily Oral Language) as they worked to use their proofreading and editing skills to find punctuation, capitalization, and grammatical mistakes in the sentences. Being able to find the mistakes with colored chalk and "act like a teacher" to correct them is oh-so-popular! I told the students they are getting so good at finding the mistakes that I will have to start putting in some challenge mistakes for them to try to find! THANK YOU again for all the awesome at-home reading logs you've been sending in. The children are very proud to hand them in to me and to share what they are reading at home. Reading to, with, beside your child is not only a fun together time, but also a tremendous motivator that helps to build the love of reading as well as skills. I truly appreciate your at-home reading time with your child!

Our spelling routines and practices focused on long a words, too. The students worked with their individualized lists of long a words, priority words, and words missed on the previous test. The children practiced saying and writing their words and learning the meanings of their words. They worked on "Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check", traced their words, practiced with a partner, and we had another study practice/quiz time as students challenged classmates to spell this week's words. Our fourth-grade buddies came in yesterday morning to give the first graders their spelling tests. These long a spelling words were challenging for some students. Next week we will NOT have our regular spelling routine and will NOT have a spelling test. Instead we will review and practice those tricky long a words. Thanks so much for all the at-home spelling practices. They really do help the kiddos "cement" the learning of the spelling words. (The students took the PREtest for long e base words, but this list will not come home until January 6th.)

During our writers' workshops this week the students worked in their writers' journals. They worked to try to apply the Daily Oral Language skills we are learning and practicing to their own writing. Most students were writing about holiday preparations and vacation plans. You could actually FEEL the excitement, and writing helped channel this energy into practicing our writing skills. Lots of students, however, were disappointed that we did not have much time for "Authors'-Chair Share" for them to share their writings with their classmates. We will try harder this coming week to make more time for this.

Our math this week started off the next chapter with work on double facts, double-plus-one facts, double-plus-two facts, and a challenging problem-solving skill: two-question problems. I could tell the students really weren't understanding and using the double-plus-one/two process at first. Then the use of linking cubes and pictures of linking cubes on individual white boards "turned on the light bulbs" for most kiddos. It truly is a "teacher perk" when during our lessons and practices I hear: "Oh, I get it!" or "Oh, that's how it works!" On Friday we did another timed practice of both basic addition and basic subtraction facts to see if the children are memorizing more of them as "snap facts". We talked about how these timed practices are just to see if they are finishing more than the last time or getting more correct than the last time, so the kiddos handle them amazingly well. Another chance for me to smile-from-ear-to-ear when students came to tell me they made it further than last time or found it "easier" than last time! We will continue our fact practices in class and any short, at-home practices of addition/subtraction facts would be a great help, too. Thanks!

Social Studies work this past week focused on diversity in families, homes, and traditions. We read and discussed This Is My House, Long Ago and Today, and The Bag I'm Taking to Grandma's.
Thank you so much for discussing some of your family traditions with your child and for helping them fill out the family-traditions brainstorming sheet. We had GREAT discussions as the children shared them. Then yesterday during our "Buddy Work" session, the fourth graders helped our children turn their family traditions into a "Traditions Poster" complete with illustrations and decorations. The first graders were very proud of their Traditions Posters, and I was proud of them, too. The first graders made "Good-Elf Awards" for their buddies and presented them to them yesterday. Lots of smiles and "buddy hugs" were witnessed!

On Thursday Tyler celebrated his December 26th birthday with his classmates. Thanks for celebrating with us! Happy birthday, Tyler!

Thank you again for all your fantastic support at home.
Respectfully,
Mrs. V.