Learning this wet week

This week was a very wet one, but we made it through!  Everyone was very excited to learn about all the options available during inside recess.  I think some of their favorite options were blocks, painting, legos, and the hopscotch puzzle.  Here are few things we worked on this week in our different subjects.

Reading:  This weeks spelling rule was short vowel -e.  This vowel sound is one of the trickiest ones, since it is closely related to short vowel -a.  I think we all did a great job, and we are well on our way to mastering this tricky sound.  For a comprehension focus we worked on comparing and contrasting stories.  We read two stories by the same author, Paul Brett Johnson, and we had a blast comparing and contrasting the two stories.  Below are pictures of the stories, the author is a very fun writer, and I recommend looking into him with your child the next time you are at the library.

                             

Math:  In math we finished up Topic 2 this week.  You will be receiving a paper to tell you how your child did on their test Friday.  Topic 2 was  all about subtraction.  We had to find the missing number in problems and discover the answer to take away or difference word problems.

Writing:  In writing we have been learning about what informational writing is.  We read books about bats and owls.  We then learned how to collect information about these topics, and then we wrote three facts on each animal.  For the owl paper we created owl books, we are looking forward to sharing them with you on parent-teacher conferences this week!

Splat the Cat

This week will will be finishing up our study about moon phases.  Everyone has really enjoyed learning more about why the moon appears to be changing in the night sky.  This past week we read Splat the Cat:  Good Night, Sleep Tight.  After we read this story, we created our own Splat the Cat's. We also wrote an opinion piece on which moon phase is our favorite.  Everyone is very excited for you to see their cat and writing at parent-teacher conferences, the week of the 27th!

Tracing, gluing, and creating our cats

A new favorite, and great 1st grade character

Getting there, see our finished product at conferences!

Upcoming Events In October

October

17th - Mid Trimester Reports come home

27th-30th - Book Fair

28th-30th - Parent Teacher Conferences

31st - Learning Lane Harvest Celebration (more to come later)

Happy Columbus Day

One of our social studies goals this year is to learn about the different holiday's throughout the school year.  We started this week by talking about long ago and what is the meaning of history.  We then learned about Columbus Day.  I hope you all have enjoyed your long weekend!

Making our Columbus Day books shaped like a ship

Butterfly Release Experience

It has been very exciting to watch the life cycle of a butterfly along side the 2nd graders in Learning Lane.  This past week a bunch of them emerged from their chrysalis', and we were able to watch them be released! Here are a few highlight photos of the event.

Ms. Johnson opening the butterfly cage up to let them out

Mr. Coyne helping release them

Sharing the butterflies

Technology in the classroom!

There are a number of different things that are used to help us learn different concepts and skills.  One of the methods we use, and that can be used at home are some different websites.  It is important for students to use paper and pencil, but these websites can be a fun and motivational method of learning.  Please feel free to use these sites to help with spelling, reading, and math!

Spelling can be a difficult thing to be motivated to study so, I have set up an account on spellcity.com.  When you go to the site scroll down the spelling lists till you find the week that matching our current spelling list.  There are tests, games, and lessons to help your child work through their spelling list.  On a short school week, I will try to send the list home over the weekend.
Please check out spellcity: https://www.spellingcity.com/krissaunders1/

For reading, Mrs. Roberts and I have purchased an account with Raz-Kids.  This site is a wonderful site that contains leveled readers at your child's level.  Your child can go in and read, listen to reading, and take quizzes on what they have read.  Also, they are able to earn stars as they spend more time on their reading.  With these stars they can buy things for their robot and their robot's home.  Students use this site several times a week as one of their centers during guided reading.
Here is the link to Raz-Kids: http://www.raz-kids.com/main/Login

Another great reading and math site that is free and the kids really enjoy is Starfall at, http://www.starfall.com/.  This site has everything from calendar skills to practicing addition and subtraction facts.

One of the standards in 1st grade in math is to know their math facts to 10 fluently.  This means that they will need to be able to do them quickly and without manipulatives.  In order to help meet this goal we will be practicing speed tests eventually.  A site that I will be having them use weekly is XtraMath.  Here they will practice addition facts to try to improve their speed.  I will be sending home their user name and code this week.  Check out https://xtramath.org/ for more information about this site.

I hope you find these sites to be helpful, and if you have any questions about them or need me to resend passwords, please feel free to contact me.

Working hard on Raz-Kids

Thank you for sending headphones!

We love computer time!