First Grade November News
November 20, 2016
What a wonderful fall. We have really enjoyed being outside in the warm weather and walking through all the colorful leaves.
For fall in reading class, the first grade class has been working on understanding cause and effect. We have been reading about animals and learning that everything has needs to survive in their environment. All animals need air, water, food, and shelter. We have been working hard on reading fluently and understanding what we have just read. Sometimes our stories are hard to read, but with practice, practice, and more practice, we improve with reading everyday. Cause and effect, we are better at reading, because we practice our stories each day. We are figuring out that words are made up of consonant blends, phonograms, and vowels. We decode or break down the words, learn to read them, and then we can apply the words to a reading selection.
We had a great time with the children’s book, Run Turkey Run, by Diane Mayr. We rewrote and changed the characters in the story, but kept the main idea. The students disguised their own turkey, so Mrs. Benson couldn’t find a turkey for Thanksgiving. All of the turkey’s were disguised so nicely that Mrs. Benson had to eat grilled cheese sandwiches for her Thanksgiving meal.
In math, we are learning how to tell time to the nearest hour. This is fun, because now we are always watching the real time and figuring out the different parts of our day at school.
We are also working on our math facts with adding and subtracting. We have started using the IPads and working with Accelerated Math. The kids know their user name, password, and how to log out and close the program. This is a challenging program for the students. The kids need to read the questions and solve it. The students have immediate feedback on the objective that they are working on. Each child can see correct responses and mistakes to help them learn.
During November, it is fun to be thankful for all that we have. Of course, first graders are always thankful for Santa Claus. We will be writing a letter to Santa and putting it in the Syracuse paper and the Tecumseh Chieftain. Watch for our letters! They are fun to read!
We have a lot to be thankful for this time of year. We are thankful for this wonderful fall season, our families, friends, homes, and our ability to do the best we can do at school to be the best version that we can be.
Thank you very much, Mrs. Benson