Pizza Hut Book-It Program

We are participating in the Pizza Hut Book-it Program.  Your child will be bringing home the yellow form for the November minutes of reading.  Please list how many minutes each day that your child reads or is read to at home!!  This can include the Guided Reading Book Baggies!  The October Calendar can come back to school and I will get your child's Pizza Hut personal pan pizza certificate to him/her!!!

Who knew?....Reading is fun and TASTY!
Pizza Hut Book It Website

Mr. Sisson's Site

Did you know that an excellent resource to support learning for your First Graders can be found on the Corral Drive website?
https://public.rcas.org/el/cd/Pages/home.aspx Link to Teacher Site: Dave Sisson then use the menu bar on the left to link to First Grade or go directly to: https://public.rcas.org/el/cd/teachersites/sissodav/Pages/FirstGrade.aspx Mr. Sisson has created links that support learning as prescribed by the South Dakota state standards and our lessons in First Grade. The paw print on a link indicates a lesson that the students have worked on while in the computer lab. Check it out!!

(image courtesy of Hungary Year of Festivals 2010)

Autumn Party!!!

We are in disguise!!! Happy Halloween!

Now on to some November News!
November Word Wall List:
Week of Oct. 31 very, come, had, they
Week of Nov. 7 you, friend, we, us
Week of Nov. 14  your, if, them, thing
Week of Nov. 21  Review week of all word wall words
Week of Nov. 28  here, him, her, his, as

In reading groups, we are focusing on the use of multiple strategies to help us decode those tricky words when we are reading.  We will introduce the strategy of; Does that make sense.  When reading students are learning to stop and think about what they have just read...if it does not make sense they should reread and fix and words that they miscued.  Also, this is a great comprehension strategy to help students really think about the meaning of the story.

In Mathematics,  we continue in our unit of Making Shapes and Designing Quilts.  More resources for your Homework Activities pack will be coming home soon! 

Have a great weekend and safe Trick-or-Treating with your First Grader!!!

T. Bear Day Pic

Our group picture on Teddy Bear Day; October 21, 2011

Getting Ready for the Class Party

We will have our Autumn class party on Friday, October 28 from 8:30-9:30 AM. Your child should wear his/her costume to school and then have their school clothes on under the costume or in their backpacks. We will change out of the costume after the party. Thanks to all the parents who are helping with the party! I am sure that we will have a wonderful time. Today was Teddybear Day in first grade. Students went to 3 different stations between the First Grade classrooms and Literacy. I hope to add some pictures of the Teddies this weekend. A Mathematics Thoughtful Problem to Solve: Please read this problem with your child and have them record their solution and HOW they solved the problem as a comment below. Every child that shares their thinking in the comment section can go to the treasure box on Monday when we will share this same problem in class. Please log on and record your child's thinking about the problem before Monday!!! *Sam had 5 balloons. Kim gave him 6 more. How many balloons does he have now? Solve the problem and explain the process that you used to figure out that 11 was the answer. Enter your thinking about this problem in the comment area below. Have a great weekend with your child!

A Short Week

Even though we've had just a 3 day week this week our learning continues. In the Daily 5/Reading Groups we are focusing on thinking about using multiple strategies as we read. You have noticed the little yellow strategy sheet in your child's Guided Reading baggy. Good readers use multiple strategies to decode tricky words. We have talked about and modeled the use of all these strategies. I encourage the students to adopt new strategies when reading. Next week students will be choosing one of these strategies to put into practice as they read independently or with a partner. In Mathematics we have just completed the first unit in Investigations. Our next unit is called: Making Shapes and Designing Quilts. The focus for this unit include seeing realtionships between different shapes, using shapes to fill in another shape without gaps or overlaps, counting sets of objects, finding the sum of multiple addends, using reapeated units to create a pattern and seeing how changing the unit affects the whole pattern. Please continue to play the games/activities that were previously sent home for Mathematics Homework. Have a great weekend with your child!

9 Peas and Carrots

We have been working together in Mathematics to solve problems when we put two groups or sets of numbers together to get a higher total. Now we are working on separtating a larger number into two smaller groups/sets. Todays problem was: I have 9 things on my plate. Some are peas and some are carrots.
The students worked to make several solutions to this problem as there can be many solutions to 9 Peas and Carrots. Ask your child to share the solutions they did to solve this problem.

October Treasures

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This long weekend would be a perfect time for your child to take a 'Phonebook Walk; in your backyard. Please get out any phonebook and go outdoors to look for leaves and pine needles. Students then press their nature findings into the pages of the phonebook for several days. When nice and flat and dry, students can put the leaves/pine needles into the provided baggy and return to school by Friday, October 14^th. We will be using these treasures to investigate and sort in our science curriculum and to use for a future art project.

Next Week we will be introduced to more word wall words to learn to read automatically, spell and use in our writing. Here is our list for the month of October:

Week of Oct. 3—play, he, she, the

Week of October 10—to, at, because

Week of October 17—are, of, it, is

Week of October 24—and, for, from, went, get

Week of October 31—very, came, had, they

Have a great long weekend with your child and we will be back in school together on Wednesday October 12^th.

Word Wall Words

For the week of Oct. 3-7, we will work on these word wall words in our spelling, writing and with phonics word work activities: play, the, he, she. Thanks for practicing these words at home along with last week's words: am, can, will, with, favorite.