This week in Mrs. Zimmer's Class!

We are starting our new Math unit about place value! The unit will focus on tens and teen numbers, then place value to 100, and then addition strategies.  This week we have been talking about 2 digit numbers and using a 10 X 10 grid in class to visually see the relationship between tens and ones.

We just finished up our Science unit about food chains on Monday and Tuesday, and tomorrow we are going to start our Earth Science unit!  In this unit we will be learning about what makes up the Earth and how it is made of different kinds of land and water. We will talk about how living things use natural resources and the ways to protect them such as reusing, reducing, and recycling.  New vocabulary words for this chapter are:

rocks

sand

natural resource

clay

humus

weathering

erosion

minerals

In Health, we are making a compliment chain to hang in our room to remind us of all the nice things we can say to others or to ourselves to make us feel good while creating a loving environment in the classroom.  

This week in Mrs. Kirchner's class!

Welcome back!
I hope that you all had a wonderful break.

Important dates:
11/29 Adjective Test
12/2 Spelling Test
12/7 Grammar Review quiz

Spelling Words (th and sh blends):
1) fish
2) shop
3) ship
4) with
5) thin
6) thank
7) run
8) bug
9) want
10) all

In Reading, we will continue to work on summarizing stories. We will listen to a story as a class, and think about the important details. Who is the main character? What do they want? What is the problem and the solution in the story? We will fill out an outline Later, students will create an outline for their own story! On Wednesday, we will have have some for D.E.A.R. Students will continue to meet with Mrs. Kirchner to read and set goals for their reading. We will complete Reading Response sheets with detail to explain our thinking.

In writing, we will be reviewing adjectives. We will write sentences to describe ourselves using adjectives. What makes each person in our class so unique? Using this writing, students will create self portraits. On Tuesday, students will be taking their adjective test to show what has been learned. We will have time for Writer's Workshop on Thursday. Students will be creating a summary outline to capture the main ideas of their story. They will have time to write and to share what they created!

In Social Studies, we will be wrapping up our unit on the American flag. We will review the symbols of the flag and what the colors mean. We will look at the story of the flag and how it was created.

It will be a busy and exciting week in 1st grade! :)

Report Cards & Impact Aid Program Survey

Students are coming home with report cards in their blue folders today! Please sign and send back the envelope with your child ASAP.  Students who bring back their signed envelope tomorrow will receive a Dojo point! J

Students are also bringing home a blue piece of paper about the Impact Aid Program.  The funds our school system receives under this program will be based upon the information you provide on the survey form.  Directions for filling out the form are on the back.  Please return these forms no later than Monday, November 28, 2016.

Academic & Character Awards Assembly

The award assembly is this Friday, November 18, 2016. Grades K-1 will be from 8:45-9:15 a.m. We hope to see you there! :)

This Week in Mrs. Kirchner's Class!

This week is finally a full week of school! :)
Reading Logs and Spelling Lists were handed out today.
Spelling test will be on Friday, November 18.

Spelling Words:
1) spill
2) spin
3) grab
4) grass
5) drip
6) drop
7) men
8) let
9) out
10) many

In Reading, we will continue to review our parts of speech. 1st graders have been working on nouns, verbs, and adjectives. We will be creating sentences that have all three parts of speech. We will be looking at how adjectives describe nouns. We will create an anchor chart to help us understand what questions adjectives can answer. We will use this chart to describe nouns around our classroom. We will be sorting parts of speech using pictures and words. Our class will also re-watch the Schoolhouse Rock video on adjectives and sing about words that describe. We will also be reviewing how to summarize a story. Students learned to summarize using the "somebody...wanted...but...so...then..." flow chart. After listening to a story, we will fill this chart out together. On Wednesday, our class will have D.E.A.R. Students will have an opportunity to meet with Mrs. Kirchner to read and demonstrate how their reading has improved. We will work together to create reading goals for this month.

Our class will be having Writer's Workshop on Thursday. Students will be writing about what they are thankful for. We will use this writing to create turkeys. We will have a time for Author's chair, and each student will have an opportunity to share their writing if they would like.

In Social Studies, we will continue to talk about the American flag. Last week, we talked about the stars and stripes and what these symbols mean. We looked at why they were chosen for out flag. This week, we will talk about the colors red, white, and blue. We will look at what these colors mean. Flags and facts will be glued into their interactive Social Studies notebooks.

Upcoming tests:
Friday, November 18-Spelling

Tuesday, November 29-Adjectives

This week in Mrs. Zimmer's Class!

In Math, we are finishing up our story problem unit! We will take our Unit test on Friday.  In order to prepare students for the test, practice similar problems that you have seen come home on their homework.  They should practice solving addition and subtraction story problems where they need to find a total, and solving problems for an unknown partner.  Make sure they do not forget their label!

In Science, we finished our last lesson for chapter 4.  Students will be taking their chapter test tomorrow.  They need to be familiar with the life cycles of plants and animals, and how they change as they grow.  We will be having a quick review before the test.  The rest of the week, we will begin our next unit on Food Chains.  Students will be learning about how plants and animals get food.  We will explore how how plants use water, sunlight, and air to make their own food, and also learn about the different food chains in the rain forest and in the marsh.  Our vocabulary words this chapter are oxygen, rain forest, food chain, and marsh.  Use these words when talking about food chains! :)

In Health we are making a compliment chain to hang in our room to remind us of all the nice things we can say to others or to ourselves to make us feel good while creating a loving environment in the classroom.  

This week in Mrs. Zimmer's Class!

*No school Tuesday 11/8 and Friday 11/11
*Conferences Thursday & Friday this week!

In math, we are still practicing different kinds of subtraction story problems, and beginning to recognize that addition and subtraction are related operations.  Students will have to decide what the problem is asking us to solve whether it being an unknown partner, or unknown total. They are using Math Mountains to help them solve subtraction and relate addition.  We are still practicing the fluency of numbers 1-10 to prepare us for our upcoming chapter of place value!

In science we are talking about the life cycle of certain plants such as a Daisy, a Pine Tree, and a Cherry Tree.  We are realizing that plants also grow and change just like animals do!

This week in Mrs. Zimmer's class!

In math we are beginning to focus on subtraction story problems and finding the unknown partners and totals.  We will be using counting cubes, Math Mountains, and drawings to help us solve these equations.  We have also been playing a number quilt activity, which helps students practice their addition and subtraction facts, so eventually students will move away from drawings and into numeric solution methods.

In our next science unit, we will be learning about how animals and plants change as they grow.  We will study the life cycles of frogs and butterflies as well as how other animals change and grow.  We will also learn that different types of plants have different life cycles.  In addition to learning how animals and plants change as they grow, we are learning new vocabulary words which include; tadpole, life cycle, larva, pupa, seed coat, and seedling.  Help your child to make these words a part of his or her vocabulary by using them when you talk about life cycles. The rest of this week we will be focusing on the life cycle of Frogs, and then possibly into the life cycle of butterflies.

We are finishing up our health lesson about relationships and helping building self-esteem.  We will complete our lesson about compliments, and students will be creating a compliment book for a partner in the class. 

This Week in Mrs. Kirchner's class!

This week will feel short and quick! 
There will be no spelling because it is not a full week.
Students were not given a Reading Log to complete this week. There was no school on Monday, and a few students were absent today because of the field trip. Please encourage your child to continue their reading this week. :)

In Reading, we will continue to work on verbs and nouns. We will look at words and determine if they are an action or a person, place, or thing. We will sort and categorize words. Students will work on using verbs in sentences to describe what is happening in a picture. We will complete Reader's Response sheets in D.E.A.R. Students will have time to conference with me to set reading goals and work on specific individual skills.

In Writing, we will be writing about the future! We will be talking about what students in our class want to be when they grow up. We will create a class list, and have time to write their own response. Students will respond to the writing prompt "When I grow up, I want to be........because....." They will get the chance to draw themselves and imagine what they will look like in their future career. These responses will be hung up on display in the classroom.

In Social Studies, we will continue to talk about the American flag and why it is an important symbol for our country.

Upcoming reminders: 
There is no school Tuesday, November 8th.
Parent-Teacher conferences sign-ups have been posted to the blog. This year, conferences will be split between Thursday and Friday. Thursday is now full, but we still have some spaces available on Friday between 8:00-12:00.