Week 8

This week was picture week.  Here's our funny picture.

Here's our class picture before heading down for individual pics.

As a prize, students who earned it got to draw a picture on my arms

As a prize, students who earned it got to draw a picture on my arms

It's hard to see, but the golf-ball contraption was our slide for sliding sounds together to make ng words. 

We had another great week this week!

Important Reminders: To earn their Samurai (including getting free books, participating in a school party, and other rewards), first graders must pass twenty AR tests every two months.  Make sure your child earns their Samurai!  Each week I send home updates regarding their AR quizzes. Also, if your child reads twenty books and fills in the sheet, he/she can receive a free pan pizza from Pizza Hut each month through their Book-It program.

Special Guests: Thank you parents who help.  It is such a big help to our class!

Funny Stuff From Kids: I only jotted down one funny saying this week, though I’m sure there were many others.  I asked the first student in the door if he was ready for another great day of school.  He said, “No, because my mom woke me up 15 minutes early. A BOY NEEDS HIS SLEEP!”  That struck me as a pretty funny response because to me that’s more of a teenager response J. 

Homework: Please continue doing the weekly homework.  Students get a prize for every 8 homework assignments (one week’s worth) that they complete.

Social Studies: We learned about children’s lives all over the globe.  The kids also enjoyed viewing pictures from various countries. 

Math: In class we’ve been doing worksheets similar to their homework, math-fact practice, and a lesson.  Our lessons this week have been about non-standard measuring (like with paperclips instead of inches) and comparing numbers using these symbols: < and >.

Project Read/Spelling: This week’s focus was the short ng.  We discussed how the vowel slides down the slide until it bumps into -ng at the bottom, but “e” is scared of ng so they’re never together.  To reinforce this I created a slide out of golf balls and a hangar.  The golf balls had various letters on them.  It worked quite well, and the students seemed to understand it.

Speedy Words and Rocket Math: Each student is progressing on their facts and instant words!

AR: Once again, remember 20 books by the end of October!  Your kids can do it!

Writing: This week we continued with activities focusing on the basics of a sentence.  Every sentence needs a capital, a period, a doer, and what the doer is doing.  We also incorporated writing into science.    

Science: This week I took advantage of the kids’ natural curiosity.  First we learned about horses because many of my students love horses.  We watched videos about the strength and skill of horses. 

Then we learned how to think like scientists by discovering what the inside of a pencil looks like.   I sliced a pencil down the middle so they could see what it looks like.  We also watched a short youtube video about how pencils are made.  They loved this and were surprised to find that a pencil requires 4 coats of yellow paint!  The video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwYTibTbYHQ