As I'm sure you have heard from your kiddos over the past few weeks, AR is off and running in our classroom. As we discussed at Open House earlier this year, from now until December our class will be working together toward CLASS GOALS in AR. Following our Christmas break, each student will have their own independent goal to be working on. Each student in our class has a special SUPER READER clip on our AR chart. Right now we are trying to achieve 15 GOALS as a class! When our class gets 15 goals we will have a special celebration. The kids don't know what the surprise is....but it will be FUN!!! When they come into the classroom in the morning, once they finish their morning work they are allowed to take any AR tests they are prepared for. My rule is that to take a test on a book they must have read it 3 times. This, of course, does not apply to longer chapter books like Junie B. Jones books...but smaller books like Pete the Cat, etc. should be read a few times to make sure students know them well. Students can't retake quizzes on books that they read in kindergarten...but luckily our classroom library is FULL of awesome books for students to read. Their book tubs are loaded up with awesome books to read during our Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) time. Students know how to log on and take AR tests independently. When a student scores 100 on an AR test, they get to move their clip up to the next spot! When they reach GOAL then we log a goal for the class! We already have 1 goal as a class and have several students super close to hitting the "GOAL" area! We can't wait to reach 15 total and have our first surprise! I'm so proud of our SUPER READERS!
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This week we are learning all about Author's Purpose. As students are listening to passages I want them to be asking this question: WHY did the author write this? There are 3 main reasons why authors write....and it is as easy as PIE! Persuade--the author is trying to convince us to think something or do something. Clues for this are words like "you should". Inform--the author is trying to teach us or give us information about a topic. Clues for this include nonfiction text features like photographs as well as lots of information and true facts. Entertain--the author is trying to hold our attention through enjoyment. Most of the time we know it is entertainment because it is FUNNY. Clues for this are story starters like "Once Upon a Time" or pretend characters. Here's an AWESOME example of the same topic but with all three different purposes: Help your child this week find examples of these three types of writing around them. Advertisements in newspapers/magazines are GREAT examples of persuasion as they want us to purchase the item! Just about any storybook is a great example of entertainment....but if you REALLY want to thrill your kiddo, go to www.robermunsch.com and listen to a story. He is my absolute FAVORITE author and his read alouds on the site are PERFECT! :) Newspapers are another great source for informational reading. Although it isn't on a first grade level, the author is writing to give you facts and information about current events.
I hope this helps you as you help your child with Author's Purpose this week! :) As authors ourselves...we will be moving from informational (how-to) writing and will be beginning some persuasion writing in the coming week. Prepare to be CONVINCED! :) This week we are learning all about Point of View and answering the question "Who is telling the story?". Students are being detectives using CLUE WORDS to help them determine if a story is told in FIRST person, SECOND person, or THIRD person point of view. Since it has likely been a while since parents have had to use point of view, I thought I'd share some of the "tips and tricks" we use in the classroom to determine if a passage is first, second, or third person point of view. This is the anchor chart we created together as a class to remember the difference in point of view. The box explains WHO is telling the story and the words below are CLUE WORDS to listen for in the passage. We have been listening to fairy tales told from the perspective of the villain this week. So far we have heard the story of Rumpelstiltskin told from Rumpelstiltskin's perspective and also Jack & the Beanstalk told from the Giant's perspective. We know that these stories are told in FIRST person because it is a character in the story who is telling the story. They use words like: I, me, my, we, our. Second person stories are told from the perspective of the author. We have read aloud several books from the LuLu series such as "Lulu's Mysterious Mission". These stories are told by the author and she frequently interrupts her own stories to say things like, "You are probably wondering...." Students are learning that when a story says clue words like you or your it is in Second person. Third person point of view is told by a narrator, someone OUTSIDE the story. This person is narrating or telling the story and what is happening to the characters. The narrator will use clue words like the character's names, he, she, they, and their.
One of the best ways to help your child with point of view is helping them learn the clue words to look for. Typically when kids hear the words "I" or "me" they are much more easily able to identify First Person Point of View than trying to determine if it is a character in the story talking. I hope this helps you work with your child at determining point of view. We've been learning all about adjectives for the past two weeks in our class! Today we did a fun activity to get up and moving! Mrs. Shannon hid adjective cards all around the classroom. We had to be detectives and find the adjectives. We sorted them into two columns: adjectives and not adjectives. We have learned so much about adjectives through this fun activity! Want to extend the learning at home? Ask me to give you adjectives for random things (or people) around the house! Warning: ask your child to describe you at your own risk ;)
After all of our hard work to finish our How To Writing pieces we completed our final drafts and had a publishing party to celebrate! We learned that when we "publish" our writing we are making it available to others to read. This makes us AUTHORS!!!! To celebrate our publishing party we invited a VERY special guest to join us.....our principal, Ms. Susan! We each got a chance to share our writing pieces with Ms. Susan as she walked around the room. She learned A LOT of new skills she didn't know before! Our class has experts in riding a dirt bike, pulling a tooth, making ham sandwiches, doing cartwheels, baking blueberry muffins, catching pokemon, and SO many other skills. Ms. Susan was AMAZED at how much we had learned. After we shared our writing with Ms. Susan, we invited Mrs. Allison's class to come to our room and join us! They have been doing How To Writing too! Mrs. Allison and Mrs. Shannon picked a few students each to get to present their writing out loud to BOTH classes! Ms. Susan was SO proud of us and what excellent writers we were. In fact, she thought we were SO smart that she brought us SMARTIES!!!! She knows HOW TO make us happy :) We loved getting to celebrate being published writers in first grade! We promised Ms. Susan we would invite her back when we finish and publish our next writing pieces.
As we have been learning about story elements and putting a story in sequence, we've been using transitional words like FIRST, NEXT, THEN, and LAST. It only made sense to talk about Informational Writing: HOW TO. We have been using these directional words to explain to one another how to do certain tasks. Earlier in the week we sequenced the steps to brushing your teeth. Yesterday we explained to a partner how to be a good friend. But today was even MORE fun. Today we talked about How to Blow a Bubble! Students got to chew a piece of bubble gum during our lesson and try to blow a bubble of their own! Then we wrote out the simple directions to blowing a bubble to go with our awesome craft! As a class we decided on the steps for blowing a bubble. They turned out GREAT! They were very proud of their writing. I think they look AWESOME in the hallway! Mrs. Allison and I had a lot of fun too, of course! :)
As I hope you saw on our class newsletter, this week we are working on fact families. As you are working with your child on fact families, I thought a quick tutorial and explanation of how we do them may be beneficial and help YOU help your child! This is a fact family house. Just as we say we are RELATED to our family, the addition and subtraction facts in a given fact family are RELATED FACTS.
To help students understand fact families I tell students a little story about the Fact Family that helps them remember how to write out the 2 addition facts and 2 subtraction facts. The story goes something like this: There once was a fact family and they lived in a fact family house. There was BIG BOSS DADDY 9, Older Brother 6, and Little Baby Sister 3. Older Brother 6 and Little Baby Sister 3 decided to play a game. Older Brother got bossy and said "I want to go first!" So...... 6 + 3 = 9. Well, Little Baby Sister 3 did NOT like that at all. She said "That's not fair! I want to go first!" So....3 + 6 = 9. Well BIG BOSS DADDY 9 doesn't like all of that fussing and fighting from the kids. So he says he is going to start TAKING THINGS AWAY! He says "Older Brother 6, you should have known better! You're setting a bad example." So Older Brother 6 gets in trouble. 9 - 6 = 3. Little Baby Sister 3 snickers and says, "haha..yooooou got in troooouble." And Older Brother 6 says, "Thats not fair! She was fighting too!!" So Little Baby Sister 3 gets in trouble too. 9 - 3 = 6. And they all lived happily ever after. I know it sounds silly....but it helps kids identify which numbers are which.....and the order they go in. Most importantly they should know that in the 2 addition facts the BOSS (or greatest number) will go last. In a subtraction fact, the BOSS will be first. Try this at home! Try giving your student three numbers that belong in a fact family such as 6, 4, and 10. See if they can tell you which one is the BOSS and which one is "Little Baby Sister". See if they can write the 2 addition facts and 2 subtraction facts for the fact family. Here's the anchor chart we created as a class for Fact Families. Our classroom library is one of the most special areas in our classroom. A large portion of our classroom is designated to this space because of the importance of reading, especially in first grade. I believe that students who LOVE to read turn into students who LOVE to learn. I want to create and foster a love of learning that extends into adulthood. This week your child has been allowed to explore our classroom library for the first time. After discussing the rules and expectations of our library, the proper care of our books, and the ways our library is organized, your child was able to select 3 books to keep in their book tub. As we begin centers and small groups your child will have an opportunity each week to visit our classroom library for "Read to Self" time. Our library is organized by subject/topic, rather than by reading level. This is by design. Each day your child will meet with me in a small group to read books specifically chosen based on their tested reading level. They will work on decoding strategies, fluency, and comprehension skills. This is a rigorous time of learning to read and your child will gain confidence and skills to be a more fluent reader. In contrast, our library is meant to be a place where students can enjoy reading without limitations. I want students to find books that interest them and dive head-first into them! If that book is a little too easy for them, it will help build their fluency with repeated practice. If that book is a little too difficult for them, they will have an opportunity to practice the decoding skills and strategies we will be learning in our small group. It is OK if a book isn't a "perfect fit" during this time of our day because I want students to just ENJOY reading a book! If they love dinosaurs, grab a dinosaur book! If you're interested in reading a Clifford book, jump right in! So much of our day is structured and demanding...but this part of our day is simply for the LOVE of reading! Our classroom library is STOCKED with books on a variety of topics, and I am constantly curating it based on the needs and interests of my students. If I find your child has a special interest I will always try to point them to books that they would enjoy. If I don't have them, I work hard to get them.
This is where Scholastic Book Orders come in! They are so much more than just supplying your child with books to read at home. Our class earns "points" for each dollar spent on a book order. I am able to log on and spend these points on specific books for our classroom. This makes it possible for me to select specific books for our library that are catered to your child's likes/interests. Another great way to help build our classroom library is through our Amazon wishlist. I will continue to edit and add to this wishlist throughout the year and often will include books that I think will benefit our students. No books listed? Feel free to send a gift card with a note specified to be used for books. I will always honor your request on how to spend gift cards for our classroom! :) I truly see our classroom as the Holy Ground that God allows me to walk on each day...and I view our classroom library as extra sacred. This is a place where students' imaginations are ignited in ways that nothing else can do. My prayer is that your child grows in their abilities, but moreso, in their love of reading this year! Ever wonder how you can help our classroom? I keep an updated Amazon Wishlist running throughout the year of items that would benefit our class. Items range from small to extravagant dream items. You can access this list at the link below. ANY of these items would be a huge help to our class! :) Thank you for your generosity in making our classroom even better. https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/ref=cm_reg_rd-upd?ie=UTF8&id=2NFMGBBP15NIA&type=wishlist Here are a few items currently on our list... Next week we will be beginning our spelling program. The spelling program that I use in my classroom is a bit different than any other I have ever seen. I love this program and truly believe it is the BEST way to teach students spelling patterns, rather than simply memorizing sight words. I’d like totell you a little bit about the spelling program so that we can iron out any questions or concerns you may have and to make sure you are comfortable with the expectations before we begin next week.
First of all, we will begin the week with 8 spelling words (6 will follow a spelling pattern, 2 will be sight words). As the year progresses we will add more words (10 and then 12). There are three parts to our spelling test which help me assess who has mastered the spelling skill that has been taught and whether or not they can extend that learning to new situations. Part 1: Spelling Word Dictation This part is the “traditional” portion of the test. I will dictate to the students the words they have studied and they will write them correctly on the lines. Each week’s words will follow a specific spelling patter (For example: short “a” sounds). This portion will also include two STAR words. These two STAR words will be words that follow the same spelling pattern but were not on the original list to study. These words will assess whether or not your child can apply the spelling pattern when trying to decode an unknown word. So for instance, if your child’s spelling list for the week included words that were in the -at family, a STAR word could be pat or sat. If your child has learned and understands the -at family, they should be able to apply that learning to those new words even if they didn’t explicitly study them. By including words that follow the same spelling pattern, it encourages your child to move beyond simply memorizing weekly words and requires them to apply meaning to the spelling patterns. This has helped my students in the past see significant growth in their writing and reading as they are better able to decode unfamiliar words using the spelling patterns. Part 2: Sentence Correction For this part of the test, students will circle 3 mistakes in a given sentence and correctly write a sentence. Mistakes will include common issues like capitalization, punctuation, etc. This is something we practice quite a bit in first grade and your child should be able to spot mistakes and correct them with minimal difficulty. As the school year progresses, skills will become increasingly harder with errors including misspelled words that have previously been spelling words. This will not only help your child understand sentence mechanics and punctuation, but will also teach your child how to edit writing, which makes will help them as they learn to edit and publish their own writing pieces. Part 3: Comprehension Just as it is essential that your child begins to apply the spelling patterns to new situations, this should also have an impact on their reading. For the last portion of the weekly spelling test, your child will read a sentence independently and draw a picture to show their comprehension. For example, if your child is studying short “a” words, the sentence may say”A cat is on a mat.” Your child would draw a picture of a cat on a mat. This, of course, is not an assessment of their drawing or artistic abilities, but rather an opportunity for students to demonstrate that they are applying their spelling patterns to reading situations and are able to decode the words in a sentence and understand their meaning. Application to the Curriculum My hope is that through these explanations you are able to see that this spelling program is not typical but provides your child with the necessary exposure and practice to not only learning but APPLYING their learning. The tests your child will take and the skills they will acquire meet the following standards for first grade: RF:1.3—Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. L.1.1—Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard english grammar and usage when writing or speaking. L.1.1a—Print all upper- and lowercase letters. L.1.2—Demonstrate a command of the conventions of standard english capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. So—-as you can see, there is a method to what may seem a bit like madness for a while until you get used to it. I hope you will enjoy spelling this year and will be able to see dramatic growth in your child’s reading and writing abilities as a result. As always, if you have any questions or concerns about anything doing hesitate to email. I can’t wait to see your child’s progress this year. |
Mrs. Shannon1st Grade Teacher at Tipton-Rosemark Academy Archives
October 2016
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