October 7, 2019
Last week, students met with their guided reading groups each day for 30 minutes. The reading skills that your child will work on in groups varies depending on the reading skills that they've already mastered. Some children are working on letter recognition and sounds, others are working on recognizing parts of words and rereading for fluency, and some are working on reading with expression. All groups work on comprehension skills. The reading comprehension skills that your child is working on also vary depending on the level at which they're reading. The following are examples of comprehension skills that are practiced in guided reading groups:
Last week, our read alouds were connected to the social-emotional strength of hope. We read What Do You Do With an Idea?, A Chair for My Mother, Someday, and The Tree Lady. We connected this strength to the idea of setting goals that can help make their hopes realities. Students talked with partners and the class about hopes that they have. We discussed the difference between hopes that might take a long time to come true and hopes that might become realities during this school year. Everyone hoped to save money to buy a special toy or game, so we tried to focus on hopes such as developing a new skill, learning a new idea, finishing a project, making friends, or starting a new hobby.
We are also learning focusing and calming strategies. One important strategy that helps children to self-regulate their emotions and behavior is taking breaks to practice deep breathing when they feel anxious, upset, or are having a hard time controlling themselves. A kid's video that teaches this strategy can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxbdx-SeOOo.
In math, first graders have been using the number line to count by tens backward and forward and to add multiples of ten. The have played games using number racks to figure out missing addends in adding to ten. Second graders practiced doubling, halving, and counting by two. They solved problems by drawing and writing about doubling and halving, practiced writing equations, and played games involving doubles facts. They are using the vocabulary words addends, sum, difference, and equals.
In science and for our Out & About, students began to learn about worms. Students learned that worms eat leaves and other plant matter and wastes, and turn it into nutrient-rich soil that plants use to grow. They began to learn the anatomy of a worm. In class, we read Carl and the Meaning of Life, a story about a worm who went on a search to find out what his purpose in life was. In the afternoon, students looked for worms in our garden, tried a game that started them thinking about how worms use senses, observed worms to see where their heads and tail ends are, and watered the soil to attempt to get worms to rise toward the surface. After our time in the garden, students returned to school to learn about worms from Nicole, a Metro employee, who taught them more about the purpose of worms, how they benefit the environment, and how worms' bodies work.
This week we will go to Gales Creek Campground on Thursday. We will leave at 9:05 a.m. Please make sure your child is on time and has a rain jacket, rain boots, and a water bottle. They can also bring dry clothes to change into in case they get wet.
If you have any questions or concerns, please email me at e.conway@fgcschool.org.
Last week, students met with their guided reading groups each day for 30 minutes. The reading skills that your child will work on in groups varies depending on the reading skills that they've already mastered. Some children are working on letter recognition and sounds, others are working on recognizing parts of words and rereading for fluency, and some are working on reading with expression. All groups work on comprehension skills. The reading comprehension skills that your child is working on also vary depending on the level at which they're reading. The following are examples of comprehension skills that are practiced in guided reading groups:
- Making personal connections
- Identifying characters, setting, problem and solution in a story
- Noticing a text's organization
- Describing characters and explaining how they change throughout a story
- Making inferences (Taking what they already know about a topic and combining it with what the text says to infer things that the author doesn't say directly. Example: If a character storms off and slams a door, you can infer that they are angry.)
- Thinking about authors and making connections between books written by the same author
Last week, our read alouds were connected to the social-emotional strength of hope. We read What Do You Do With an Idea?, A Chair for My Mother, Someday, and The Tree Lady. We connected this strength to the idea of setting goals that can help make their hopes realities. Students talked with partners and the class about hopes that they have. We discussed the difference between hopes that might take a long time to come true and hopes that might become realities during this school year. Everyone hoped to save money to buy a special toy or game, so we tried to focus on hopes such as developing a new skill, learning a new idea, finishing a project, making friends, or starting a new hobby.
We are also learning focusing and calming strategies. One important strategy that helps children to self-regulate their emotions and behavior is taking breaks to practice deep breathing when they feel anxious, upset, or are having a hard time controlling themselves. A kid's video that teaches this strategy can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxbdx-SeOOo.
In math, first graders have been using the number line to count by tens backward and forward and to add multiples of ten. The have played games using number racks to figure out missing addends in adding to ten. Second graders practiced doubling, halving, and counting by two. They solved problems by drawing and writing about doubling and halving, practiced writing equations, and played games involving doubles facts. They are using the vocabulary words addends, sum, difference, and equals.
In science and for our Out & About, students began to learn about worms. Students learned that worms eat leaves and other plant matter and wastes, and turn it into nutrient-rich soil that plants use to grow. They began to learn the anatomy of a worm. In class, we read Carl and the Meaning of Life, a story about a worm who went on a search to find out what his purpose in life was. In the afternoon, students looked for worms in our garden, tried a game that started them thinking about how worms use senses, observed worms to see where their heads and tail ends are, and watered the soil to attempt to get worms to rise toward the surface. After our time in the garden, students returned to school to learn about worms from Nicole, a Metro employee, who taught them more about the purpose of worms, how they benefit the environment, and how worms' bodies work.
This week we will go to Gales Creek Campground on Thursday. We will leave at 9:05 a.m. Please make sure your child is on time and has a rain jacket, rain boots, and a water bottle. They can also bring dry clothes to change into in case they get wet.
If you have any questions or concerns, please email me at e.conway@fgcschool.org.
