Last week, we read and reread the story Stellaluna. We made keen observations, made important life-to-text connections, and thought about identifying the story's beginning, middle, and end. Stellaluna is not a straightforward story, so we really worked together to try and identify the most important beginning, the most important middle, and so on. Most students have already completed their craft, other's are still in progress. Here's a peak into our first grade hallway and what their Stellaluna beginning, middle, and ends look like!
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Dear Families,
We are in week two of our Families in Their Neighborhoods Unit. Over the course of the remaining trimester students will be asking questions like: What Makes a Community?, What can you do in your community to make a difference?, What are some physical features in our community and why are they important? This week we have worked towards being able to identify the features of a neighborhood. Tomorrow, we will be taking a walk to explore our own ICS neighborhood! We walk all the way to the Schyukill Walkway so that students can take in the Philadelphia city skyline. We have been enjoying the following books: Dear Families, We are in week 2 of formally exploring the beginning, middle, and end of stories. We began by discussing how many things in this world have a beginning, middle, and an end! We looked at pencils, brooms, our class line, and even recess! We structured our thinking by finding the beginning and ending first. These parts of the story are often easier to find and in more predictable places. We find the middle of the story last. These are two of several stories that we've been reading and REreading to find the beginning, middle, and end. Take a look at how two students were able to use a graphic organizer to structure their thinking and show their understanding about The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. So, when you finish reading a story at home, ask your student to tell you the beginning of the story. Then ask them was the ending was! Last, ask them was happened in the middle of the story. It would be great practice for this important comprehension skill.
The lower elementary school students at ICS have access to an amazing online resource called RAZ-KIDS. It is a part of a larger Reading A-Z program that our students have access to. RAZ-KIDS is an online program that connects students with an extensive library of books perfect for their independent reading level. They can listen, read, and answer questions about stories. Parents and teachers alike can keep track of their progress. Students were only introduced to this program on Friday and I think it will probably take several more weeks until they are comfortable navigating this resource independently. While this resource is wonderful and will be available to them during literacy centers, computer time, and weekend reading if they are able to, it will not replace our home learning reading routine. I believe that no computer program, however fabulous, can replace what occurs when a child reads to their family. Below you'll find some helpful tips for using raz-kids! 1. Type www.raz-kids.com/login into your browser. 2. Type in the teacher username: gstirbys0 3. Press go or enter. Our class list will be visible. Your student should then press on their icon. Then, the following screen will appear. 4. All students received one of the following icon's as their password. They must press on this icon (included in the letter they received in their communication folders). Then press go. 5. You should tell see the following page. 6. Click Your Assignment. You will see a list of picture books that correlate to you child's reading level. 7. Students must go through books in the following order:
A. Click the ear icon and listen to the story. B. Click the eye icon and read the story themselves. C. Click the question icon and answer questions about the story. (The question icon only becomes available once students are reading on a C independent reading level). For each completed portion students will earn points. Eventually I will open up the rewards option and students will be able to spend their points on fun games. Dear Families, We have been exploring setting as an important story element. Our working definition: The setting is where the story takes place. Looking for examples, we read the following picture books together: We also started using an interactive reader's response notebook. (I haven't thought of a catchy name yet.) We have been using it to identify character and setting in different ways! We discussed how much the setting affects the story. Could we imagine what Bear Wants More would be like if it took place in the city? What if Henry P. Baloney was an alien who went to school in a forest? The setting that the author and illustrator choose makes a huge impact on the telling of the story. All of their structured choices were pulled from books we've read the last two weeks. Dear Families, This week your students started working on visualizing, retelling, and solving story problems. This is very challenging but important work as they develop number sense and have to decide whether to combine, take away, or compare numbers. Sometimes students will have story problems to solve at home. When they do, I suggest following the same routine we use in school. It is an important part of the Investigations curriculum. Source: Investigations - In Number, Data, and Space 1. Read students the story problem. Encourage them to visualize the story (like a movie in their brain). 2. Ask your child to retell you the story problem in his or her own words. 3. Ask students whether they think the number they end with will be more or less than the number they start with. 4. Encourage students to solve the problem however makes sense to them, using whatever math tools they have. We use counters, cubes, and pencils at school but use whatever makes sense! Below are some examples of students who showed their thinking or shared their thinking with the class. Hello Families, Every Monday I introduce the spelling words in a visual format. It is available here for you to use with your student, if you'd like! Happy Monday! Teacher Gaja ![]()
This week we focused on being able to identify characters in literature. We have been using the following definition: Characters are the animals, people, or creatures in a story. To further explore this idea we have been reading the following picture books: Our first graders identified these characters as the pigeon, the duckling, the boy and girl, Pete the Cat, and so on. Then several students wondered why the hot dog (a very important part of The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!) wasn't considered a character. This has prompted us to move our discussion towards how characters answer the question of WHO are the characters in the story rather than WHAT are the characters in the story. On Friday, we will read The Dot to further this discussion. Who were some of your favorite kids book characters?
Students received their first home learning packets (blue folder) today. It is the most basic form of the home learning packet, only including spelling practice work. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday students will choose a different activity to complete. They can challenge themselves and do a tic-tac-toe formation or they can just select three ways to practice. It will take a couple of weeks for students to become comfortable and familiar with this format. Please check out the Spelling and HF Words file below to see the visual format I use to introduce the spelling words. Happy Monday! Teacher Gaja ![]()
Our class has really been enjoying show and share. This activity has provided us with so many different learning moments. We are asking important questions, listening carefully, using sharing voices, waiting patiently, recalling key details, and all the while we are getting to know one another better! We have been asking questions like: -What do you love most about it? -Is it new or have you have it a while? How long? -Where do you keep it at home? -Is it fragile? Tomorrow we have another three presenters (including Tr. Ismael). We will be presenting all throughout next week. |
Teacher GajaI am a first grade teacher at ICS and hoping to keep families updated with important resources and tools for learning. Archives
March 2015
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