Hello. I would like to apologize for forgetting that when I created last week's blog, I did not put in the numbers for the candy brought in for the week, which we measured on Friday (16 pounds) or the total the school collected (323 pounds). Sorry for my absentmindedness. On Monday, we had a WONDERFUL Coyote Coupon celebration, though, where Mrs. Charette announced that amount to the children. Then Mrs. Charette, Mrs. Raymond, Mrs. Marshall and select children did S.T.E.A.M. activities for the remainder of the assembly. (STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math--These activities are becoming part of our classrooms in the hopes of developing children's interest in and desire to participate in these subjects.) They created "ooze" to emit from jack-o-lanterns using common household materials. Next, they had three children put Nerd candies in one balloon, Pop Rocks in a second balloon and baking soda in a third balloon, and strap these balloons onto plastic soda bottles containing Mountain Dew, Coke, and vinegar, respectively. They asked the children to predict which combination would make the most "gas" and inflate its balloon the most. Though all three balloons did inflate just by power of the gases formed, the baking soda/ vinegar produced the largest amount of gas and therefore inflated its balloon the most. Then Mrs. Marshall demonstrated how airplanes fly because a stream of air passes more rapidly OVER the top of the airplane, which creates lift. The audience was excited and enthralled by the entire presentation. And, at the end of the "show", the children were invited onto the floor to do "The Monster Mash" together. It was a well-spent hour! Later on Monday, we had plenty of food for our party! Thank you. The children ate a little bit before the parade, and we saved the rest until we returned after the parade. We changed into costumes (mostly OVER jackets) and walked from Crescent Park down Chapman Street, up Main Street to Northeast Bank, through the bank, and then back to Crescent Park. By the time we returned, the children were hungry enough to want to finish the party. Before we knew it, it was time to head for home and trick-or-treating!!
Once the children returned on Tuesday, we started our phonetic work on the short vowel a sound. Your child has been taught that a has three most common sounds--short a, as in cat; long a, as in ape; and the schwa sound of a, as in ahead. Right now, we are focusing on Consonant-Vowel-
Consonant (CVC) words, and building words with the short a sound. We started with the -at family. By putting different consonants in front of the -at, we read (and spelled and wrote) over 15 new words from that family! We also noticed that there were some words (like "what") that just didn't want to follow the rules!! We added a caterpillar part to our wall of words for the -at family. We have plans to make that caterpillar crawl all over the cupboards over the sink.
We have been practicing "friends of ten" and "teen numbers" this week in Math. We took the timed addition test again this week, and two more children passed it!! Yeah! We finished our addition word problems booklet, and have been playing games which have allowed us to practice several different strategies that make addition easy and fun. So, we're ready to begin subtraction next week, especially now that four children will be doing the subtraction timed test! We will also continue to work on how we figure out missing addend equations such as ___ + 8 = 10. We will begin with "friends of ten" equations, since the kids understand the "friends of 10". Then, we will move on to other equations. How three numbers work together to make addition and subtraction sentences (equations) is called number bonding or number bonds. We will spend time over the next few weeks becoming very comfortable with number bonds.
Several of the children were able to pass their "Continents and Oceans" test this week. We will continue to find opportunities for the rest of the class to practice for, and attempt to pass this district test. We have been learning about the skeletal system this past week, and have labeled the major bones in the human skeleton. We reviewed that bones serve three purposes: they give the body its shape; they allow the body to move; and they protect the major organs in our body. We discussed how the center of big bones in the body have something called "bone marrow"inside, and that bone marrow makes new blood cells. Would you like to do an experiment at home that we will also be doing in school? You will need some chicken leg bones (the big "drumstick" bones work best, but the others will also do, and in some ways will be more bendable), some vinegar, and a capped container to put it in. Clean off the leg bone in hot water. Then dry it off and let your child feel the bone. How would he describe it? Can she bend it? Then, fill the jar with vinegar, and put the bone down into the vinegar until the vinegar completely covers the bone. Close the cap. Leave it alone for 5-7 days. Then, rinse off the vinegar and try to bend the bone again. What changes do they notice? Hopefully, the kids will notice that the bones softened (the acid softened the bones by removing the calcium) so that they became bendable. This demonstrates the need for the children to get calcium in their diets through milk, yogurt, cheese, or spinach and kale, too. While we are waiting for our experiment to conclude, we will go back to working on the map unit we started, since we have not made any maps, and that needs to happen before I can put a grade on report cards.
Speaking of report cards--I do want to forewarn you that there will not be many grades on this first report card. In Math, for example, we have been working all trimester on building your child's "number sense", so he or she has a strong sense of what numbers mean and can more easily envision them and manipulate them in his/ her mind. The benefits of acquiring this stronger number sense should become more apparent as he or she progresses through school, but it has not yet found a place of its own on our report card. While we first teach addition AND THEN subtraction, both skills are "coupled" on a number of Math standards for first grade. As you know from these newsletters, we will just be starting to work on subtraction next week, and will not be ready to be evaluated on subtraction for this reporting term. I will write a grade in those areas, but it will be for addition work only. (A note in the Comments section of the report card will reflect that the grade is only based on the addition work for this trimester, and grades for the second trimester will be based on both addition and subtraction.) Please do read the comment section at the end of my part of the report card. As I record the grades, I will go to that section to explain my thoughts and reasoning.
Parent-teacher conferences will take place on Tuesday, November 15 and Thursday, November 17 from 3:30pm to 7:00pm. Those days ARE school days, so I am unable to make daytime appointments. Please contact me directly if you need an appointment that does not fit into the planned timing. I could do a 7 am appointment, if needed. I look forward to sitting down and talking with your about your child and the progress I see him or her making.
Okay--I think that's it for this week. Please remember that there is no school tomorrow (November 8th) or on Friday (November 11th), and that parent-teacher conferences are the following week. If you have not yet scheduled an appointment, please do so as soon as possible. Have a great weekend!
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