Happy Thanksgiving!

Last week, we had our Fall Book Fair. The Book Fair had so many new and cool books. The kiddos were really excited to explore the options. Lots of friends in class made many visits to go buy books. Please make sure you are reading a book with your child daily and asking them questions about what they read! Reading is so important in first grade.

 In science, we worked on the four seasons. The class helped me draw pictures of what each season looks like and we hung it up onto our class bulletin board. I am so happy to see how much their fine motors have improved through their drawings compared to the beginning of the year.

 The kids did many writing activities with Mrs. Skalaban in the month of November about Thanksgiving. Last Thursday, they made turkey hats and had a turkey lunch feast in the cafeteria along with the other first grade classes wearing their hats. The children had fun coloring and creating their turkey hats.

I’m slowly introducing more and more math center activities for the children as the year goes on. Some of the kids are getting really creative with the math manipulatives.

In math last week, we worked on word problems. Specifically addition problems. Every day in class, we do a math warm up with dry erase boards. We practice the skills together and then they are sent off to their tables to do it independently.  

"Nhi and Tai have 44 apples. Nhi and Tai ate 2 more. How many apples did Nhi and Tai eat in all?"

"Samuel has 14 shoes. Samuel bought 14 more shoes. How many shoes does Samuel have altogether?”

To help the children determine if they will be adding or subtracting, this anchor chart in class will help them. We look for words we see in the word problem that’s on the anchor chart and then we look to see if it’s on the adding side or the subtracting side. I ask the kids to underline any of these words in their work also to help them remember which operation they will be doing.

For the last 2 days before Thanksgiving break, we practiced base ten representatives and expanded form. The kids are so smart that they got this down! As the year goes on, the numbers will only get bigger. 

Expanded Form= Hình Thức Mở Rộng

We did a robotics lesson this week on how to build a sturdy wall. We came up that “sturdy” means something that is strong and is hard to knock over. The kids were realllllly excited for this lesson because it was the first lesson they were able to explore with actual Legos. They worked with a partner to build. After building, they recorded in their spirals a picture of their study wall. 

I hope everyone has a happy, happy Thanksgiving! Remember to eat lots of food because I know I will!

The Summitt Lion/Dragon Dance team will perform at the annual Chuy's Children Giving to Children Parade on Saturday, Nov. 29 at 11 a.m. The parade begins around the Capitol and ends at the Ann Richards Congress Bridge. Come out, bring a toy to donate and support our team!

*I sent home a field trip permission slip in the children's daily folder. Please sign it and return it by December 5th in order for your child to go. 

Check out the announcements page. Lots of new updates!

Subtracting Word Problems and the Four Seasons

This week in science, we studied DAY AND NIGHT and THE FOUR SEASONS. As a class, we brainstormed things we are able to do during the day vs. things we are able to do during the night. On the black portion of our paper, we drew and wrote activities we do during the night time. On the white portion of our paper, we drew and wrote activities we do during the day time. These are hung outside of the classroom if you want to check them out.

 We had fun learning the four seasons this week. We even learned them with American Sign Language! Ask your child at home to do it for you. We drew the differences of the trees between the seasons and the appropriate clothes we wear for each season. We learned that each season is different from one another in many ways. In our science journals, we wrote about what we also liked to do during each season.

In math, we are working on subtracting with numbers up to 50. We learned how to subtract double digit numbers using “the big kids way” (writing the problem vertically and lining up the ones and tens place value) and using pictures to represent our word problem to help us solve the answer. 

“Linh has 35 balls. She lost 13 balls. How many balls does Linh have left?” 

“Gray has 25 green colored pencils. Gray gave Grayson 20 green colored pencils. How many green colored pencils does Gray have left?” 

*We have 7 more school days until Thanksgiving Break. Please remind your child that the school rules still apply and that we only have 7 more days to try to win the “manners prize” from Mrs. Stogdill.

*As you all may know, that Artic blast has made a visit and will be here for the next week. Please make sure your child comes to school with warm clothes along with their name labeled on their clothing. We don’t want any lost jackets and coats! Since the weather has been so windy and cold the past couple of days, we have been staying inside doing indoor recess. brrrrrrrrr! 

*Thank you for all who turned in money for the first grade fees. There will be many exciting events happening in December including our first field trip to the Zach Theatre. 

Science Buddies and Different Energies

On Thursday, we celebrated by eating ice cream with Mrs. Cummings for winning an attendance award and a tardy award. Thank you for getting the kids to school and on time every day! It was well deserved for the kids. Last month, our class ALMOST won the attendance party but we were behind Mrs. Farnsworth’s class by .3!

 Our monthly “science buddies” was this Wednesday. The 5^th grade scientists experimented with our little first graders with different Halloween candies. They experimented why certain chocolate candy float and some sink, how to make Nerds fiz with bubbles by adding baking soda, and even how to get the “M” and the “S” of M&M’s and Skittles float to the top. Mrs. Fleming is so great in organizing and preparing her 5^th graders for us every time we come. The kids get really excited and look forward to seeing their buddy every time we go.

In science we have been focusing on different types of energy. We learned that there are sound energy, heat energy, and light energy. We experimented with heat energy when we melted butter with my hair dryer and then we also experimented with sound energy when we had 3 different cups with 3 different levels of water in it. We concluded that the cup with the less water made the high pitch, the medium cup made a medium pitch, and the cup with the most water in it made the lowest pitch. There is something about banging a pair of scissors against 3 cups full of green water that gets little kids so excited! It was like playing musical cups.

Halloween Success!

This week we started our unit on counting money. I am very surprised on how fast the kids caught on. We practiced identifying coins and counting mixed coins. We learned a strategy using “hair” on our coins. Ask your child to teach you! This strategy really helps when the kids are counting lots of mixed coins including pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.

Summitt held its own 2^nd annual pumpkin carving contest. All the pumpkins were so creative and cool. Third place was the Box Troll, 2^nd place was from our very own Jacob with the Olaf, "Cold," and first place was “Electric!” The Pikachu. Check out some of the other contestants.

We had our very first classroom party on Friday and the kids did so great! They had such a great time. I could tell they were looking forward to the party the whole day. Even though Friday was such a crazy day, I was able to get through 2 lessons with my morning class.

We had 3 stations during the party.

1)   Pin the Bow Tie on Mr. Bones

2)   Decorate a cookie/cupcake

3)   Spider Tootsie Pops

Thank you to the moms that came to help me set up and organize the party! I could not have done it without y’all J

Please practice counting coins with your child this weekend. We will continue our money unit next week. Also, next week the students will have a big sound check on ALL of the sight words they have learned so far with Mrs. Skalaban. Next week’s homework might be somewhat writing intensive since they are to write a sentence for each sight word given. That is why next week’s math homework is pretty simple.

***Just a reminder that the $25 first grade fee is due November 14^th.