Newsletter

READING
Unit-Games
Some of the genre the students will be exposed to will be poetry and realistic fiction. All students will be working on comprehension strategies. Readers need to predict what will happen next and be able to revise those predictions as they go. They also need to visualize the setting, characters, and action in a story and be able to summarize.

EVERYDAY MATH
Unit 8
Students are introduced to fractions in many of the lessons. It is important for them to understand that fractions are equal of wholes. We are also counting up to make change with our coins. This is a very difficult concept. Practicing using real coins is extremely helpful. As always please continue to work on both addition and subtraction facts.

SOCIAL STUDIES
Students will be learning the meaning of past, present, and future. We will also discuss how inventions have made our lives easier. They will also see the importance of caring on traditions and customs.

SCIENCE
Our mealworms have arrived and observations are being recorded daily. We will be observing the life styles and behaviors of many different insects. Students will learn what needs to be provided for insects to survive. Such things as air, water, food, and space will give insects an opportunity to have a longer life cycle.

Spring Sing and Cast Party

Our Spring Sing is scheduled for Wednesday, March 18th followed by our cast party. The children are looking forward to performing their songs for you and hosting the party immediately following their performance in our classroom. Please join us for the festivities on this special day.

Newsletter

READING
We continue our voyage with Captain Bill Pinkney, the first African American to circumnavigate the globe alone. It began with a factual account of him sailing on his boat named , "The Commitment." Students are able to travel throughout the world with Captain Bill Pinkney as he covered 32,000 miles and a trip that lasted 372 days.

MATH
Unit 6, With the use of fact triangles and fact families children will learn the relationship of subtraction to addition. Three numbers are used to generate a fact family. Children will also be introduced to measuring in centimeters as well as inches. Students will be using both analog and digital clocks and discussing the advantages and disadvantages of both.

SCIENCE
Our unit on the solar system continues to be engaging for all of our students. We have a field trip planned to the Adler Planetarium for Thursday, April 30th.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We were able to have a wonderful presentation by Lynn Allen from the Multi-Cultural center on African American culture. They students enjoyed learning about the history of African Americans.

Newsletter

READING
Unit 5, Theme: Weather
Genre will include nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and informal writing about weather. We will continue to work on long and short vowel sounds, verbs, adjectives, and compound words. Please continue to read nightly with your child. Improving vocabulary and comprehension skills are a necessary component to their success.

EVERYDAY MATH
In Unit 5 students are learning about place value, greater and less than, relationships between numbers, number stories, number models, and addition and subtraction facts. A new concept called," What's My Rule?" is a routine that provides a format for thinking about rule-based relationships between pairs of numbers and also provides practice with number patterns and number facts.

SOCIAL STUDIES
Our focus this month is to learn about the contributions of African Ameicans to our society and to the world. We will be doing several projects and reading biographies to bring a greater awareness and sensitivity of people of all cultures.

SCIENCE
We are studying about the different phases of the moon and learning some interesting facts about our Solar System. Students are engaged and taking part in a variety of activities.

Everyday Math Resources

Please visit this site in order for extra math help!

http://www.mrsd.org/~mtcaesar/everydaymath1stgr.htm
http://www.quia.com/hm/81768.html

Math Attack!

Hi 1st grade and Family,
The first grade team would like to make sure that you have some of our math websites to use at hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifome. Most of these websites are already on my Math Webquest but here is a reminder!

http://mathfactcafe.com/

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/math_elem.htm This is a great website covering every single math concept.

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_1st_math.htm First Grade

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_2nd_math.htm Second Grade

http://www.allentownsd.org/EETT/firstgrade.htm -First grade math websites

http://www.homeschoolmath.net/worksheets/grade_2.php Second grade math worksheets

http://www.narragansett.k12.ri.us/Nes/2ndgrademath/2ndgrademath.htm Second grade math websites

Math Games:

Math Magician- http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/mathmagician/cathymath.html This is a great website! Students can pick what kinds of fact problems to solve and then are given problems to solve in 60 seconds. Also, a certificate is issued each time and students can print the certificate. The students will love printing the certificate and taking it home or have a wall in the classroom to display the certificate. Students enter their names that will be printed on the certificate.

Math Journey- http://www.quia.com/mathjourney.html

Directions: Travel around the world by answering math problems. The journey begins and ends in London, and has stops in 30 cities along the way. To board the plane to each new city, you must answer a math problem correctly. If you get a problem wrong, you have "missed your flight". Miss three flights and the game is over.

To begin: Check the skills you want to practice, or choose a predefined skill set from the Combinations column. After you've made your selections, scroll down and press the Begin the Game button.

Math Baseball: http://www.funbrain.com/math/index.html

Solve math problems and swing the bat

http://www.mathmastery.com/cyberchallenge/ Drill and Practice math

Web Manipulatives:

Pattern Block Play: http://ejad.best.vwh.net/java/patterns/patterns_j.shtml

This program can be used to familiarize oneself with the different shapes, their relations, and their proportions. By rotating them, one can also get a good feel for their symmetry. But the real purpose behind the program is to use it as a tool to learn and practice fractions.

Let's illustrate this with an example. Lets assume that the hexagon represents a whole or one unit. In that case, a triangle represents one sixth (or 1/6), so it is very easy to show graphically that 3 * (1/6) = 1/2 (i.e. that three triangles occupy the same space as half a hexagon). You can do this by dragging out three triangles and one hexagon and laying down the triangles right next to the hexagon or even on top of it as the following figures show:



Of course, you can make any shape or combination of shapes represent one unit; even more, you can have any combination of shapes represent any number of units. The possibilities would be endless.


Pentominoes: http://www.scholastic.com/blueballiett/games/pentominoes_game.htm


Polygons: http://www.mathcats.com/explore/polygons.html You'll find hundreds of polygons to drag anywhere you want. (Try dragging the samples above!). Explore symmetry, tessellations, and much more!


Interactive Math Activities: http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/grade_g_2.html Virtual manipulatives related to the NCTM standards

Time

Bang on Time-http://www.teachingtime.co.uk/clock2/clockwordsres.html Read the time in words and then stop the clock when the hands are in the matching position. What score will you achieve in ten turns. Adjust the hand speed to be really slow-3. It is a little hard so this is a great one to practice as a whole class in first grade. Second graders can do it by themselves.

“Play Clockwise” http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/dynamo/den/clock/index.htm

This another great one to do as a whole class students will love it.

Money


Change Maker - http://www.funbrain.com/cashreg/index.html Get as much money in your piggy bank as possible, by figuring out the correct change.

Money Flashcards - http://www.aplusmath.com/cgi-bin/flashcards/money



Consumer Math and Money- http://www.aaamath.com/mny.html

Problem Solving

Figure This- http://www.figurethis.org/challenges/toc.htm

Math Maven’s Mystery- http://teacher.scholastic.com/maven/index.htm


Sources for Hands on Science activities:

http://www.spacegrant.hawaii.edu/class_acts/index.html Exploring planets in the classroom

http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexperiments/quick/earlyelem.html A-Z experiments

http://www.aimsedu.org/ Resources

http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_plastics/hop_jr/activities/index.html

Phonics and Math Webquests

I made two really cool webquests just for you! You will be using these often to practice your reading skills and math skills!

FUN WITH PHONICS
Click on the following link to visit it.
http://questgarden.com/41/01/2/070924183356/

MATH ATTACK
Click on the link below to practice and have fun with Math!
Enjoy, Love Ms. V
http://questgarden.com/41/01/2/071001191353/