Whew! November FLEW by for the First Graders at Rohan Woods! The students are maturing, making responsible choices, being great examples for the younger students and learning a ton! Students have enjoyed one-of-a-kind experiences at Rohan Woods, such as: The Halloween Parade around the neighborhood and a school-wide election! We are excited to experience all the wonderful things December has to offer!
Here are some areas in which our First Graders have been hard at work learning and growing:
Teamwork and Personal Responsibility- Students are continuing to work together as a team. They are also working on developing strong social problem-solving skills and making responsible choices, even in difficult times.
Reading- Students are using recently learned reading strategies to further develop their fluency, comprehension, and stamina while reading. We are making predictions while reading and increasing vocabulary. Stories and reading passages are used in small groups, so that students are challenged at different levels. Students have time set aside daily to read independently in their own special places, with books that are "just right" for them! Students also earned the privilage of listening to audio books to increase auditory comprehension.
Spelling- Students are continuing to build their spelling skills through weekly games, activities, and spelling tests. Their favorite spelling game is "Sparkle"! They also enjoy using letter stamps, magnets and cookie pans, as well as other centers to hone in on spelling skills. Thus far, students have learned about short vowel sounds, consonant clusters, words that end in -nk and -ng, short vowel sounds represented by more than one letter, vowel/consonant patterns, vowel-consonant-e patterns, and long a,e, and i words using tricky spelling patterns. Students of all abilities enjoy being challenged by a Second Grade curriculum.
Writing- Students are continuing to work on building stamina while writing. First Graders are working on writing mechanics such as: correct letter and numeral formations, starting at the pink line in journals, starting every sentence with a capital letter and ending with proper punctuation. Our "How to Cook a Turkey" writing pieces were both entertaining and rigorous in academic stature. A topic sentence, three sequencing sentences, as well as a conclusion sentence had to be used. You can view the First Grade pieces on the Rohan Woods blog at https://rohanwoods.org/HappyThanksgiving!! Students continue to earn our school mascot, Archie, to take home on the weekends. The student chosen documents his/her weekend with Archie in our "Adventures with Archie" notebook, and then presents their writing to the class on Mondays. A name, date, title and "juicy words" must be used.
Math- Students are continuing to build their math skills using our hands-on Singapore Math curriculum. This month, students have worked with whole number computation while subtracting. Students are able to both add and subtract in a variety of ways, use subtraction symbols and math vocabulary. In addition, our First Graders have used their thinking skills to analyze parts and whole math problems, make subtraction stories, solve real-world subtraction problems, as well as make fact families using addition and subtraction. First Graders love using the hands-on manipulatives used in class! We are getting really good at using mental math strategies to solve how many more Safari Adventure points we need to earn various rewards each week.
Social Studies- Students are continuing to actively learn about the seven continents and fifty states through our Postcard Exchange project, "It's a Small World After All". First graders are continuing to use the postcards to discover new information about cities, countries, continents, landmarks, oceans, and the world around them. We are using cardinal directions to locate the different areas on our maps. In addition to our Postcard Exchange project, we are learning about the world around us through song and literature. First Graders are also learning about the community and seasons through daily discussions.
Read Aloud- First Graders enjoy daily read aloud stories. During the read aloud, students are asked to make predictions, make inferences, and generate meaningful questions. Additionally, students recognize how expression can change a story dramatically. We read so many new and exciting books during the month of November! One of our favorites was "Ready Freddy: Thanksgiving Turkey Trouble", in honor of Thanksgiving!
Bring on December!
Ms. Coleman
First Grade Teacher