Curriculum updates

We're wrapping up the school year! Can you believe it?! Over the next 8 days we will continue to work hard in all curricular areas. We will continue to have fun as well. The last five days are "theme days" with activities that correlate with first grade learning targets and all revolve around a common theme. The kiddos always really enjoy these days. Here's a quick update with some of the material we will be covering for the remainder of the school year!

Writing: Students are working on advice books for incoming first graders. This is a wonderful reflection on their learning this year, and an opportunity to continue perfecting their first grade writing and mechanics. Students also wrote letters to their future second grade teachers. When class lists come out in August, I will make sure teachers receive the letters so they can get to know your children! We completed our final writing assessment of the year, and also our word chunk list. We will continue to practice things like "ed" and "ing" endings and contractions to prepare students for second grade!

Math: We are working on our 'step up to second grade' unit. During this unit we have been introducing the ideas of: even/odd numbers, arrays, using a hundreds chart to add and subtract, using models to add 2-digit numbers (with regrouping), using models to subtract 1-digit and 2-digit numbers, telling time to five minutes, understanding hundreds.

We will also continue to work on fact fluency and story problem solving!

Reading: I am currently assessing reading levels. It is taking longer than expected because students due to amazingly high reading levels :) As I work on assessing students, the class is working on various writing tasks related to their reading to increase comprehension. In upper grades, students are expected to do writing about their reading so we like to do some practice with this at the end of the year. Students also continue to work in partnerships some days.

Social Studies: We are working on our producers and consumers economic unit. See last week's post regarding specific details. :) Students are enjoying learning about wants/needs

Additional info: Students are practicing basic coin ID as well as adding coins and some days we are doing a "word of the day" to address vocabulary development.

Producers/Consumers Social Studies Unit

We are starting our last social studies unit of the year. This topic is an Economics unit on Producers and Consumers. The essential questions for this unit are: How do producers and consumers help our community? Why are goods and services important to our community?


During this unit students will review the concepts of scarcity and opportunity cost. Students will be introduced to goods and services and producers and consumers. The students will be able to distinguish a good from a service. In addition, the students will explain the relationship between consumers and producers.

Students will work to:

- identify goods and services and give examples of them in their school, homes, and community.
to identify examples of goods and services found in books, photographs, and/or videos.
- identify producers and consumers give examples of them in their school, homes, and community.
- use multiple sources such as texts, videos, and/or photographs, etc. to identify examples of producers and consumers.
- explain that producers pay close attention to the wants and needs of consumers when they think about which goods and services to offer.
- apply their understanding of the relationship between producer and consumer to develop an idea for a simple good or service that another consumer might want or need.

Word Work

This week's blends are sc- and sk-

Because we have been working on blends and not spelling patterns, you may notice your child struggling a bit due to the varying word patterns used with the blends. The purpose of these blend weeks is exposure and practice with familiar blends. These are more second grade patterns/words they will encounter in the future and this practice will assist them as they grow as readers and writers.

Math - Fractions

We are in topic 15 now and working with halves and fourths. Students are working to:

- Determine whether shapes are divided into equal shares
-Divide shapes into 2 and 4 equal shares and use words to describe the shares (half, quarter, fourth)
-Understand that more equal shares of the same whole create smaller shares
-Make a drawing or diagram to show a problem about equal shares

This will conclude our unit on geometry. Our last unit of the year is Step up to second grade!

Grant's Farm

Our Grant's Farm trip is next Wednesday, May 10. A few reminders:

-We will leave school promptly at 9:15 AM. Please make sure your child is here on time, so they do not miss the bus.

-We will be returning to school at 2:00 PM.

-Send a sack lunch and drink with your child. We will be eating at Faust park after Grant's Farm before returning to school.

-Each child will be able to feed the goats and ride the carousel during our visit (no other activities or food items will be purchased)

-Students will be in groups with parent chaperones during the trip

-Chaperones, look for an e-mail soon with details :)

THANK YOU!

Wow - thank you for ALL the lovely flowers today for teacher appreciation week! They are gorgeous, and really brighten up our room on this dreary day. I feel so blessed to get to work with all of you. :)

Junior Achievement

Your child will probably come home excitedly talking about "Junior Achievement" or "JA" this week. What is JA, you might ask? It is a program designed to help educate students in financial literacy and economic concepts. The first grade program focuses on the concepts of family/community/wants/needs. We have had four parent volunteers graciously give up their time this week to come in and teach a lesson to us. You may see some papers come home also that go along with various activities. Be sure and ask your child what he/she is learning! These lessons go along with our producers and consumers unit which we will be working on in a couple of weeks. Thanks a ton for the parents who are coming in to help with this!