Dates

April 28 - All-District Art Show @ Queeny Park (12-4pm)
April 30 - 5th Gr Music Field Trip
April 30-May 10 - MAP State Testing Window for Grades 3-5
May 2 - Kindergarten Field Trip
May 7 - 4th Grade Field Trip
May 8 - Pkwy Board of Ed Mtg at Central Middle (7pm)
May 9 - BOGO Book Fair (4-5pm)
May 9 - Menchie's PTO Fundraiser (4-9pm)
May 10 - 4th Grade Field Trip
May 10 - BOGO Book Fair (4-7pm)
May 10 - SVE Family Fun Run (5:30-7pm)
May 14 - 5th Grade Concert (6:30pm)

Math

This week we are finishing up our Measurement unit. Last week students began learning to tell time to the hour and half hour. We will assess this week. Next week we will begin our final unit for the year - geometry! This is always a very fun unit as students learn how shapes are composed and decomposed. During this unit students will learn to...

-identify shapes based on their defining attributes.
-build shapes with defining attributes.
-draw shapes with defining attributes.
-sort shapes by their defining attributes.
-recognize when an attribute is non-defining.
-use two or more 2-D shapes to create new shapes (e.g., put triangles together to make a rhombus or a hexagon).
-use two or more 3-D shapes to create new shapes (e.g., combine two right triangular prisms to create a right rectangular prism).
-make new shapes from composite shapes.
-recognize what shapes are used to make composite shapes.
-partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares.
-describe equal shares as halves, fourths, or quarters.
-use the phrases half of, fourth of, or quarter of.

Writing

The students are doing an amazing job with their google presentations so far! They have done such great work in finding important facts, organizing those facts, and are now working to type their facts onto slides! This week they will learn how to format slides and add photos. I am hoping to wrap these up by the end of the week so students can begin presenting Monday! I will record the presentations and share on SeeSaw.

Following this presentation, we will do some work with narrative writing and work on using rubrics to improve our work. We also create a class compliment book which will be part of this work.

Dates

April 15 - Project Parkway Meeting at South High (6:30-8pm)
April 16 - Spirit of Excellence Awards at UMSL (6:15 pm)
April 18 - PAMEE Mtg (6-7:30pm) at ISC Building
April 18 - Parent Survey DUE -- SURVEY LINK
April 19 - NO SCHOOL
April 23 - PTO Meeting in the Library at 7pm
April 24 - 2 Hour Late Start Day (school starts at 11:05am)
April 25 - 4th Grade Music & Strings Concert at 6:30pm
April 25 - Parkway Park Tour (Free Event) Creve Coeur Park (5:30-8pm)
April 26 - Spring Walk/Bike to School Day at 8:15am
April 26 - PTO Movie Night 7pm in the Gym (Doors open 6:30pm) NO Drop-Offs
April 27 - Spring School Property Beautification Day (8-11am)
April 27 - All-District Art Show @ Queeny Park (10am-4pm)
April 27 - Parkway STEM Night at Blue Chip Soccer Village (7:30pm)
April 28 - All-District Art Show @ Queeny Park (12-4pm)
April 30 - 5th Gr Music Field Trip
April 30-May 10 - MAP State Testing Window for Grades 3-5

Science

Oh boy the kiddos are EXCITED about our new science unit that focuses on observing the sun, moon, and stars! They've already begun tracking the moon each evening. Yesterday we created sun trackers so we can also track the movement of the sun!

In the previous Light and Sound module, students explored how light and sound travel over distances. The primary source of light on Earth is the Sun. The Sun is the star at the center of our solar system. Students will learn that stars, including the Sun, generate their own light, while objects such as the moon reflect that light.

Throughout the module, students will document patterns as they observe the Sun, moon, and stars. The ability to recognize patterns is an important scientific skill that researchers use to develop explanations of observations in nature.

Finally, students will be challenged with the task of designing, building, and testing a device to protect students from ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Students will analyze media to determine the peak times during the day for UV radiation and then design a cover for a playground structure.

Reading

We are starting a fun reading project this week - reader's theater! After our character study unit we always conclude by performing reader's theater. Students enjoy "becoming" characters as they work on fluency, voice level, expression and incorporate details as they create settings (backgrounds) for their performances. The three plays our students are working on are: The Three Little Pigs, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. When we perform these in class they will be posted on SeeSaw. :)

Math

We are assessing this week on our current Addition and Subtraction 2 unit. Next week we will begin our measurement unit which lasts about 5 weeks. This unit focuses on the understanding of length by comparing objects to determine which is the shortest and longest. Students measure the length of objects using nonstandard units, such as pieces of string, cubes, and paper clips.  Students learn that objects can be compared directly or indirectly.  This unit also includes time, under the big idea that time is measurable and can be represented on a clock using hours and minutes.  Students are introduced to telling and writing time to the hour and half hour using both analog and digital clock Additionally, we will do some brief work with basic coin identification during this unit.

Essential questions for this unit:

Why do we measure?
What is important when we measure?

Writing

We finished our persuasive writing unit by writing different types of reviews: toy, game, movie, video game, etc. and then general persuasive books. Students understand that persuasive writing is used to convince others of a belief, want, or need. The kiddos had a great time doing this type of writing!

We are now moving into a non-fiction research project. Students will be working in pairs to select a topic of interest, research for facts, organize facts, and create a google presentation. Students will then present their google slides and take questions as they become the experts of their topics. 

This unit incorporates so many of our valuable skills the students have learned this year: reading for information, organizing writing ideas, capitalization and punctuation, working with a partner, listening and speaking! Presentations will be uploaded on SeeSaw. :)

Social Studies

We are in our Location! Location! Location! unit in Social Studies. Students are staying in our classroom for this unit and the remainder of Social Studies units this year. This is a fun unit! If you have any maps lying around at home that we could borrow during this unit that would be great!

Students will work on their geographic skills as they use maps and globes to locate a place and describe its relative location to the United States and other political and geographic features. Students will be introduced to the compass rose and cardinal directions to assist them in locating and describing the location of places on the map. The students will be able to locate the seven continents and five oceans.

Essential Question:
How can we find and show where places are located in our world?

Reading

We are in our unit - Meeting Characters and Learning Lessons. This is a time and place for amazingly deep first grade conversations around story elements but especially characters! Students are going beyond what is explicitly in the text and draw conclusions about a character based on what they say, how they act, etc.

Essential Questions:

How do readers keep track of the events in a story?
How do partners share their reading adventures?
How do readers study the characters in books?
What important lessons can I learn from the character and their experiences?
How do readers share their opinions about books?

This past week we've been focusing on these skills:

Readers keep track of events in a story and use them to make predictions and retell key details

Readers pay attention to characters when reading

Readers learn important lessons from the books they read 

Readers grow opinions about the books they read and share them

You'll notice that we are incorporating some of what we are learning about OPINIONS from our writing reviews unit we are also currently working in. This is a fun way for the kids to make a cross-curricular connection!

We are diving into characters this week especially. Using various texts as a whole group and in partners and small groups we are working on some fun ways for students to really get into the character's shoes. Students will introduce characters to each other, re-read to sound like a character, act out a character from a part of their book. 

We will also discuss what lessons characters learn throughout this unit.

Dates

March 4 - Spring Book Fair Week (M-W:4-5pm)(Th:4-8pm)
March 4 - Raising Awareness Around Anxiety at Central Middle (6-7:30pm)
March 5 - Chick-Fil-A Fundraiser Night (4-8pm)
March 7 - Parent/Teacher Conferences (4:30-8:30pm)
March 8 - Skate Night @Skateport Plaza (5-7pm)
March 9 - Pancake Breakfast @SVE Cafe' (9-11am)
March 11 - 5th Gr Orchestra Rehearsal Field Trip to Family Arena
March 12 - All District 5th Gr Orchestra Concert at Family Arena (7:30 pm)
March 13 - Board of Education Mtg at Central Middle (7pm)
March 14 - PAMEE Mtg (6-7:30pm) at ISC Building
March 15 - Spring Book Fair ONLINE SALES END
March 15 - Spring Party Day (2:55-3:55pm)
March 18 - NO SCHOOL - Spring Break (3/18-3/22)
March 25 - Talent Show Rehearsals in the Gym (4:30-7pm)
March 26 - Talent Show in the Gym (6-8pm)

Dates

February 18 - NO SCHOOL - Presidents Day
February 20 - 1st Grade Field Trip
February 20 - Board of Education Meeting - Central Middle (7pm)
February 21 - Elementary Summer School Registration Begins at 10am
February 21 - Parkway Science Fair Registration Deadline
February 21 - Talent Show Auditions (4:30-7:30pm)
February 22 - 5th Gr Field Trip
February 22 - Kids Heart Challenge Envelopes DUE
February 22 - Family BINGO Night in the Gym at 6:30 pm
February 25 - Read Across America / Dr. Seuss Week
February 25 - PTO Penny Wars Fundraiser BEGINS
February 26 - Dr. Seuss Night (6:15-7:45 pm)
February 26 - 1st Gr Dr. Seuss Concert (7:30-7:45pm)
February 27 - 2 Hour Late Start Day (School Starts at 11:05)
February 27 - 2nd Trimester Progress Reports Accessible Online
February 28 - Spirit of Excellence at UMSL (6:15pm)
March 1 - Parkway STEM Fest at Southwest Middle (4-8pm) AND
                Science Fair Project Viewing from 4-6pm
March 2 - Parkway STEM Fest at Southwest Middle (10am-4pm) AND
                Science Fair Project Viewing from 4-6pm

Math

This week we are beginning our Addition and Subtraction II unit. This unit focuses on adding a 2-digit number to a 1-digit or 2-digit number with the sum less than 100, and subtracting multiples of 10 less than 100.  Students will find answers using concrete models, drawings, properties of operations, the relationship between addition and subtraction, and strategies based on place value.  Written methods are related to strategies, with the expectation that students can explain the reasoning used.  We will really be focusing on this explaining skill and also in looking at the work and others and determining how efficiently they solved a problem. . This unit builds upon all the work we've done so far this year, and their foundational knowledge should support these more complex number situations.

Writing - New Unit - Writing Reviews

This unit aims to bring opinion writing to first-graders.  First-graders will learn to appreciate the power and purposes of writing. Students will learn the art of persuasion and the role their writing can play. The unit begins with teaching students that writing can give them a way to make and defend important decisions.  Eventually, children will use their skills at writing to make and defend judgments to write reviews of all sorts- restaurant reviews, movie reviews, book reviews. Our main focus will be book reviews.

Students will record their book reviews (think Reading Rainbow style) and to celebrate the class will view all the reviews!

Nikki Grimes

Our class is studying Ms. Nikki Grimes this month as a celebration of Black History Month. We are enjoying reading her works as well!

Calendar

February 11 - Six Flags "Read to Succeed" Forms DUE
February 11 - Talent Show Registration ENDS
February 11 - Project Parkway Mtg @North High (6:30 pm)
February 14 - End of 2nd Trimester
February 15 - NO SCHOOL - Records Day
February 18 - NO SCHOOL - Presidents Day
February 20 - 1st Grade Field Trip
February 20 - Board of Education Meeting - Central Middle (7pm)
February 21 - Elementary Summer School Registration Begins at 10am
February 21 - Parkway Science Fair Registration Deadline
February 21 - Talent Show Auditions (4:30-7:30pm)
February 22 - 5th Gr Field Trip
February 22 - Kids Heart Challenge Envelopes DUE
February 22 - Family BINGO Night in the Gym at 6:30 pm
February 25 - Read Across America / Dr. Seuss Week
February 25 - PTO Penny Wars Fundraiser BEGINS
February 26 - Dr. Seuss Night (6:15-7:45 pm)
February 26 - 1st Gr Dr. Seuss Concert

Habit #5 Refresh

All this month we will be doing review of habit #5. We will be doing many fun listening activities and some lessons to reinforce this! Look for a Habit #5 home connection coming home later this month!

Conference Sign Up

It's nearly that time again!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4fa5ae22a4fa7-spring2

What Are We Learning This Week?

Here's a quick look at what we are learning this week!

Writing: We continue to work on poetry! The students' notebooks are filling up with all different kinds of poems and they are having so much fun! This week we are working on color poems, 5 senses poems, comparison poems (learning about similies), and shape poems. We will begin publishing poems next week.... I'm thinking a class book of poems!

Math: Students continue to strengthen their understanding of place value and working with two-digit numbers. We are comparing numbers and using the symbols to describe greater than/less than/equal to (+  -  =). Students will use a number line this week as they work with comparing two-digit numbers. In addition, we are doing some subtraction review and some of us are working on more complex multi-step story problems.

Reading: We are still in our story elements unit. This week we are doing responses in our reading notebook. Students are filling out a variety of story maps but we are also analyzing characters and students are providing their opinion about stories and characters. Last week students created reading "wigs" and they are independently tracking them! They were SO excited to start this and are doing a great job tracking their progress!

----> What is a WIG? A WIG is a "wildly important goal"! Students have set a reading level goal based on their data and movement so far this year. Students have chosen 1 "lead measure" (what they need to do to meet the goal) and are tracking this daily in their leadership notebooks. The Lead Measures they chose from:
1. Practice Sight Words
2. Stay focused during reading time
3. Do something when finished (retell, reread, respond, etc.)
4. Find and define 5 new words in my vocabulary notebook
5. Personalized lead measure based on student's needs

Social Studies: Students continue to learn about American Symbols with Ms. Baum. They are working hard on creating their symbols books.

Calendar

January 28 - Box Tops Drive BEGINS
January 28 - Talent Show Registration BEGINS
January 29 - PTO Meeting in the Library (6:30-7:30 pm)
January 30 - Late Start Day 2-Hour (11:05 am)
February 1 - Yearbook Orders DUE ($13)  -- Order Online  OR Order Form
February 2 - All-District Elementary Choir Concert @Logan Univ. (3pm)
February 4 - Science Project DROP-OFF from 8:30-9am
February 4-7 - Science Project Celebration Week
February 4-8 - National School Counselor Appreciation Week
February 6 - Last Day to Register for GlobalHack 2019
February 7 - Science Project Celebration/Viewing Night (6:30-7:15 pm)
February 8 - 2nd Grade Field Trip
February 8 - Box Tops Drive ENDS
February 8 - Talent Show Registration ENDS
February 9 - All Parkway 4th Gr Strings Day Concert @West High
February 9 - PTO Trivia Night @CBC (6pm)
February 11 - Six Flags "Read to Succeed" Forms DUE
February 11 - Project Parkway Mtg @North High (6:30 pm)
February 14 - End of 2nd Trimester
February 15 - NO SCHOOL - Records Day
February 18 - NO SCHOOL - Presidents Day

Social Studies

Students are traveling in the afternoon to Ms. Baum's room for Social Studies. The students are studying American symbols and are working on constructing their own book of symbols they are learning about. Through the recognition and celebration of special days in our country, students will develop an awareness of the national symbols of our country including the Statue of Liberty and our Nation's Capitol. Students will also describe the contributions of non-Missourians including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr.  As compared to previous years, a new direction for this unit is a focus on the character traits of leadership. Instead of just focusing on facts about famous leaders, students will use the lives of others as case studies on leadership in general.The EQ's for this unit are:

What makes a good leader?
What do symbols tell us about our country?

Reading

We continue to work on story elements this week! Students are working to identify the elements that make up a story: setting, characters, problem, and solution. They are also paying close attention to these various elements to see when and how they change and how that affects the story. This unit really focuses on the comprehension of texts so we are doing many activities as a group, in partners and on their own to think about the events in the story on a deeper level. We have started reading notebooks where students are doing some story mapping and responding to questions about a text. Later this week we will dive deeper into character analysis and discovering character traits and comparing different characters.

Word Work

Week of	Chunk	Accountable words
1-22	-ake	Day  play
1-28	-ay	Do  her
2-4	-ide	His  as
2-11	-ine	Look  love

Math

We continue to work on place value concepts. This week students are counting tens and ones to find a two-digit number, working to construct numbers with blocks that represent tens and ones, use tens and ones to make numbers in different ways.

Students will begin physically manipulating two digit numbers and groups of tens and ones to see how the number 42 could be made in different ways. Example:

Tens	Ones
4	2
3	12
2	22
1	32

This idea really causes many students to reach to fully grasp.

We will continue to work on solidifying these concepts through math games and applying them through story problems.

Writing

In writing this week we are working on poetry! Did you know first graders could write poems and songs? We are learning about the characteristics of poems, different types of poems, and then trying our hand at several kinds. Students have started a poetry notebook which is a combination of poems we have read together and their own original creations. Ask your child what a poem is!

Essential Questions:
How can I study published songs and poems in order to notice what other writers do? How can I try some of those things in my own writing?
How can I write lots of songs and poems—writing about things that matter to me?
How can I show my thoughts and feelings in my poems?
How can I make my songs and poems longer and then get them ready for publication?

Here are some skills they will acquire during this unit:


-Immerse themselves in many types of songs and poems
-Notice the structural characteristics of songs and poems (ie: white space, line breaks, rhyme, repetition)
-Turn an original poem into a song by adding their own made up tune
-Turn an original poem into a song by using an existing tune
-Craft songs that teach (ie: counting songs, alphabet songs, how-to songs)
-Write with purpose
-Convey their thoughts and feelings through songs and poems
-Compare to convey feeling (ie: He was as happy as a car at a gas station)
-Make their best work better, writing with attention to detail
-Think about words, letters, and punctuation (ie: using all caps, end mark, comma, no punctuation)
-Read and sing with expression
-Share writing with an audience

A Message From Mr. Augustin

Hello 1st Grade Parents,

Dr. Seuss Night is coming up next month on February 26 from 6:15-7:30! It is a tradition at Shenandoah Valley that the 1st grade students perform pieces from Seussical the Musical that evening for the school community in celebration of Dr. Seuss. Parents and families are invited to attend both the event and performance. Dr. Seuss Night will begin at 6:15 with reading activities, crafts and cookie decorating.  The students will begin lining up for the performance at 7:15 pm in the Shenandoah Valley Gym. We look forward to seeing you there!

A List Poem by Our Class

Winter

Cold

Sledding

Fire

Snowflakes

Fun

Birthdays

Hot cocoa

Snowball fight

Snowy

Ice skating

Snowmen, Snowwomen, Snowchildren

Snow fort

Snow mountain

Igloo

Hockey

Skiing

Sickness

Holidays

Icicles

Coats, hats, gloves, scarf, snow pants, earmuffs

Extra socks

Boots

Snow baord

White

Soup

Ice

Ice cubes

Love

Blankets

Warm bed

By: Mrs. Koenig’s First Grade Class

January 2019

Kids Code

Science

We had a little bit of time between our last science unit and the beginning of our social studies unit so we took this opportunity to squeeze in our optional coding unit in science. The students are very interested in coding and it is a wonderful opportunity to practice a variety of skills from tech skills to listening, speaking, turn-taking, cooperative problem-solving, etc. Students are creating animated stories by giving the program step by step instructions (code) to follow. Students are using the Scratch Jr. application. This is definitely NEW to me so we are learning together!

Six Flags Read To Succeed

REMINDER THAT SIX FLAGS READ TO SUCCEED FORMS ARE DUE IN 1 MONTH! 

Don't forget, you may use the reading minutes from each evening's homework.

Habit 4 refresh

This month the school is doing a refresh on Habit 4. I am excited work some more on this habit with the kiddos. Habit 4 is "Think Win-Win". There are many real-life applications within our classroom and hopefully they can make connections to home as well.

Reading

In reading we are in our Story Elements unit. Story elements are: characters, setting, problem and solution. We have been talking some about the elements of a good story in writing, so this is a great place to make connections.

Last week we learned about each of the elements and did some overview as we practiced identifying them together as a class.

This week we are taking a closer look at setting and characters. We have begun using a reading notebook to do some journaing about our reading.

Comprehension skills are a large focus during this unit. Here are some questions we may ponder whole group, small group, partner, and individually:

-How could we describe characters?
-How are the characters interacting?
-Why do you think the characters are behaving that way?
-How do the characters' personalities shape the turn of events in a story?
-How do the story elements affect the way the story unfolds?
- How would changing some elements of the story change the outcomes?
-What might you do differently if you were in the character's shoes?
-Describe how the settings/characters change in the story.

Math

We have begun our place value unit. This work really lays the ground work for math in upper grades. During this unit, students will know:



-expressions and equations can represent real-life situations.
-our number system has structures based on groups of 10.
-the sequence of numbers follows a predictable pattern.
-the names of numbers within 120.
-a ten is a bundle of ten ones (unitizing).
-multiples of ten (10, 20, 30..,) represent groups of tens and 0 ones.
-a digit in the tens place represents bundles of ten and a digit in the ones place represents loose ones or singles.
-the digit in the tens place is more important for determining the value of a two-digit number than the ones place.
-how to make sense of quantity and be able to compare numbers.
-the meaning of the symbols >, =, <.
-the equation must have the same value on both sides of the equal sign.
-the terms bundle, column, compare, compose a ten, digit,  greater than/more than (>), hundred chart, less, less than/fewer than (<), ones, ones digit, row, tens, tens digit

This week we will be reviewing counting by 1's, 5's, and 10's using the 100 chart and the 120 chart. We will be using the number charts to see patterns as we count. We will also use an open number line to represent counting tens and ones and count objects by tens and ones.

We will play games throughout this unit to help with the concepts of place value. You may see some of these come home. Feel free to use them for additional practice at home if you wish.

Word Work

Week of 1-7: -ate    for/came
Week of 1-14: -ame   of/make
Week of 1-22 (No school 1-21) -ake  day/play
Week of 1-28: -ide  his/as

We have all kinds of great things going on with word work and it's all differentiated based on need. So, during word work time you might find us doing any number of activities from this chunk work to accountable words, short/long vowel work, building words/taking them apart, handwriting/letter formation...... the list goes on.

Writing

We have 6 more days in our Telling Good Stories unit. Students are doing a wonderful job stretching out their stories to make them more developed and interesting for readers. Students have studied mentor author texts and enjoyed teacher modeling to identify details in others' stories.

As always, we continue to work on punctuation and capitalization and will re-visit this formally next week during our editing stage. While this is improving, it is something we are all working to master consistently.

Our next writing unit is a Poetry/Song-writing unit. It's really so much fun!

Welcome Back!

The kids seemed excited to be back in action! Can you believe the school year is nearly half-way over? Here are the essential questions we are working on currently:

Writing:
What makes a good story?

Math:
How can understanding place value help me solve problems?
How are addition and subtraction related to counting?
How can I communicate my math thinking?

Reading: 

What makes a story?

How do readers use story elements to stay engaged with the text?

How do changes in the story elements influence the story?

Science:

How do I construct a set of statements that will provide the computer with step by step instructions for displaying a story?

What does technology let me do that I cannot do without using technology?

What strategies can I use so that I don't become frustrated if my program isn't working right?