Habit #6

This week we are learning about Habit 6

Class Mission Statement

As part of our school-wide Leader in Me initiative, each classroom is creating their own mission statement. Today we brainstormed a list of what each student hopes to gain from first grade. From this we looked for commonalities and came up with our very own mission statement:

In Mrs. Koenig’s class we will have fun as we learn new skills, share ideas, and grow friendships!

Habit #5

We will continue to work on Habit #5 this week at school. :)

Writing

This week we are "publishing" one of your child's small moment personal narrative pieces. All the other pieces should have come home. Throughout the week we will learn about the revision and editing process. We will celebrate next week by sharing our books!

Word Detectives!

We have started our Word Detectives reading unit. This is such a fun unit where we will be "secret agents" getting clues on how to become better readers. Our teaching point each day will come via sealed top secret envelope!

Essential questions for this unit are:

How do I solve hard words?
How do snap words help me read?

Some skills we will be learning throughout the lessons:

**Notice and stop at words that are not understood

**Use strategies to seek clarification for unknown words including both word level strategies and context strategies

**Monitor comprehension while reading

Try new strategies to solve hard words if initial strategy does not help

Slowly check words

Look through a word for common affixes, root words, and endings

Break apart words by sounds and syllables, including compound words and contractions

Notice patterns in the beginning, middle, and end of words 

Use spelling patterns to decode beginnings of words, vowels within words (side by side vowels), and endings of words

The ** indicates comprehension skills

Science

We are in activity 3 of our Animal Adaptations investigation! Here are some resultant skills students should have following our work in this activity:

- Identify differences/similarities between organisms adapted to different environments
-Recognize there are different environments around the world with different characteristics
-Categorize animal and plant adaptations (camouflage, food, locomotion, protection)
-Draw and communicate conclusions about observed animal and plant adaptations
-Maintain a notebook to document work

This week we are world travelers exploring a variety of habitats: ocean, arctic, rain forest, desert, etc. In each habitat students are learning about animals and the adaptations they have to help them survive in that environment.

Dates

October 1-4 - Parent/Teacher Conferences - (Parent Sign Up)
October 1-3 - Fall Book Fair (4-5pm)
October 3 - Voluntary Flu Vaccination Clinic (9:15-10:15 am)
October 4 - Parent/Teacher Conferences (4:30-8:30 pm)
October 4 - Fall Book Fair (4-8pm)
October 4 - Box Tops Collection Drive ENDS
October 8 - NO SCHOOL
October 11 - PTO Kickball Game on the Blacktop (5-6:30pm)
October 13 - Fall Beautification Day (8-11am)
October 15 - Project Parkway Meeting @ Central High (6:30-8pm)
October 16 - Picture Retake Day
October 17 - Board of Education Mtg @Central Middle (7pm)
October 18 - KDG Field Trip