Dear Parents,

Welcome to fall!  We continue to be busy first graders!  Here are a few highlights from our days at school:

READING:

We continue to read everyday and talk about how Reading is Thinking!  This is an important concept, and one that is not easily transferred into their reading!  First graders, especially those still focused on decoding, often forget to think about what they are reading, asking themselves, "Does this make sense?" We've talked about, and hopefully practiced, things readers do when the answer to this question is "No," including:  

*Reread the part that didn't make sense

*Try and fix the word that didn't make sense or that you are stuck on

*Try reading on and see if that helps

*Ask someone

We call this "monitoring our comprehension."  When we monitor our comprehension we listen to our "inner voice" - the voice in our head - when we read.  Besides asking themselves if what they read makes sense, readers should be predicting, making connections, asking questions, making inferences and understanding when they learn something new. We keep track of our thinking on sticky notes or think sheets and share our thinking with each other.  We read everyday.  Sometimes we read with partners and play a game called "Say Something" to share our thinking with each other.  Before turning the page, we "say something" about what we've read.  Try playing this game at home, when reading together!  

This week we will begin practicing the comprehension strategy of "Asking Questions."  We will begin by practicing with nonfiction.  We will discuss what we already know about a topic, what we learned, and ask questions (what we wonder) as we read. We will monitor how our thinking changes and if our questions were answered in the text we read.  Answers that aren't answered are called "lingering questions."  We will practice this with fiction texts too.  

Please continue to read together every day and practice these skills at home!  

WRITING
We will be finishing up our Small Moment Narrative Writing unit next week.  We've been talking a lot about how authors revise their writing - change it or add to it.  We've used a check list of concepts we've learned to make sure we are adding these things to our writing.  Items on our check list include;

*I have a beginning

*I have an ending

*I brought my story to life - people move and talk

*I brought my story to life - people feel and think

*I used colorful or "juicy" words (words that help my readers picture my story 

      such as: crawled, bright blue sky, or screamed 

*I used some of the "Craft Moves" I learned from the mentor authors we studied

      such as:  ellipses ( ... ), POP OUT WORDS, and Onomatopoeia (Drip, WOOSH, tick-tock)

We also talked about how authors must edit their work to make sure they can read it and others can read it.  Our editing checklist includes:

*I have spaces between my words.

*I checked the word wall to help me spell. (or my "Word Bank" book)

*I spelled tricky words the best I can.  I wrote letters for most of the sounds.

*I used ending punctuation and capital letters to start sentences.

*I can read my writing and my friend can read most of my writing without my help.

This is all hard work for first graders!  They love to write, but they also love to be finished!  It is hard for them to spend time adding to their work or to edit it!

We will end our unit by "publishing" one of our Narrative stories. We will make a cover and celebrate all of our hard work by sharing our books with our peers and our Book Buddies.  

Our next writing unit is on Informational Writing.  The kids will write "teaching books" that teach others about topics they are experts on.  This can include anything from taking care of a pet goldfish to everything you want to know about American Girl dolls, to Spider Man.  The kids really have fun sharing and teaching others about all of the things they know about!  

MATH

We have been working on a unit on Geometry.  Content Standards include having students describe shapes by defining attributes and constructing new shapes by composing and decomposing shapes. Thanks to everyone who helped cut out our paper shapes for this unit!  We've been using them to record our work, building new shapes with these pattern block shapes.  We've also done this with tangrams.  There are some fun tangram and geoboard apps that are free and fun for the kids to do, if you'd like to download them at home!  Students also find shapes in our world and use geometric vocabulary to describe them.  Try practicing this concept when looking at architecture.  

In our next math unit we will revisit addition concepts and begin work with subtraction.  One focus is to have students begin to memorize basic math facts.  We will also work daily on real-world problems focused on having students apply addition and subtraction skills and explain their thinking or how they figure out problems (which strategies and tools they used, and weather they should add or subtract).  

**There are also many apps you can download at home to practice math facts!  Have fun and try some of these!  

SCIENCE

We are continuing our unit on rocks.  We've learned that scientists observe or look closely at objects.  We discovered that rocks have various properties, such as hard, soft, color, shape, and size.  This week we will begin learning how geologists classify rocks by size.  We have containers of "river rocks" which include various sizes of rock material.  We will separate the rocks into different sizes by using screens, then name the various sizes of rocks (sand, small and large gravel, and small and large pebbles.)  We will then discuss larger sizes called cobbles and boulders.  We will be talking about how various sizes of rocks are used and other products we get from rocks.  We will look around the school to discover items that came from rocks. 

As you can see, continue to busy first graders!  Please look below for some important upcoming dates... You can also find these on the tab on my website, or on the Gold Rush Home Page.  

Thanks for all of your continued support at home!  As always, please feel free to contact my anytime and let me know if you have any questions or concerns! 

Stacie Martino

Important Upcoming Dates:

Thursday, October 30th:  Field Trip to The PACE Center to see a performance of Harry the Dirty Dog, based on the book with the same title by Gene Zion.

This field trip connects to our reading and writing curriculum by bringing characters to life in an imaginative way (as writers strive to do) and gives kids another way to connect to literature (text to world).  It also lets us experience the story as a community, practice appropriate theatre behavior, and be respectful, responsible ambassadors from Gold Rush.  We are looking forward to it! **Please pack a lunch!   We will not be able to eat in the cafeteria that day! **Please send a hearty snack!   We will eat lunch after the performance, around 1:00, and will need to eat a hearty snack before going to the theatre. Friday, October 31st - Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween Party will be the morning of the 31st, from 9:15 - 9:55.
All School Parade of Costumes, 9:55 - 10:15

**Please come dressed in your costume!
No weapons, masks or inappropriate costumes, please.
**Bring a change of clothes
We will change after the party and resume our normal schedule by 10:30.
*If your child does not want to participate in the Halloween festivities,
they can join us at school at 10:30.


Calendar Correction:  School is in session Tuesday, November 4th