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Kindergarten Math: This week we will work in math centers focusing on adding and subtracting
and finding combinations for the number 8.
Our math centers are the following:
1. Ten frame addition- Students will use the ten frame to solve addition math facts. Students
will show the sum by drawing dots on the ten frame.
2. Number line addition. Students will use the number line to solve addition math facts.
Students will show the sum by drawing the jumps on the number line.
3. Rekenrek- The students will use the Rekenrek to find all the combinations of 8. Students will
record the combinations in their math notebook.
4. Teddy Bear Picnic- Students will play this addition and subtraction game with a partner.
Students will add and subtract up to the number 5.
5. Tile arrangements for the number 8. Students will create a tile arrangement with 8 tiles.
Students will record their tile arrangement and write an equation for the number 8.
First Grade Math: This week during First Grade Math, students will review the How Many
Hands math problem that they worked on in their Math Centers last week. Students will review
the strategies and models they used to help them solve this type of problem. They will then
learn a new t-chart model and strategy that will help them to solve the problem.
Students will also focus reviewing 2 Dimensional shapes that we have focused on. Students will
focus on 3 Dimensional shapes such as the cube, sphere, rectangular prism, triangular prism,
pyramid, cone, etc. Student will focus on the attributes of these shapes, drawing them, and
discussing and writing about where in our environment at school and in our world do we see
these kinds of shapes.
Students will also review helpful models and strategies to solve subtraction story problems.
Students will work to review a problem with the teacher and will then solve subtraction
problems independently.
*Important News About the 5 Minute Math Addition Quiz*:
Congratulations to these students for earning their Addition Licenses: Bjorn, Wilde, Jacob,
Alex, Josiah, Sofia Dominguez, and Ariel!!!
Congratulations to these students for earning their Subtraction Licenses: Milo, Ariel, Sofia
Haro, Maiya, Harrison, and Noah!!
*Students that were here on Friday were able to make their licenses. They will be
laminated this week and will be presented in the classroom to the students. I will not hand
them out on the stage during pledge, as I am the only 1st Grade classroom that is still
giving out licenses. It is a special thing that is done for our class and for that reason, and
I can only hand them out on stage if other 1st Grade classes choose to participate. I am
so proud of these students and they are praised for learning their math facts and have
earned their license to add and subtract! *
We will continue to take the math facts quiz every Friday.
*This quiz has been adapted for the students in the class to take a quiz that has number
bonds in it for the number combinations that equal starting at totals of 5 and then when they
show they can complete the quiz accurately, they will move on to the total number of 10.
Students in my math group are very excited about the math quiz on Fridays.
Students that get the problems mostly filled in and accurate will keep taking the same quiz
since they have already mastered their combinations to 8 or to 10. It is a difficult quiz, though,
and I would like every student to have the opportunity to be able to receive their addition
license. I am giving students that specifically need to work on their Part/Part Whole, number
combinations through 10, the new Number Bond Quiz starting with the total of 5, in order
for them to be able to attain their goal of speed and accuracy with the weekly Friday quizzes.
Please continue to work on addition and subtraction math facts with your child. If you are
interested in seeing the number bond quiz sheets, you are welcome to come and see what
it looks like in the Mariposa Room classroom. Math addition and subtraction Flash cards with
totals that equal from 2 to 20 are still a great way to practice with your child at home and
the application Math Facts Master is still an awesome tool to use if you choose!
Literacy Activities/Writing/CAF Menu: Students will continue to focus on these parts of the
CAF (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, Expand Vocabulary) Menu board. Students will
practice these strategies during Read to Someone Time, Shared Reading Time and during Story
Time. Strategies we will focus on are: Back up and Re-read, Reading Just Right Books, Using
Red Hot Words, Reading to the Punctuation, Making Predictions, Checking for Understanding,
looking for Chunks in words, making Predictions, Retelling, Talking about the elements of a
story, Recognizing Rhyming words, Reading the pictures, Using our Prior Knowledge, discussing
the Authors Purpose of creating the book, Skipping a Word and Then Coming Back to it, and
Reading Together As One Voice.
Writing/Best Outdoor Experience at Borton ~ We will continue this on Monday and Tuesday
in the Great Adventure Room. Students will review our topics and details from before spring
break about their best outdoor experiences at Borton. The focus of this activity is to help
students learn to revise and edit their writing. Writers that are able to, will work to revise and
edit their detail writing and do a re-write activity.
Students that need more assistance during Time to Write, will work in a small group with the
teacher to come up with one best outdoor experience at Borton and will do a Shared Writing
activity in order to write our ideas collectively in a paragraph. Students will help to stretch and
sound out the words as we write and the teacher will share the pen as students come up to take
turns to help write on a chart.
If we finish early, students will play a cvc word game with a partner.
Shared Writing: Students will continue to review an informational book that explains how
cotton is made into t-shirts. Students will write a paragraph about the steps using
sequencing words such as First, Then, Next, Last, Finally. Students will work to finish this
shared writing this week. We are almost finished with our paragraph with just an ending
sentence to write!
Shared Reading: This week, we will read the book A Farms Not a Farm by Brenda Parkes. We
will focus on identifying sight words from the book, rhyming words, the ed in words, the ight
and ought in words, quotation marks and who is speaking in the book, the authors purpose, and
the elements of the story.
Guided Reading/Literacy Time/Daily 5 ~ Students will be pulled during literacy time to read a
book at their just right level, focusing on CAFE strategies that good readers use while
reading the book together. Many students need practice sounding out CVC (consonant, vowel,
consonant) words. During mini-literacy lessons with students this week and the weeks to come,
students will practice tapping out the sounds in words to become faster and better with this
important phonemic awareness strategy. Students that are already proficient with sounding out
three and four letter words, will work with the teacher assistant to read timed passages and
work on their comprehension or re-telling skills after reading the passage.
Editing Writing and Sight Word Work ~ This week, students will work to practice editing a
piece of writing. Students have learned specific editing marks and will practice using them
to correct a sample piece of writing. Students have been excited to learn and use these
marks. Ask your child if they can show you the mark and what it means.
Students that need to learn more sight words will practice cutting them up and putting
them in a bag to practice reading during our DEAR, book box reading time.
Science ~ Fabric~ For our PBL Celebration of Learning, the Great Adventure and the
Mariposa Room Students will teach families all about fabric. Students will demonstrate how to
sew fabric, how to dye fabric, how to weave, how to wash fabric, and how to spin wool into yarn.
They will also research and write about how each one was done in the past and how science and
technology has changed the way we do these things now. Teachers will continue to pull small
groups to research their part of the project in the afternoons during our literacy time this
week.
Science ~ Fabric: Students will also work to create a Venn Diagram with a partner this week.
Students will choose a piece of fabric to compare to their partners fabric. Student partners
will work together to write and draw about how their fabric is the same and how it is different.
*** Homework and Take Home Tuesday Papers: *** Please continue to work on the
homework calendar for April! The new homework calendar is attached to the newsletter for
this week. Lots of students are excited about homework! Please continue to work on the
homework each day with your child. First graders should be working to sound out words as
they write and should need less assistance from you. Please make sure they are returning
it with their folder every Monday, so that I can check their homework and give their
folder with their homework back on Tuesday. It would be helpful if your child had a
special notebook with their name on it that they can keep all of their homework in so that
it is together in the same place. Please keep your homework calendar in a good place so
that you remember to do your homework such as: on the refrigerator or at a space that
you create at home that is special for homework time (a table or a desk). Thank you.
April Birthdays