First Grade Blogger

First grade writers have been working hard on their information books. This week they looked closely at their writing to discover how they can make it even better. We looked at a checklist of all the things they’ve learned so far, and first graders identified things they are doing really well and things they can work on. We challenged each first grader to make a goal for their writing. Some goals are to add more details or to make the beginning more exciting. We continued our study of information writing in our reading groups. Some groups read non-fictions books and... Read More

First grade writers have been diving into our new unit on nonfiction teaching books. This week we studied the book “Sharks” by Anne Schreiber and noticed how she uses pictures to add more information. She zooms in on important parts, and uses arrows and words to point out details.   In math we learned new strategies for addition with double digit numbers. We learned the “make 10” strategy and “doubles plus one.”   First grade scientists began a new unit on organisms. The discussed the differences and similarities between plants and animals.   Our Martin Luther King Tekes concluding our... Read More

This week we learned about place value in math class. First graders practiced breaking down numbers into tens and ones. They also played two new math games: Race to 100 and Close to 20. We changed our reading groups this week, giving students a chance to read with new peers and new teachers. We also learned a new reading strategy: skip and return. If a word looks too tricky to read, sometimes it is helpful to skip it and and read the rest of the sentence first. We learned some challenging sight words this week: there, use, into, each, and... Read More

We’ve had a busy and festive week in first grade! First graders have been busy rehearsing for the Hebrew playing, attending school wide candle lighting, and having special Hanukkah time with their 5th grade buddies. Our lower school director, Shelley, came to read the first graders a special Hanukkah book. This week first graders focused on perfecting their lowercase handwriting. Students are expected to use lowercase and uppercase letters appropriately when writing.   In Math, first graders learned about ordinal numbers, practiced position words, and began exploring numbers 0 – 20. We noticed that when counting numbers greater than 10,... Read More

First graders had an awesome publishing party! They rehearsed their song and presentation all week and did a great job in their performance. The students worked so hard on their opinion writing about their favorite spot in the neighborhood and they were proud to share them!   In math, first graders continued learning about plane shapes and solid shapes. They used plane shapes to make their own designs of snowflakes. Their projects are hanging up outside of our classroom. They also learned about different patterns that we can make with shapes, sizes, and colors.   In Social Studies, we learned... Read More

Reminder: Our 1st grade publishing party is on Thursday, December 7th. Coffee with Karen will be from 8:15 to 8:45 and our Publishing Party begins at 8:45. We look forward to seeing you all there. First grade writers are hard at work getting ready for their publishing party next week. First graders worked with their writing partners to revise and edit their opinion writing pieces. Next week they will add the finishing touches!   Our sight words this week are we, when, your, can, and said. These are words that we put on our word wall. We expect first graders... Read More

We had a wonderful pre-Thanksgiving week. First graders continued to strengthen their opinion writing skills, worked on their math facts, and learned about more school community helpers. We also got to celebrate Thanksgiving together as a class. We made cornbread and homemade butter to share with our fifth grade buddies. Check out our pictures from this week! In Hebrew, we learned the letter samech as well as a new vowel, which makes the “eh” sound. In Yahadut, we learned a new prayer from the amidah called harotze betshuva. We spoke about what or who reminds us to make good choices in our lives. This week’s Parasha is Vayetze, which is about Jacob... Read More

This week we learned five new sight words: but, not, all, what, and were.   First grade writers continued to work on their opinion writing. To learn more about opinion writing, we read the book Earrings by Judith Viorst. Earrings is about a young girl who is trying to convince her parents she should get her ears pierced. She uses many of the opinion writing strategies we learned about: using many reasons, adding details, and anticipating disagreement by talking back.   We also read The King of Little Things by Bil Lepp to learn about sparkly words. Sparkly words are... Read More

First Graders started a new writing unit this week: opinion writing! To begin this unit, they all became judges of a polished rock competition. They picked their favorite rock and wrote about why it was the best. First graders learned about what it means to be a fair judge and how to convince someone using lots of reasons and adding details. First graders then began writing opinion pieces on some of their favorite things.   This week in Math we learned about fact families, and practiced using related facts to find the missing numbers in addition and subtraction sentences. We... Read More