First Grade News

Dear First Grade Families,

First graders this week have enjoyed spending time with other grades in school-wide events.  They especially enjoyed spending time with their buddies. We started out the week going to a lower school fair for Tu B’shvat with their buddies where they planted seeds, ate special fruits for the holiday, and did science experiments. We continued by doing activities for Yom Ivrit with the 8th graders.  The middle school was incredibly welcoming as we learned dances, made Hebrew letters out of legos, and even took pictures in a photo booth!  The week ended with the Talent Show where we saw the incredible talents of the 3rd and 4th grade students.  First graders loved cheering for siblings and friends and celebrating all their talents!

In Reading we continued our read aloud, Charlotte’s Web.  We have enjoyed practicing visualizing in our head and listening to a story that does not have as many visuals.  The students are also learning new vocabulary  from the novel and checking in with the story and the settings after each chapter.  During phonics, students have been focusing on the long u sound.  We learned about words like ‘mule’ and learned that words like ‘June’ may sound like they have a double o, but it is actually an e and a u.

In Math we finished up our unit on shapes with patterns and began our unit on positional words.  We are gearing up for the 100th day of school and look forward to celebrating the day we get back from break.  Look out for photographs from our celebration on Monday.  We are going to be doing a lot of counting!

In Writing we published our Writing reviews on our collections.  We practiced sharing our writing in front of one another.  We read loud and proud and made sure to give thoughtful compliments to our friends.  When we get back from break we are going to be writing reviews about our favorite restaurants and places in Brooklyn.  Keep a look out and join in on the conversation over break!

In Science the scientists continued to practice their thermometer skills.  Each scientist received someone else’s thermometer from last week and had to figure out the temperature and write down the number – making sure to write the numbers correctly!  Next, the thermometers were scattered around the room.  Each scientist received a different temperature and had to find the correct thermometer that matched their temperature.  Then they divided into three groups depending on their temperature: hot, warm, and cold weather.  Each scientist drew a picture of what they would wear and an activity suited to the temperature. Stay tuned for a new science bulletin board outside the classroom featuring their hard work!

We are looking forward to the 100th day of school on Feburary 24th, the day we get back from break.  We hope that you have a lovely time with your family and enjoy the time together.

Shabbat Shalom,

The First Grade Team