In Social Science, we have been mapping skills and have been learning about cardinal/relative directions and how to use them. These skills will have us going on a few treasure hunts before the year is done.
In Writing, we are working on our procedure unit. We have learned about the imperative voice for writing instructions.
Schoology was updated with scores for Reading, Wrting, and Math.
In Writing today, we began the revision process for our persuasive writing.
In Social Science, we began our map study unit.
Thank you, parents, for all of the treats we were able to share with our classmates yesterday. It made for a very exciting afternoon.
Parents, in case you have not noticed yet, please look for Math homework going home just about every day. We took a homework break last night.
We are halfway through our 1st grade year. Our last lesson about ancient civilizations taught us that the Egyptians were similar to the Mesopotamians in that they also a polytheistic society who attributed control of unexplained natural phenomenon to gods. Their gods often took the form of humans with various animal heads like a crocodile or birds. Jumping a few thousands years towards the present, we began our study of ancient cultures of the Americas beginning with the Mayans. We learned that:
Technical issues have caused a number of delays in disseminating information.
We have completed revision and editing lessons for our informational pieces. Growth is clearly evident in several students' work.
There is Math homework tonight. If you are a parent wondering your child's homework may be, at least one set was left in the classroom.
In our content knowledge unit, we learned that people in the Mesopotamian region were plytheistic. When their knowledge (scientific) could not help explain phenomenon, it was attributed to gods and goddesses.
The 1st grade team has decided that 1st graders will wear festive bright colors for the winter performance next week.
Our next goal in Learning ABC is level I. We are keeping an eye out for x10 and x15 badges as well. Also, the student with the most skills mastered between now and the end of January in IXL, will receive a prize.
In our content knowledge unit, we learned how records were kept from at least 5,500 years ago in Mesopotamia:
Today we began new units in Math, content knowledge, and word study.
In content knowledge, we learn about and compare our oldest known world civilizations. Our study begins with Mesopotamia, specifically Babylon. We've learned that
Every year Room 11 has the tradition of electing a class president. This supports the government strand of our Social Science standards. Those students interested in running for Room 11 Class President 2022-23 will work on a speech at home to be delivered to the class on Monday, November 7, 2022. Speeches will be filmed using chroma key technology.
Students who would like to have their videos edited, will make sure they are not wearing any shade of green or yellow in any part of their outfit.
In Writing today, we added a closing to our narrative. A closing might express an overall impression of the memorable event (It was the best day ever!), or pose a question (What did YOU do on your 5th birthday?). A closing is NOT a change of scenery (Then, we went home.). A closing should not need a transition. Tomorrow the narratives will be collected and scored for completeness.
We completed the 3rd lesson in our violence prevention curriculum which explored the idea of perseverance.
In Social Science, we continued our study of past and present exploring a bit further differences in transportation and entertainment.
In Writing on Friday, we carefully gave voice to our selected story through the process of touch-and-talk. We touch the planning area of the first page with our finger and tell the setting and characters in one sentence (when, where, and who: Last Friday, my family and I went to Target.). On the next page, we touch the planning area and tell what happened first (generally only one sentence). On the last page, we tell what happened next (generally only one sentence.)
Today in Writing, we planned our writing through the process of quick-sketching and labeling. It is emphasized that this is in no way an illustration to the story. We are simply making notes in the box as to what will be written on the page. We might use symbols or icons to outline our ideas. We do this for each of the 3 pages.
The rubric scores for our Math fluency quiz on Friday has been posted to Schoology. There is Math homework tonight.
In Social Science, we began our examination of the changes of things over time by comparing old photos to the present while listening to descriptions. We then made notes of differences we noticed.
For discussion at home:
Beginning of the year Reading Battery has been completed and grades have been posted to Schoology.
We will take our initial Math assessment next week.
Math homework was sent today.
We in our 2nd day of the immersion process for narrative writing. During this stage we look at anchor texts (examples) of expert writers. Thank you to those parents who have already submitted lists of their child's memorable moments. We should begin using those during brainstorming on Tuesday.
In Social Studies, we learned about some rights and responsibilities of citizens.
Question for discussion: What stories can you think of which use personification (as a literary device)?
We had our first math homework assignment today.
Questions for discussion:
What are the 3 main elements of a narrative? (The 3 main elements of a narrative are character, setting and plot.)
What does the beginning of a narrative establish? (The beginning of a narrative introduces the main character(s) and establishes the setting.)
In Social Science we discussed rules and citizenship. Questions for discussion:
What is a citizen? (A citizen is a member of a community).
Why are rules important? (Rules help us to respect others, learn, and be safe.)
