IRPS

January News

Room 20 – 1^st Grade

Reading/Writing:

This past month we explored a number of long vowel patterns. We worked our way through 4 or 5 patterns for each vowel and practiced reading, writing, and sorting these patterns. We are almost through our decodable books as a class, which highlight the vowel sounds and patterns we've been exploring. In the coming month we will begin reading longer stories in class called anthologies, which focus on building reading comprehension skills (reading for meaning). However, keep working on those decodables at home. They are a great way to review in-class learning and to build fluency (smooth reading with expression).

Math:

Early in January we learned the 5 steps for solving story problems. We learned the importance of reading the problem first, deciding what's important, drawing a picture, creating number sentences, and labeling and circling our answer. Students solved a number of story problems with multiple parts using both addition and subtraction. Later on in the month, we worked on helpful addition strategies for adding quickly. We talked about counting on when adding up to 3 more, and we learned our doubles facts to help with near doubles addition. It's been a busy month in math, and the pace will continue as we dive into geometry in February.

Science:

We began an exciting exploration of solids and liquids this month. We recently completed our first series of lessons on solids. We know that everything on the earth is either solid, liquid, or gas, and we've been busy observing the many properties of solids in our classroom. We can't wait to get our hands on the liquids in February and use our senses to discover the properties of liquids as well. We will finish up solids and liquids by the end of February and we'll be moving on to study insects in the spring.

Additional Notes:

• We will be having a small Valentine's Day celebration in room 20 on February 14^th. We will have some time set aside for exchanging Valentine's cards/candy. If your child would like to bring Valentine's cards/candy, please make sure he/she brings enough for the whole class (25 total). See attached page for student names.
• There will be no school on Friday, February 15^th and Monday, February 18^th (President's Day).  Enjoy this mid-winter break!
• Thank you for your outstanding read-a-thon support. This is a great fundraiser that supports our library. If you still have money to bring in, please send it to school as soon as possible.
• We are continuing to collect Box Tops in our classroom. We're doing great so far in the classroom competition, so please continue to send in as many as you can!
• Don't forget to continue reading at least 15 minutes a night and sign your child's reading calendar. 16 checks a month is our goal! Decodables and library books are great options for reading practice.
• Weekly spelling lists are sent home on Fridays in students' flexi folders. Please practice these words at home before the Friday tests.

Thank you for your continued support!