Welcome to our weekly newsletter! I hope you have had a great couple of weeks! I know we have. Here is what we have been working on this week.

Reading

In reading, we have been learning about fiction and nonfiction books. As your student what a nonfiction book is, and if it is a book to enjoy, inform, or persuade. We have been reading many nonfiction books and are beginning to understand the different pages in these kind of books such as a glossary and index. We have also been working on making connections to our reading. This is a higher level thinking concept for our students, and will help them very much in their comprehension of texts. The students should be starting to make connections between books and their own lives, as well as between books and other books they have read before. This is a hard concept, but our students are really doing a great job with it! 

Math

In math, we have been working with attributes and sorting (ask your student what attribute means), and we have started working on subtraction, as well as continuing to learn about solid shapes and story problems. There are several ways to sole story problems: drawing it out, using a ten frame, using a number line, and writing the equation. Students have been working on both addition and subtraction number stories. 

Writing 

This week in writing we continued to learn about “How To” books. We sent home a checklist so you can be sure what your student’s “How To” writing should look like at the kindergarten level, as well as first grade level. This is our first step in informational writing. It helps the students to get used to giving clear, easy to follow directions. 

Social Studies

We began learning about maps this week! Maps are an important skill for all children to learn about. In this unit, we will be reading maps, understanding their purpose, using them to locate places and things, and creating our own maps! This is a fun, informative, and creative unit for both the students and us teachers. So far, we have created a map as a class of us sitting in a circle at the carpet. We have also talked about the difference between birds eye and side view. If you are traveling anywhere over break, please show your student the map you are using!

Science

As we finished our unit on push and pull, another unit is starting after break! We will begin to learn about living things, especially earth worms! We are very excited for this unit! The students get to see what makes something a living thing. We will study worms and eventually get to look at some.

Thank you

Thanks for reading our newsletter and the report cards! We hope you have a great spring break! Get some rest and relaxation! 

Ms. Eiden and Mr. Eubanks