Eckman's Explorers

The week of Sept. 26th!

Upcoming Events!

CogAT is Oct. 5- 7^th!

Field Trip is on Oct. 19^th!

Conference Week is Oct. 24- 28^th! (Early Dismissal that week!)

Standards for the Week!

I encourage you to read with your child every night. This will be the best way for your child to become a strong reader and enjoy reading. This is an important year for your child to grow in their reading!

Writing- The children are learning that stories have a beginning, middle and an end. We are discussing
that a story is told in order. We use transition words in some of our stories such as first, next, then, last, after that and last. Also, I encourage the children to have characters and an event in their story. What is the character doing? Why is the character doing that? Another important part to writing is adding more details to their sentences. We no longer write sentences with 4 or 5 words in them. (Please reinforce this at home with them, especially on their homework.)

Math- We are understanding addition and subtraction. Did you know there are multiple strategies a child can use to add and subtract numbers? One of our standards for these nine weeks is your child fluently knowing their math facts. Here are some tips that we use in class that you can reinforce at home!

+1 Facts
Count up one to find the answer (the sum).
For example, if the problem is 5 + 1, then count up once from five (5, 6). Using a number line or a ruler to count up one provides hands on and visual support of this concept.

-1 Facts
Count back one to find the answer (the difference).
For example, if the problem is 5 - 1, then count back one from five (5, 4) Using a number line or a ruler to count back one provides hands on and visual support of this concept.

+0 Facts
Zero has no effect. The answer (the sum) will be the addend that is not zero.
For example, if the problem is 7 + 0, the answer is 7.

-0 Facts
Zero has no effect. The answer (the difference) will be the addend that is not zero.
For example, if the problem is 7 - 0, the answer is 7.

Handwriting- D,d

Language Arts- vowels (a, e, I, o, u) and blending

Words Their Way- short e sound (pet, ten, bed)

Science- We are learning about eating healthy and the food guide pyramid.

Reading- We will be discussing how we retell events in the story. The standard for the current 9
weeks is to retell 4 or more events in order of the story. How well can your child retell 4 events? We are working on 2 events and we will build to 4 events quickly.

Addition and Subtraction Websites!

Addition Math Magician

http://www.mathwire.com/numbersense/bfacts.html

Subtraction Math Magician

http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Mathmagician/mathssub.html

That’s a fact

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/thats_a_fact/english_4_6.html

Baseball

http://www.funbrain.com/math/

Save the Apples

http://www.playkidsgames.com/games/apples/savetheApples.htm

Have a great week!

The week of September 19th!

Reminders:

PE Fun Day is on Friday!

Standards For the Week!

Guided Reading will begin this week! The children will review and learn about what we do during this time. We will practice and review good reading strategies! In First Grade we are going to really focus on reading fluency and reading comprehension.

Writing Workshop- The children will be learning about what good writer's do and writing expectations. We will meet in small groups and conference about writing. The children will learn that there is always something that a writer did really well on "glow" and something they need to work on the next time they write "grow or next step". This week we are really going to focus on finger spacing between each word,
beginning a sentence with a capital letter and ending a sentence with a punctuation mark. The children are writing 3 or more sentences when writing about a topic.

Handwriting- Aa

Words Their Way- short “o” sound

Math- We are learning about subtraction. The children will understand what to subtract means (take
away). This can get some children confused on addition and subtraction symbols. Start getting your child use to seeing both symbols so they can recognize each in a snap! Also, we will continue to make tens and ones (place value) with numbers up to 30.

Reading- The children are identifying the setting and the setting in the story. We are also reviewing
about what an author does, what an illustrator does and what is important about a title. Also, we will be discussing how we retell events in the story. The standard for the current 9 weeks is to retell 4
or more events in order of the story. How well can your child retell 4 events? We are working on 2 events and we will build to 4 events quickly.

Word Work- The children have learned about word families. We have families with words, people,
animals, and numbers. A word family is a word with the same ending sound which means they rhyme too! For example, pet, wet, and met all belong together because they end the same. This seems like an easy concept. The children can identify those words but creating them on their own is a little bit more difficult. Also, these words are called CVC words which mean consonant-vowel-consonant words. Your child should know all of their consonants and vowels at this point in first grade.

Social Studies- We will continue to learn about Benjamin Franklin. Did you know he was a writer, statesman, and inventor? He invented several things that we are learning about, so ask your child what all he did!

Have a great week!

Common Core Georgia Performance Standards

 

September 8, 2011

Dear Parent(s)/Guardians:

 On September 21, 2011 from 3:00PM-4:00PM, State Superintendent of Education, John D. Barge, along with staff in the GA Department of Education Curriculum and Instruction division, will host a web-delivered broadcast through Georgia Public Broadcasting to introduce to all stakeholders the upcoming Common Core Georgia Performance Standards (CCGPS).

 To provide you with a brief history, the state of Georgia, along with 47 other states, has adopted a new set of standards that are geared towards unifying the standards that are used from state to state and enabling students to be college & 21^st century workplace and career ready upon graduating from high school. 

 If you are unable to view the initial broadcast, it will air again from 4:00PM-5:00PM, and then an archived version will appear the following day.  Three days later, a closed-caption version of the broadcast will air through the same site.  The Web link for the initial broadcast and the archived sessions will be:

 http://www.gpb.org/education/common-core

 We hope that all stakeholders will find an opportunity to view this broadcast and learn about the future of education, not only in Georgia, but across the United States.  Your participation in viewing this broadcast will provide your student with the greatest level of support.

 

News for the week of Sept. 12th!

Reminders:

• We go to the Media Center on Thursday! Send in your books and your child can check out a new ones!
• Individual Picture Day is on Wednesday, Sept. 14th! Come to school in style and with a smile! :)

The children began working in literacy centers and math tubs independently. We have not started guided reading yet. We will begin guided reading in the following week!

Ask your child “what is your favorite literacy center” or “what is your favorite math tub”? Ask why he or she likes that literacy center or math tub. It is important that your child knows the “what” and “why” your child is learning that standard. This gets your child into great habits of speaking in complete sentences instead of one word answers.

The Standards for the Week!

Math-We have been learning how to make an addition sentence. What does it mean to add? How do you write an addition sentence? You can practice this with your child at home. You can give your child a math word problem and they have to solve it. We will begin to learn about place value. Place value is
the digits (number) place, location, or value of the number. In the number 23: the “2” represents 2 tens (20) and in the tens place, the “3” represents 3 ones (3) and in the once place. If we were to draw it out it would look like this:

ll xxx = 23 llll xxxxx = (What number does this represent?)

Language Skill: Synonyms

Reviewing language skills: antonyms, short vowels "a" and "e"f

Word Their Way- We are talking about word families. Word families are words with the same ending sound and rhyme. Such as can, man, fan.... or hat, mat, sat, rat.... If you have your child do this it can be difficult for them to come up with more than 6 words in a family. Try this with your child at home with the "ram" and "rap". What strategies do they use to create the words.

Handwriting: Oo

Reading- We continue to learn about identifying the main character in the story and being able to discuss the main character. We are also reviewing about what an author does, what an illustrator does and what is important about a title.

Writing- We are learning what good writer's do? What is CUPS? The children are getting back into the mode of beginning a sentence with a C= capital letter, U= understanding (the story makes sense), P= punctuation, S= spacing and spelling. We are reviewing First Grade writing expectations when a child meets and exceeds when he or she writes a story. In first grade we are writing 3 or more sentences. When your child writes have him or her check for CUPS on each sentence.

Social Studies- We will learn about Benjamin Franklin. Did you know he was a writer, statesman, and inventor? He invented several things that we are learning about, so ask your child what all he did!e

Have a wonderful week!

The Week of Sept. 6th!

I hope everyone had a relaxing and wonderful Labor Day weekend!

LSU won so we were very excited this weekend!

This Week!

• We go to the Media Center this week! Your child will be able to bring home 2 books!
• Book Exchange K-2 is on Thursday, September 8th!
• The Gifted Eligibility Curriculum and Coffee is on Wednesday, Sept 7th at 7:30 AM. This is a great meeting to go to if you have any questions or concerns about gifted eligibility!

Standards for the week!

Reading- We will focus on the main character of the story this week. The children will learn to go into more details about telling me more about the character in the story. We will discuss the sounds -an, -at. Also, we will review strategies on what good readers do. We will discuss what we will do when we get stuck on a word. Ask your child to tell you the different strategies they can use when they get stuck on a word.

Writing- We will continue to work on narrative writing. The children are starting to remember to use punctuation at the end of a sentence and begin every sentence with a capital letter. We continue working on remembering that we do not have capital letters in the middle of words or sentences.

Science- We will finish up talking about weather! We will review the 4 seasons, the 3 measurement weather tools, and types of weather. This week we will learn about the water cycle! Ask your child about their cool bracelets on Friday when they wear them how! Each color means something!!!!

Social Studies- We will continue to talk about where we live- city, state, nation, country, continent, and county. The children are still working on knowing their address. Please review this with them. It is important they know where they live.

Math- The children are beginning to understand how to write addition sentences and understanding what it means to add. Now that your child understands the concept of addition, you can start using addition flash cards so they begin to learn to shout out answers quickly. This week we will continue to work on counting money up to 30 cents using pennies, nickels and dimes. The children need to know how to make 30 cents in a variety of ways rather than using all pennies.

Enjoy your week! We have a lot to learn!!!