Merry Christmas!

We had a great time at our Christmas party!  Thanks to all of our parent volunteers for your help.  We had a busy morning listening to The Polar Express, receiving our bell necklaces and enjoying some fun Christmas art activities.  We also made adorable ( and delicious) reindeer cookies.  In the afternoon we listened to some Christmas music, made ornaments, got holiday tatoos (!) and ate some yummy food.  The students also took home stockings filled with other goodies and a gift from their teachers.  Remember to save some of your Christmas cash for the Scholastic Bookfair that will be at the school in January!  Have a safe and happy holiday break ....we will see you on Monday, January 5th.

Thanks to everyone for sending their party money in to school.  We have shopped for lots of goodies to make our party fun.  Remember to have your child read and log a book nightly and study their vocabulary words.  This week we will be working on the long a sound in skills block along with final consonant blends.  Today some of the students played a Christmas tic tac toe game with their vocabulary words during center time.  We also have enjoyed "singing" our sight words to the tune of Jingle Bells.  It really gets the students focused and is a fun way to practice these words.  See if they can lay out their word cards at home and sing to you!

Santa's Elves!

Santa's elves have been visiting room 3 for two weeks now.  They seem to be watching us and catching students who are being hard workers and good citizens!  They leave notes and candy on the student's desks for them to find when they come into the classroom.

Jacksonville Zoo

Well, we were very sad today that our field trip to the zoo was cancelled due to the weather conditions.  However, we went on a "virtual" zoo trip in the classroom!  We visited the Jacksonville Zoo website and National Geographic Kids (both websites below on links) .  We watched videos of all of the animals that we are writing our reports on in Writer's Workshop.  Then we went to the Destination Success website and read a story on penguins and puffins.  It fit in perfectly with our reading strategy for this week which was comparing and contrasting.  We also ate lunch in the classroom and after our Math Workshop we made Christmas wreaths.

Just Some Reminders!

Sorry about the delay in getting out the December newsletter!  It should go home tomorrow.  Friday is Spirit Day...remember to wear your red and white.  If you are not busy Friday morning, please join us in the courtyard for our school wide flag salute at 8:35.  The second grade classes will be performing.  Please send in your child's Christmas party money as soon as possible so that we have plenty of time to shop for all of the treats and goodies.  Don't forget that our field trip to the Jacksonville Zoo is next Thursday the 11th.  Label your child's lunch and drink with their name and watch a weather report to dress them appropriately!  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our class enjoyed making turkey cupcakes on Tuesday....

we hope that you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

The Picture Lady

We are so excited that the Picture Lady came to visit the first grade classes this week!  We saw several paintings by the artist Vincent van Gogh.  We learned that he often painted at night and that he used many small brush strokes and swirls in his paintings.  Many of the students were already familiar with the painting The Starry Night.  We even compared and contrasted two of his paintings.  We have been working on comparing and contrasting this week in Reader's Workshop!  The picture lady will be visiting once a month.

PTA Meeting and First Grade Performance

Don't forget that the first grade will be performing this Tuesday evening! Bring your child to the classroom no later than 6:30pm.
If your plans have changed and you are not going to be able to attend, please let us know so that we may have another student read your child's part. Otherwise, we will see you Tuesday evening!

Learning About the Features of Nonfiction Texts

We have been learning about the features of nonfiction books during Reader's Workshop. We learned that we read these books differently than we read fiction stories. We are now beginning our report writing genre in Writer's Workshop. The students will have to write about a topic that they know a lot about. We will be starting with a class report. During our first report writing lesson the students enjoyed searching through books and placing sticky notes on the table of contents, index, photographs, headings, captions, diagrams, and other features that we have learned about. Next time you visit the library encourage your child to check out some nonfiction books. They seem to especially enjoy exploring books about animals.

The Five Components of Reading

Reading with children and helping them practice specific reading components can dramatically improve their ability to read. Scientific research shows that there are five essential components of reading that children must be taught in order to learn to read. Adults can help children learn to be good readers by systematically practicing these five components:
1. Recognizing and using individual sounds to create words, or phonemic awareness. Children need to be taught to hear sounds in words and those words are made up of the smallest parts of sound, or phonemes.
2. Understanding the relationships between written letters and spoken sounds, or phonics. Children need to be taught the sounds individual printed letters and groups of letters make. Knowing the relationships between letters and sounds helps children to recognize familiar words accurately and automatically, and "decode" new words.
3. Developing the ability to read a text accurately and quickly, or reading fluency. Children must learn to read words rapidly and accurately in order to understand what is read. When fluent readers read silently, they recognize words automatically. When fluent readers read aloud, they read effortlessly and with expression. Readers who are weak in fluency read slowly, word by word, focusing on decoding words instead of comprehending meaning.
4. Learning the meaning and pronunciation of words, or vocabulary development. Children need to actively build and expand their knowledge of written and spoken words, what they mean and how they are used.
5. Acquiring strategies to understand, remember and communicate what is read, or reading comprehension strategies. Children need to be taught comprehension strategies, or the steps good readers use to make sure they understand text. Students who are in control of their own reading comprehension become purposeful, active readers.