CURRICULAR NOTES
Much of our time this week has been taken up with ITBS tests. I’m so proud of how hard students worked on their tests. I’m also proud of the respect they showed each other and the rest of school with their quiet behavior in our classroom and the hallways this week. I really think this was a good introduction to standardized testing for our first-graders and they are to be congratulated on a job well done!
We’ve also focused very hard on subtraction strategies this week. Students have been practicing solving subtraction problems by counting back, by using number lines and by matching to compare how many more or how many fewer between two groups. At the end of the week, we worked on identifying related facts, or addition and subtraction facts that use the same family of numbers. To practice this at home, show your child an addition fact like 2+6=8, then ask him or her to write a related subtraction fact.
In social studies, our study of families has focused on how and why families make choices about items to purchase and things that might happen to families to cause changes. Our social studies unit has tied in perfectly with our Junior Achievement lessons, in which we’ve been learning about needs and wants. In social studies this week, we also began reading about the first Thanksgiving. Students are very excited to read and discuss more about this holiday next week.
In science, we’ve continued our study of teeth, focusing on how to brush and floss our teeth and students practiced brushing and flossing techniques.
In writing this week, we celebrated finishing our nonfiction animal stories with a publishing party Friday. Students read their stories aloud to each other and celebrated with cupcakes and juice. What a talented bunch of writers we have!
SPELL-EBRATION
Our Spelling Challenge has been going great with kids working hard on gathering pledges and learning their spelling words. Our Spell-ebration test is on Monday, and we’d love to have every kid in the school wear our yellow “Be. The Academy” shirts to get us fired up! Students should also bring in their completed pledge envelopes on Monday so I can fill out how many words they completed correctly and how much money they need to collect. These envelopes will be returned on Wednesday for students to bring home so they can collect the pledge money over Thanksgiving weekend. As a culminating celebration for our Spelling Challenge, we will have a “Breakfast in Bed…clothes” party on Wednesday morning. On Wednesday, all students are invited to wear their pajamas to school and we will cook and eat breakfast treats!
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