Unit 5 Week 4 Preview

We will compare the characteristics of the four seasons. Our oral vocabulary words are: blaze, increase, observe, outline, and scorch. Our spelling pattern focus will involve the diphthong: 'ou', 'ow'. Our high frequency reading words are: against, below, fall, orange, sure, and yellow. Our reading vocabulary words are: wondered and season. We will again practice our reading comprehension strategy of visualization in order to develop the comprehension skill of sequencing. 

Our talk of the four seasons will of course lead to discussion of the Earth's rotation and revolution in science. We will discuss myths and facts regarding these concepts. 

We will work with art application standard 2.3 to use media to create form in works of art.

We will again revisit the concepts of past and present in social studies.

100th Day

Everyone seemed to enjoy our trip to the museum. My group was very lucky to get a marvelous docent for the architectural/garden portion of our study. She was very impressed with our knowledge of the elements of art. Later we spent time exploring 19th century art in good detail. We took time with a suite of Degas' work comparing and contrasting two paintings and then some of his small bronze ballerinas. A special thank you to Mrs. Sterling who accompanied us to the museum and really helped to make our trip go smoothly.

Unit 4 Week 1 Preview

Our new theme for this unit is teamwork. We will begin the unit discussing the advantages of using teamwork and what team members do. This week we will use the spelling rules: 'ai_', and '_ay' to spell the long vowel-a. For comprehension we will learn how to generate questions during reading in order to make predictions. We will discuss comparatives and superlatives and use them to make a small fold out book. Our vocabulary words will be: encourage, friendship, relationship, rely, and suggest. Our sight words will be: across, carry, eight, once, upon, and walked. In grammar we will distinguish between the two verbs: was and were.

In health, we will talk about safety and safe habits.

Additionally, this week all 1st graders will take their reading skills battery for fluency and comprehension.

We will also attempt to get in a math test.

On Wednesday is our field study trip to the Getty Museum. We will be enjoying as well as examining and comparing art for a variety of elements: line, color, texture, shape, and subject matter.

This will be a busy week with Our 1ooth day of school celebration on Thursday.

Sixty-Third Day

Some students have begun to start their notes for their Unit Project.

You should find your child's progress report in your child's backpack. Do not sign and return this copy; it is yours to keep. If there are any questions concerning your child's report, either come see me after school or send a "contact" email. I will make sure to check the inbox regularly over the next few days.

For art we had a lesson on primary and secondary color and painting.

Fifty-Eighth Day

One student has completed a PowerPoint presentation and another has begun. It is slow going with computer work because only one computer works adequately to make presentations.

We will take a short test on Topic 9 tomorrow. If the copiers are up and running in the office and if the material warrants, we may attempt to take a full test; we'll wait to see.

We worked briefly with compound words and took some time to illustrate a fold-out book which some students completed and took home.

We had an art lesson today on the element of shape. We distinguished between geometric and organic shapes and created a self-portrait.

Yesterday, we discussed the Sun and it's influence on weather. We discussed the transformation of matter and the sun's role in the water cycle. We discussed the removal and addition of heat to transform matter into its various states. This will be a tested concept.