One Hundred Thirtieth Day of School

 For Writing today, some writers needed time to finish some writing process steps while others made illustrations. We will take a break from writing tomorrow and let some authors share their work. On Friday, we will take our narrative assessment and turn them in to Mr. Brooks.

Math application problem:

A chipmunk hid 26 acorns under a tree. Later, he found and hid 6 more. How many acorns were now hidden beneath the tree?

We were given the opportunity to find our own facts about Mayan culture. Some of our researchers discovered that Mayans worshipped over 150 gods. Mayans also believed kings became gods when they died.

One Hundred Twenty-Eighth day of School

 In Writing today, we revised our narratives. Our process for revision is as follows:

1. Reread
2. Ask:
• Is it clear, interesting, complete?
3. If 'no', make additions/changes.

One Hundred Twenty-Seventh Day of School

 In Writing today, we learned about opening and closing of narrative fantasy. We discovered that the setting is basically the opening, and a "...happily ever after." will suffice as a closing.

In our content unit, we learned that the Mayans worshipped multiple gods in temples and celebrated during festivals.

One Hundred Twenty-Sixth Day of School

 In Writing today, we added transitions to our narrative. We reviewed that in addition to our list of time-order words, transitions can also take the form of quotations, or sounds, just to name a couple simple examples.

We began a new unit of content where will learn about early American civilizations. These will include the Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs. In our lesson today, we learned that families and community members relied on and helped one another when help was needed.

One Hundred Twenty-Fourth Day of School

 In Writing, we planned the plot of our narratives.

Curriculum Update

 Necessary adjustments in instruction have had to be made above and beyond typical adjustments for testing and parent conferences due to so many students being absent lately, but we are now finally into our next Writing unit. Our current genre is fictional narrative. We have combined art instruction in tandem with the unit. We began exploring and practicing with some of the elements of art, namely: line, shape, and texture, to create our main and supporting characters for our narrative.

To preface the unit in reading, speaking, and content lessons, we are currently engaged in a comparative literature unit analyzing folk tales from all around the world. Students are using 2 and 3 circle Venn diagrams to compare and contrast. We are also examining the structue of the fantasy/fiction narrative itself. We have reviewed the following key elements:

• Character: including main, supporting, antagonist, and protagonist
• Setting: the when and where of the story
• Plot: 
• The beginning (setting and character description)
• The middle (the body of plot leading to the climax) (First grade requires a minimum of 2 logically ordered events with appropriate transistions.)
• The end (resolution including closure)

Parents may recall our Writing Workshop procedures. Here's what we have completed so far following a lengthy immersive dive into the genre. We have designed/created our story's main and supporting characters. We have written "want, but, so, then" statements for our protagonist. An example of this might sound like: 'Cinderella wanted to go to the ball, but she had nothing to wear, so her faerie godmother intervened. Then, she was able to attend the ball.' Next, we touched and talked the setting of our story which will be drafted on the first page.

We recently took the district midyear math assessment. It was not an easy test and all of the students in room 11 persevered while trying their best. In the end, we collectively achieved a 75% success rate overall with 17 passing scores including 2 perfect scores of 22 students taking the test. This is compared to only 4 passing scores at the beginning of the year. The students were promised a treat if everyone tried their best and that is indeed what happened, so we will get treats this coming week.

One Hundred Fourth Day of School

 In Writing, we talked out our reasons for our opinion and then planned our reasons on paper (quick-sketch).

Math application problem:

    Lisa had 3 boxes of crayons, each with 10 crayons inside, plus 5 extra crayons. Sally had 19     crayons. Sally thought she had more crayons than Lisa. Lisa thought Sally was wrong. Who     was right?

Grades for this assignment have been posted to Schoology.

One Hundred-Second Day of School

 In Writing, we have begun our second persuasive writing piece. We will be writing a persuasive letter. Our first task was to make a list of adults who could be recipients of a letter. Our next task was to decide upon an issue we cared about and then decide who would be the audience for our arguement.

Ninety-Sixth Day of School

 In Writing today, we added closing statement to our drafts which completes all of the necessary elements of opinion writing.

In Math today we solved by constructing a table. Math application problem:

    Larry asked his friends whether dogs or cats are smarter. Nine of his friends think dogs are        smarter and 6 think cats are smarter. Make a table to show Larry's data collection. How            many friends did he ask?

Unsatisfactory notices have been turned in and will be sent home likely next week. These are sent to notify parents that is might be possible that your child could be receiving a 1 or 2 in a particular subject.

Ninety-Fifth Day of School

 In Writing Today, we drafted our openings.

Math application problem:

    I have 2 crayons. Each crayon is 9 centimeters cubes long. I also have a paintbrush. The            paintbrush is the same length as 2 crayons. How many centimeter cubes long is the                    paintbrush?

Ninety-Fourth Day of School

 Today in Writing, we added transitions to each reason supporting our opinion.

Math application problem:

    Corey measures his pencil at 15 cm long. He then sharpens his pencil and measures it again as 4 cm less than before. How long is Corey's pencil now?

Grades for this assignmemnt have been posted to Schoology.

For our unit of content, we added a few facts:

• The brain has 3 main parts:
• the cerebrum, the largest part which process thoughts and memory,
• the cerebelum helps us with balance and movement,
• and the brain stem which controls breathing and heartbeat.
• The teeth are the only part of the skeletal system that we can readily see.

Grades for our most resent reading assessments have also been posted to Schoology.

Ninety-Third Day of School

 In Writing today, we drafted our reasons supporting our opinion.

Ninety-Second Day of School

In Writing today, we talked our reasons for our opinion and then planned (quick-sketched) them for drafting tomorrow.

In our content lesson, we learned about the nervous system:

• The brain is considered the "control center" of the nervous system.
• Our brain is wet and wrinkled and weighs about 3 pounds.
• The brain sends messages using a nerves which run throughout our body.
• The brain control voluntary and involuntary muscle movements.
• Our brain processes a million messages every second. 
• There 86 billion neurons in the brain.

Math application problem: 

    Julia's lollipop is 15 centimeters long. She measure it with 9 red cubes and some blue cubes.     How many blue cubes did she use?

Grades for this assignment have been posted to Schoology.

Ninetieth Day of School

 Today marks the middle of your child's 1st grade year.

In Writing today, we drafted our opinion statement. Most opinion statements are no more than 5-7 words in length.

 

Eighty-Ninth Day of School

 In Math today, we began a new unit on measurement.

In Writing, we revisited our opinion brainstorming lists to add other things we may have an opinion about whether good or bad. We then selected a topic for our paper and stated our opinion about that topic. A digital record was made of those statements.

In our content unit, we learned about the circulatory system.

• The heart, blood, veins, arteries, and capillaries are important components of the circulatory system.
• The heart has 4 chambers and is responsible for pumping blood throughout the body.
• The heart works harder during physical exertion.
• The heart is an involuntary muscle.

Eighty-Eighth Day of School

 In Writing today, we practiced formulating opinions. First, we had to distinguish between a fact and an opinion. Fact: Mind Craft is my favorite game. Opinion: Mind Craft is the best game.

In Math today, we learned about constructing a table as a strategy. We learned that if we contruct a proper table, there is no need for a statement.

Math application problem:

    Carla, Jose, and Yanni each have 8 cherries.They all get more cherries to put in their                 bowls.Now, Carla has 12 cherries, Jose has 14 cherries, and Yanni has 16 cherries.

    How many cherries did each of them add to their bowl?

Eighty-Seventh Day of School

 Math application problem:

    Micah had 16 toy trucks. He lost 9 of them. Charles had 1 truck. He received 6 more from        his mom. Who now has more trucks, Micah or Charles?

Grades for this assignment have been posted to Schoology. If you notice your child has not scored at least a 3 on any of these spplication problems, it might be a good use of time to review them at home. Your child will be taking a number of types of math exams before the next progress report, an exam which looks very much like the application problem found here in the daily messages, fluency exams, a district online exam (similar to IXL), and an exam with math equations like those seen on the homework assignments.

We have nearly finished administering the middle of the year reading exams.

Eighty-Fifth Day of School

 In Writing today, we constructed arguements for dogs or cats being better pets.

Math application problem:

    There were 16 coats hanging on the rack. Nine children took theirs outside with them. How     many coats were still on the rack?

Tomorrow we will learn about the digestive system.

Eighty-Third Day of School

 Math application problem:

    Julian had 7 markers. His mother gave him 8 more markers. He lost 9 of the markers. How        many markers does Julian now have?

Grades for this assignment have been posted to Schoology.

Today in our unit for content we learned about the muscular system.

• Muscles work together to help us move our body.
• Muscles are connected to bones with tendons.
• Voluntary muscle movements are muscle movements we decide to make.
• Involuntary muscle movements are muscles that move on their own.
• We have more muscles in our body than bones.

Eighty-Second Day of School

For Writing, We began our unit on opinion writing by examining an opinion anchor text called Red is Best. We then generated our own list of "bests" and what category of things our "bests" or "favorites" would belong to. For example:

1. spaghetti                food
2. Mine Craft             game
3. blue                        color

In our unit for content, we learned about the skeletal system.

• Bones are organs which work together to provide structure to the body and protect softer organs.
• Bones are connected by joints.
• Bones are hollow which makes then lighter and stronger and filled with marrow.
• We have approximately 206 bones.