This week we are focussing on Mental Math. Yesterday and today, students worked on adding 1 and 2 only. We will continue to build on addition and then focus on subtraction next week.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, is Library Day. As you will see in the Calendar section of the website, our liturgy is actually at 11am on the 25th, not 1pm as the newsletter states. Parents are welcome to come.
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Today students have brought home some writing they have worked on in the past month of so. I have also attached an assessment of their overall writing skills. This assessment is the rubric all Grade Ones in Regina Catholic Schools use; as you can see the assessment stays the same for March and June. I was a bit more lenient with several of the areas at this point in the year, for example, I am expecting about 4 ideas for their writing pieces instead of the 5 I will be looking for in June. As you know, before Easter, we worked on including interesting vs not interesting details, so I am expecting students to have ideas "with substance" in their writing. We have also not worked on word choice so I did not assess. I sent these writing samples and assessment home so you know how it is going and ways you can support your child at home in order for them to meet the end of year requirements.
Addition and Subtraction to 20
Below are a list of skills that students are expected to have by the end of our Addition and Subtraction to 20 unit. I can recognize the + symbol and tell what it means. I can recognize the – symbol and tell what it means. I know at least 3 different strategies to add. I know at least 3 different strategies to subtract. I can consistently add numbers correctly, for a maximum sum of 20. I can consistently subtract numbers correctly, from a maximum minuend of 20. I can do mental math. I can do word problems. I can explain how I got my answer. As you can see, many of these expected skills are the same as our first Addition and Subtraction unit of the year. At the end of the first unit students were expected to have gained all of those skills. In this next unit, students are expected to have increased fluency and ease with their computation skills. As well, you will notice that they will be required to have the ability do word problems independently, mental math consistently and be able to explain how they got their answers by the completion of this unit. Please work on these skills with them at home. Students who have already shown comfortable skill level with these outcomes will be working on enrichment throughout this unit. This enrichment will focus mainly on addition and subtraction of double digit numbers. Students and I will update you as we progress. Happy Easter!
If you haven't already done so, please assist your child with writing 3-4 things they did over the break in their agenda, we need this for our writer's workshop this week. I have bookmarked their agendas so you know where to write it. Today we finished our geometry unit and tomorrow we will begin our last Math unit, addition and subtraction to 20. I will be sending home information later this week. Please see your child's agenda for their spelling list. Tomorrow it is the St. Nicholas retreat at Holy Family and Riffel. As you know, lunch is provided, students will get iced tea and a hot dog. As you can see in the agenda, if they would like to bring an easy snack to eat, I can carry it in my backpack. I am not sure of the format of the day so they may not have time to eat it until lunch but I will make sure they get it. Also as I mentioned to them, it needs to be easy to eat, for example a granola bar, cheese and crackers, apple. Fruit cups, yogurt, containers etc will need to stay at school.
You likely noticed the grey sentence papers students brought home Wednesday and Thursday. They have been doing really well with expanding or rewriting sentences to make them more interesting. I know this can be very difficult for them so I am really pleased with their progress. We will be working on narrative stories after Easter, I hope they will begin/continue to write fluid, complete sentences.
As well, we have been working on decoding strategies in class. Students glued a copy of these in their agendas, I believe last week's pages. They are tricky to get the hang of, but I find once students get going on them, they are very helpful. Our fundraiser for Chalice next week is Bring 50 cents for every phone or TV in your house. Thank you for all of your generous donations thus far. In our Writer's Workshop, students have been learning about interesting and non-interesting details. I am trying to get students to realize that when we write, we want to make sure our writing is interesting for the reader. Students brought home two activities we did today regarding this topic. Tomorrow, we will begin learning how we can make non-interesting sentences more engaging for readers.
Students also brought home some Math shape work we did today. Thank you so much for sending a 3D shape with your child, we had fun guessing each other's then describing it. I also sent home a pink mid-unit Geometry assessment, it will give you an idea too, what we will be working on in the coming days. This unit will be wrapped up by Easter. We had a Saskatchewan Roughrider visit our school today! Ask your child what he presented on. Today our agenda message was Bring a 3D object tomorrow. I am asking that each student bring a 3D object of some sort tomorrow. For example: a lego block- rectangular prism, some pillows are shaped like cylinders etc.
Friday we will have spelling quiz, no pattern words this week, see your child's agenda for this week's list. Yesterday we worked on the -igh vowel pattern, practicing several words with that pattern. As with our other word patterns, I don't always expect students to spell these words correctly, rather I hope to see them be able to recognize and read these patterns in texts.
We continue to work through our current Social Studies unit, which focusses on needs and wants. As well, as part of our Arts Ed unit, we have been reading Jan Brett books, discussing her illustrations, story lines and content. They are great books! Reminder that tomorrow we have spelling quiz, today we worked on both the sight and pattern words. Students will bring home two activities today. It is Library Day tomorrow!
This week, our Count Your Blessings fundraiser is Bring 10 cents for every soup can and cereal box you have. |