Research Papers

The practicum student that is visiting our classroom was shocked to learn that 1st graders are expected write research papers. The answer is....YES!!!

We are currently working on writing research papers about animals. Students were put into 7 different groups and given a specific animal to research. Over the next two weeks, we will be researching the animals using a website called "Pebble Go".  They will bring writing their papers and creating a power point presentation to go along with their topic. Students will also be painting an illustration on the computer to include in their power point. We are very excited about this project!!!! :)

Also, we will not be working with our literature circle groups as much over the next two weeks. Our main focus is going to be our research papers, and we will be spending a lot of time in the computer lab.

I will let everyone know how they turn out! :)

Spelling Words Feb. 21-24

Penguins: heard, third, dirt, blurt, shirt, squirt, skirt, desert, alert, turn
Seals: again, want, any, under, both, bare, water, tall, old, between
Walruses: about, teacher, arms, seven, put, because, part, body, saw, warn
Polar Bears: person, draw, tiny, eight, carry butter, happy, always, ready, were

Here are your words for next week! A few of the kids were very worried about not having their spelling words over a 3 day weekend. They are too funny! :)

Spelling Words: February 13-17

Penguins:near, shout, climb, door, wall, forest, soon, cow, there, been
Seals: dirt, heard, third, blurt, shirt, squirt, skirt, desert, alert, turn
Walruses: better, spider, earlier, power, younger, slower, faster, longer, shorter, bigger
Polar Bears: about, teacher, arms, seven, put, because, part, body, saw, warn

(I haven't been the best at updating it on the blog. I will try to do better!!)

New Spelling Requirements

Since we are more than halfway through our school year, we are starting a new writing component with our spelling tests. We have focused a lot of time on capitalization and punctuation, and now students will be responsible for doing this on the test. Each week, I will dictate a sentence for students to write on their test. They are responsible for 5 parts of the sentence:

1 point- Capitalization (first letter in each sentence)
1 point- Spelling the spelling word only correct (they can miss other words in the sentence, but not their spelling word)
1 point- Punctuation (it must be correct punctuation)
1- All words are in the sentence (they cannot leave out any words that I say to them)
1- Spacing (spaces between all of their words)

Example:

I said, "I want to wear a blue dress."
Student wrote, "i to wear a blu dress." Their score would be a 3/5 for writing. The did not capitalize the first word and left out a word in the sentence. You may notice that the word "blue" is spelling incorrectly. They are not counted off for this because their spelled the spelling word correct--they are allowed to miss other words in the sentence (this gives them practice sounding out words).

Our goal is to create better writers! Your child will have a chance to practice this new skill each week if they chose to write their spelling words in a sentence or write a letter to someone. :)

Personal Narrative

We are working on writing our personal narratives for the next couple of weeks in class.  This concept is a little tricky for my kids, so I would like your help! If you could help your child think of one event (i.e. going on vacation, trip to the zoo, visiting Grandma's house, etc) and fill out the "All About____" book at home, I would greatly appreciate it. :)  Please remind your child that the event must be true since it is a personal narrative (story about themselves). A lot of times students want to write about make believe stories or things they would like to do, so it can be a little confusing. Please have your child return the book by Wednesday, Feb. 1st so we can begin writing our narratives. This book does not have to be a work of art, just a starting place for our narratives.

I have included a couple of pictures of the "narrative" (ok...mine is not actually true, but the kids won't know that!!) I wrote for you to use as an example. You may want to glue in actual pictures from the event or they can simply illustrate it themselves. Thanks for your continued help! :)

(The boxes are for the illustrations/photographs.)

If you would like to read some personal narratives at home to your child this week, here are a couple of great examples:

A Chair for My Mother

Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs

Thundercake

Spelling Words for January 23-27

At the Curriculum Night we hosted in December, a few parents requested the spelling words the weekend before the test so the kids would have plenty of time to practice the words. I will post the spelling words for the next week at least by Friday. Here are next week's words:

Penguins: how, world, little, our, more, these, over, give, try, children

Seals: fork, sword, stork, corn, toward, four, award, bored, scored

Walruses: heard, third, dirt, blurt, shirt, squirt, skirt, desert, alert, turn

Polar Bears: again, want, any, under, both, bare, water, any, tall, old

Nouns!!!

We have been working on nouns for the past several weeks. We have learned about common nouns, proper nouns, and possessive nouns. Recently, we have been learning about singular and plural nouns. To help better understand the different between the two, we played a little game!!

They class was divided into groups of 4. Each group was given a set of "Memory Match: Noun Style" cards. The game is very similar to the traditional Memory game. However, in this game students had to match the singular noun to the plural noun. We they made the match, they had to tell their teammates which noun was singular and which was plural AND why (the plural noun has an "s" at the end). They really had a great time reinforcing this new skill! :)

This was a "cookie" noun sort we also played.  One student suggested we make real sugar cookies as a class and write nouns on them with icing. (I think she might be a teacher someday!)

Spelling Words for the Week of January 2-6

It has come to my attention that I gave out a spelling list today that they kids have already taken. The last time they had a spelling test it was given by a sub, and I couldn't remember what test they needed. I will give them a new word list tomorrow!! If they aren't ready for the test by Friday, then we can always take it on Monday. Sorry!!!

Also, I included a "Spelling Star Work Mat" to the spelling packet. Please keep it at home or in their folder. Many parents requested another copy of the sheet at our Curriculum Night in December. Please keep it as a reference, and if you want to do something that is not on the list, then just write me a quick note. Thanks!