First Grade News

February 1, 2016

Curriculum Highlights
Writing non-fiction research, collecting dash facts
Math number stories and problem solving
Word Study learning from love - no word in English ends with v - write ve
instead, avoid writing uv - write ov instead, prefixes, bases, suffixes
Science Living Things Observations habitat, behaviour, appearance
Reminders
Save the dates - March 3 & 4 Parent Teacher Conferences
Word Study

love
loved

loving
lovelier

lovely
unloved

loveliest
lover

unloving
loves

News From Ms. Tindalls Class

Im so proud of how far each student has come as a reader this year. They are decoding words, increasing
fluency and highly engaged in book discussions. Next step is to ensure comprehension especially with
non-fiction texts. At this age many children draw on their own background knowledge to answer questions
about a topic. We are striving however to get them to evidence their answers from within the text itself.
You can help at home, by encouraging your child to warm up before beginning to read. Look at the title,
read the blurb on the back and read the table of contents. Talk about what you think you already know
about this topic. Talk about what you expect to find in the book using the table of contents, blurb and title as
references.
During and after reading stop at the end of every page and use a thinking routine we use in class. 1.
Confirm What did you find on this page that confirmed something you already knew. 2. Change What
information challenged your thinking? What did you think before, but now have to change and replace with
new thinking? 3. Add What new learning did you add to your mental file?
Also note this week that the base word for spelling is love. So the word sum for loving is actually: love
+ ing. When you write out the word loving you would say, l-o-v-no ei-n-g. When you add a vowel
suffix to a base word with a silent e, you drop the e and add the suffix.
In partnership, Ms. Tindall

Monday
Reading: Focus on comprehension strategies as outlined in the newsletter.
Math: Play games to increase fluency and flexibility in basic facts. Please remember the goal
is NOT memorization. The goal is understanding. We want children saying things such as I
know 5 + 6 = 11, because I know 5 + 5 = 10, and 6 is one more than 5 so, 1 more than 10 is 11.
At the end of this newsletter Ive attached some games, but Im sure you have card/ board
games that you already use, which are equally as good.

Tuesday

Reading: Focus on comprehension strategies as outlined in the newsletter.

Math: Grab piles of coins (and notes if extending). Practice organizing and counting amounts.
Write the amounts you grab in cent notation (dollar and cent notation for extension). Purpose
is to skip count, and count on by different numbers (not money itself, but the math involved in
counting by groups).
Wednesday
Reading: Focus on comprehension strategies as outlined in the newsletter.

Math: Play games to practice addition facts such as Addition Top-It or any other games you
might have at home that enhance understanding first, then speed and accuracy in this skill.

Thursday

Reading: Focus on comprehension strategies as outlined in the newsletter.

Word Study: Tell someone the rule about no word in English ending in v and what you have to
write instead. Find some other examples besides love. (EG have, give)
Math: Play games to practice basic facts goal: increase understanding, speed and accuracy
with single digit addition.
Friday
Reading: Focus on comprehension strategies as outlined in the newsletter.

Poem collection: Recite poems and sing songs from your poem collection. Return it to school
on Monday.

Math games below are

www.makingmathmorefun.com

taken

from

Please scroll down to find the games. All can be

played with a regular deck of cards, removing
changing the value of the Ace as need be. Well
be working on this all month, so please keep the
games and work one daily into your routine.