I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weather this past weekend! Hopefully, spring has officially arrived! :) This can be a very busy time of the year. Many of the children are playing spring sports and have long afternoons and evenings at different event. Please try, however, to keep up with our school events and weekly homework. This will help the children continue to build routines even when their schedules are super busy. It also helps to reenforce our learning as we begin to prepare for second grade! Thank you :)
Spelling & Word Wall: Our new word wall words for this week are: family, girl, boy, house, & can't. The children are doing a great job reading our word wall words quickly and fluently when they see them in books. Our spelling words for this week are all about Earth Day. The children picked their own words from a list to work on. Many of these words can be tricky. Just have your children try their best to read and write these words during the week.
Reading: We are working in our Daily Five Literacy Stations and we are spending more time working as independent readers each day. We are working on retelling main ideas, making connections to stories, and reading with expression and fluency as first grade readers each day.
Writing: We are writing our very own poems! The children love reading and listening to poems each day. This is the time of the year where we try to write our own. So far, we have worked on writing poems about spring. We will continue writing many different types of poems throughout the next two weeks before moving onto a new unit.
Math: We are just beginning a tricky topic ~ adding two digit numbers! We will work with math tools and learn several different strategies when adding two digit numbers. Some of these strategies are very different from the way many of us have learned in the past.
Reminders:
~Our warm & fuzzy jar is full for making good choices as a class! The children may wear pajamas or super comfy clothes to school and may bring in a stuffed animal on Tuesday, April 19th.
~ Please submit all Scholastic Book Orders! The order will be placed Tuesday morning.
~ Friday is Earth Day. This week we will be learning about ways to help the earth. One idea our school is working on is 'Litterless Lunch'. Try to create a litterless lunch each day. It's tricky, but we are trying to come with ideas.
Thank you for your ongoing support. As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Eileen Browne :)
Monday, April 18, 2016
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Last Week of March!
I hope you all had a terrific long weekend and were able to spend some time outdoors! We have had our fair share of illnesses lately in our classroom, our families, and our school. I'm hoping for a healthier week ahead. :) Below is a sneak peek at our some of our learning in our first grade classroom.
Word Wall & Spelling: Our five new words for this week are: heard, walk, before, again, & would. We are doing such a great job reading these words and finding them in our stories and poems each day. We have approximately 140 words on our Word Wall! Our spelling focus this week will be on plural nouns. Last week we learned that when words end with ch, sh, s, ss, x, & z, we need to add 'es' to make the word plural. Ex: lunches, dishes, boxes... We also learned that when words end with a consonant + y, you need to change the 'y' to an 'i' and add 'es'. Ex: puppies, babies, parties... This week we will review these spelling rules and work with many more plural nouns. We are also working very hard on writing 'strong sentences' each day. Be sure to ask your child all about weak sentences and strong sentences.
Writing: The children are really getting the hang of writing all different kinds of reviews. We are beginning to wrap up our unit on opinion writing with book reviews. This week we will practice how to write book recommendations filled with details and interesting information without 'spilling the beans'! This can be quite tricky :) We will most likely wrap up this writing unit sometimes next week and will then move on to a unit on poetry in April.
Math: We just completed topic 8, working with tens and ones and how to show numbers in different ways. Our next unit will be working with comparing numbers and writing numbers in order from least to greatest and greatest to least. These concepts can sometimes be tricky. We will practice many skills while using our number lines and 100 charts to help guide us.
Science: As we approach the end of March, we will be wrapping up our science unit on weather. We will continue, however, to study clouds, wind, temperature, weather patterns, and the weather forecast throughout the remainder of the year. During the month of April we will take a break from our official science units and work on social studies ~ all about maps! More information will come!
Thank you so much for your ongoing support. I'm looking forward to a great week ahead with April right around the corner!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne :)
Word Wall & Spelling: Our five new words for this week are: heard, walk, before, again, & would. We are doing such a great job reading these words and finding them in our stories and poems each day. We have approximately 140 words on our Word Wall! Our spelling focus this week will be on plural nouns. Last week we learned that when words end with ch, sh, s, ss, x, & z, we need to add 'es' to make the word plural. Ex: lunches, dishes, boxes... We also learned that when words end with a consonant + y, you need to change the 'y' to an 'i' and add 'es'. Ex: puppies, babies, parties... This week we will review these spelling rules and work with many more plural nouns. We are also working very hard on writing 'strong sentences' each day. Be sure to ask your child all about weak sentences and strong sentences.
Writing: The children are really getting the hang of writing all different kinds of reviews. We are beginning to wrap up our unit on opinion writing with book reviews. This week we will practice how to write book recommendations filled with details and interesting information without 'spilling the beans'! This can be quite tricky :) We will most likely wrap up this writing unit sometimes next week and will then move on to a unit on poetry in April.
Math: We just completed topic 8, working with tens and ones and how to show numbers in different ways. Our next unit will be working with comparing numbers and writing numbers in order from least to greatest and greatest to least. These concepts can sometimes be tricky. We will practice many skills while using our number lines and 100 charts to help guide us.
Science: As we approach the end of March, we will be wrapping up our science unit on weather. We will continue, however, to study clouds, wind, temperature, weather patterns, and the weather forecast throughout the remainder of the year. During the month of April we will take a break from our official science units and work on social studies ~ all about maps! More information will come!
Thank you so much for your ongoing support. I'm looking forward to a great week ahead with April right around the corner!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne :)
Sunday, February 28, 2016
February 29th!
I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and were able to spend some time outdoors on Sunday! Below is a sneak peak at our learning for the upcoming week!
Word Wall/ Spelling: Our 5 new words are: bed, though, away, over, & until. This week we will work on words with the controlled 'r' sound or 'bossy r'. We will learn that the 'r' does all of the talking in words such as: her, girl, hurt... The vowel is there, but you cannot really hear it! We will practice reading and writing many different words with 'bossy r' this week!
Reading: We will be reading lots of books by Dr. Seuss this week in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday! Wednesday, March 2nd is Crazy Hat Day at Eagle! Your child can wear a silly hat or he/she can make one at school. Also, please send in any books that you have at home by Dr. Seuss. Be sure your child's name is written on the inside. We are looking forward to having fun while reading these silly rhyming stories all week! We will be sure to make some fun crafts to go along with our Dr. Seuss theme.
Writing: We are continuing our work on review writing. This week we are learning that review writers do a lot of different things in their writing to convince readers to pay attention. Review writers often have catchy beginnings, they use comparisons, and they sometimes add small moment stories too. Try reading some reviews at home. You can read reviews about movies, restaurants, books, toys... See what you notice!
Math: We will be wrapping up our unit about skip counting by 2s, 5s, & 10s up to 120! We are noticing many different patterns in the rows and columns within our number charts. We are also working on filling in missing numbers in the different rows and columns.
Reminders: We are reading The World According to Humphrey each afternoon. The children are loving this book! Our classroom hamster, Humphrelina (named by the children!) will go home with families each weekend. I will contact you to let you know when your weekend is getting close. If there is a conflict we can switch with another family. Thank you for your support!
Upcoming Dates: Thursday, March 17th: Eating of the Greens Classroom Celebration! A note will be sent home soon :)
Have a great week!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne
Word Wall/ Spelling: Our 5 new words are: bed, though, away, over, & until. This week we will work on words with the controlled 'r' sound or 'bossy r'. We will learn that the 'r' does all of the talking in words such as: her, girl, hurt... The vowel is there, but you cannot really hear it! We will practice reading and writing many different words with 'bossy r' this week!
Reading: We will be reading lots of books by Dr. Seuss this week in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday! Wednesday, March 2nd is Crazy Hat Day at Eagle! Your child can wear a silly hat or he/she can make one at school. Also, please send in any books that you have at home by Dr. Seuss. Be sure your child's name is written on the inside. We are looking forward to having fun while reading these silly rhyming stories all week! We will be sure to make some fun crafts to go along with our Dr. Seuss theme.
Writing: We are continuing our work on review writing. This week we are learning that review writers do a lot of different things in their writing to convince readers to pay attention. Review writers often have catchy beginnings, they use comparisons, and they sometimes add small moment stories too. Try reading some reviews at home. You can read reviews about movies, restaurants, books, toys... See what you notice!
Math: We will be wrapping up our unit about skip counting by 2s, 5s, & 10s up to 120! We are noticing many different patterns in the rows and columns within our number charts. We are also working on filling in missing numbers in the different rows and columns.
Reminders: We are reading The World According to Humphrey each afternoon. The children are loving this book! Our classroom hamster, Humphrelina (named by the children!) will go home with families each weekend. I will contact you to let you know when your weekend is getting close. If there is a conflict we can switch with another family. Thank you for your support!
Upcoming Dates: Thursday, March 17th: Eating of the Greens Classroom Celebration! A note will be sent home soon :)
Have a great week!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne
Sunday, February 21, 2016
February 22nd
I hope you all had a terrific week off with family and friends! Below is a sneak peek at some of our activities for the week.
Word Wall/Spelling: Our new words for this week are: both, only, who, done, & after. We currently have over 100 words on our Word Wall! Our spelling words for this week will be words that go along with our Weather Unit. The children will pick eight words that they want to work on from our weather words chart in the classroom. We will go back to working on a specific skill next week.
Reading: We will continue to discuss 'character traits' this week as readers. While reading stories we will pay attention to what characters say and how they act. This tells us a lot about who the character is. We are learning that 'adjectives' are words that can describe some of the characters we are reading about. We are also learning that characters sometimes change throughout the story.
Writing: We are beginning to write persuasive reviews as first grade writers. This week we will practice reading reviews about toys, restaurants, books... We will notice what the review writers do to convince the reader of his/her opinion. Try reading some reviews at home this week! Notice how many 'stars' were given during the review and if you agree or disagree. You can check out some reviews of toys and games online. Amazon often has many reviews!
Math: We will work on reading, writing, counting, and skip counting to 120 this week! As first graders, we will skip count by 2s, 5s, & 10s. We will also practice some additional tricky skip counting as well for fun! :) During our math activities, we will work with charts to 120 and notice patterns in the rows and columns.
Reminders: We will be celebrating the 100th Day of School this week! Please wear a decorated
t-shirt and send in collections of 100 items. We will work with our collections throughout the week and send them home on Friday.
Thank you for your ongoing support! I'm looking forward to a fun week in first grade :)
Sincerely,
Eileen Browne
Word Wall/Spelling: Our new words for this week are: both, only, who, done, & after. We currently have over 100 words on our Word Wall! Our spelling words for this week will be words that go along with our Weather Unit. The children will pick eight words that they want to work on from our weather words chart in the classroom. We will go back to working on a specific skill next week.
Reading: We will continue to discuss 'character traits' this week as readers. While reading stories we will pay attention to what characters say and how they act. This tells us a lot about who the character is. We are learning that 'adjectives' are words that can describe some of the characters we are reading about. We are also learning that characters sometimes change throughout the story.
Writing: We are beginning to write persuasive reviews as first grade writers. This week we will practice reading reviews about toys, restaurants, books... We will notice what the review writers do to convince the reader of his/her opinion. Try reading some reviews at home this week! Notice how many 'stars' were given during the review and if you agree or disagree. You can check out some reviews of toys and games online. Amazon often has many reviews!
Math: We will work on reading, writing, counting, and skip counting to 120 this week! As first graders, we will skip count by 2s, 5s, & 10s. We will also practice some additional tricky skip counting as well for fun! :) During our math activities, we will work with charts to 120 and notice patterns in the rows and columns.
Reminders: We will be celebrating the 100th Day of School this week! Please wear a decorated
t-shirt and send in collections of 100 items. We will work with our collections throughout the week and send them home on Friday.
Thank you for your ongoing support! I'm looking forward to a fun week in first grade :)
Sincerely,
Eileen Browne
Sunday, February 7, 2016
February 8th!
I hope you all had a terrific weekend and enjoyed some Super Bowl fun! This will be a quick and busy week before we head into February break. Below are some highlights of our learning ~
Word Wall & Spelling: This week we are adding 5 new words to our growing World Wall: great, there, right, sure, & our. During spelling, we are working on a review of long vowels a, i, o, & u with silent 'e' on the end. Ex: same, trade, time, ride, rope, poke, mule, tune... We will review that rules of sneaky Mrs. E! You can see her on the end of many words, but you can't hear her! ;)
Reading: We will continue working in our small guided reading groups and rotating through Daily Five Stations each day. This week we will talk about character traits while reading stories. We will learn more about characters by what they say and how they act in various stories. Are the characters helpful, mean, brave, strong, shy...? How do we know that from reading stories? We will also focus on friendship and love as we prepare for Valentine's Day! :)
Writing: The children are doing a terrific job writing about one another's collections. We are trying hard to select our favorite pieces from each collection that we judge. The next step that we are working on is writing lots of great reasons why our selections are the best! We will continue working with comparing our collections this week as writers. The children are loving this unit so far.
Math: We just wrapped up unit 6 and are moving into unit 7 ~ counting, skip counting, and finding number patterns on charts up to 120! This is a great unit as we get ready to celebrate our 100th Day of School just after February break. We will also continue practicing our addition and subtraction facts each day.
Reminders: Thursday, February 11th is a half day with 11:45 dismissal. Please send in a note with any changes in dismissal routines. Friday, February 12th is our Valentine's Day celebration. Please have your child bring in a decorated mailbox and his/her Valentines for each member of our class. Please do not attach treats to the cards. We will be having some treats during the day! Also, this is a great day to dress FANCY! :) We are looking forward to a fun day while celebrating all of the wonderful friendships in our first grade classroom.
I am looking forward to a great week of learning and fun! Also, have a wonderful week off with family and friends.
Sincerely,
Eileen Browne
Word Wall & Spelling: This week we are adding 5 new words to our growing World Wall: great, there, right, sure, & our. During spelling, we are working on a review of long vowels a, i, o, & u with silent 'e' on the end. Ex: same, trade, time, ride, rope, poke, mule, tune... We will review that rules of sneaky Mrs. E! You can see her on the end of many words, but you can't hear her! ;)
Reading: We will continue working in our small guided reading groups and rotating through Daily Five Stations each day. This week we will talk about character traits while reading stories. We will learn more about characters by what they say and how they act in various stories. Are the characters helpful, mean, brave, strong, shy...? How do we know that from reading stories? We will also focus on friendship and love as we prepare for Valentine's Day! :)
Writing: The children are doing a terrific job writing about one another's collections. We are trying hard to select our favorite pieces from each collection that we judge. The next step that we are working on is writing lots of great reasons why our selections are the best! We will continue working with comparing our collections this week as writers. The children are loving this unit so far.
Math: We just wrapped up unit 6 and are moving into unit 7 ~ counting, skip counting, and finding number patterns on charts up to 120! This is a great unit as we get ready to celebrate our 100th Day of School just after February break. We will also continue practicing our addition and subtraction facts each day.
Reminders: Thursday, February 11th is a half day with 11:45 dismissal. Please send in a note with any changes in dismissal routines. Friday, February 12th is our Valentine's Day celebration. Please have your child bring in a decorated mailbox and his/her Valentines for each member of our class. Please do not attach treats to the cards. We will be having some treats during the day! Also, this is a great day to dress FANCY! :) We are looking forward to a fun day while celebrating all of the wonderful friendships in our first grade classroom.
I am looking forward to a great week of learning and fun! Also, have a wonderful week off with family and friends.
Sincerely,
Eileen Browne
Sunday, January 24, 2016
January 25th
I hope you all had a terrific weekend. I have to be honest, I'm a bit envious of my some of my family members who are buried in snow in the New York City and NJ area. Our first graders are also hoping that we get some snow soon!
Below are some highlights regarding our learning for this week.
Word Wall & Spelling: We have close to 100 words on our Word Wall! This week we will add five new words: want, oh, saw, has, & because. During spelling, we will be working on the 'oo' pattern. 'oo' makes different sounds depending on the words. Ex: soon, noon, spoon...book, look, shook, good, hood... We will practice reading and writing these words all week.
Reading: We are back in the routine of working in our guided reading groups and Daily Five Literacy rotations each day. Please be sure to send back any books that your child brings home to read. These books are shared by many different students and teachers in our building. We have been reading a lot of nonfiction books and have been working on retelling facts and answering questions to check our comprehension. You can try this at home too! Though we will continue reading nonfiction texts as part of our science unit, we will also begin learning about character traits when reading fictional stories.
Writing: We have just wrapped up our nonfiction 'all about' teaching books. The children did a terrific job during this unit. We will begin our next unit this week ~ opinions and writing reviews. Please read the letter that is sent home regarding 'collections'. We will be using collections to help us with this writing unit. Thank you for your support! :)
Math: We just wrapped up topic 5 and are now beginning topic 6 ~ strategies for subtraction facts to 20. Knowing addition facts will help the children work through subtraction problems more successfully. We will practice related facts and fact families throughout this unit. Ex: 7+5=12 and 5+7=12 so 12-7=5 and 12-5=7!
Science: We are working on our weather unit. This week we will learn about wind and temperature as we track the weather each day. We will talk about the tools used to measure these concepts and conduct some of our own experiments. We are really hoping for some snow!!!
I am looking forward to a fun week in our first grade classroom. As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Eileen Browne
Below are some highlights regarding our learning for this week.
Word Wall & Spelling: We have close to 100 words on our Word Wall! This week we will add five new words: want, oh, saw, has, & because. During spelling, we will be working on the 'oo' pattern. 'oo' makes different sounds depending on the words. Ex: soon, noon, spoon...book, look, shook, good, hood... We will practice reading and writing these words all week.
Reading: We are back in the routine of working in our guided reading groups and Daily Five Literacy rotations each day. Please be sure to send back any books that your child brings home to read. These books are shared by many different students and teachers in our building. We have been reading a lot of nonfiction books and have been working on retelling facts and answering questions to check our comprehension. You can try this at home too! Though we will continue reading nonfiction texts as part of our science unit, we will also begin learning about character traits when reading fictional stories.
Writing: We have just wrapped up our nonfiction 'all about' teaching books. The children did a terrific job during this unit. We will begin our next unit this week ~ opinions and writing reviews. Please read the letter that is sent home regarding 'collections'. We will be using collections to help us with this writing unit. Thank you for your support! :)
Math: We just wrapped up topic 5 and are now beginning topic 6 ~ strategies for subtraction facts to 20. Knowing addition facts will help the children work through subtraction problems more successfully. We will practice related facts and fact families throughout this unit. Ex: 7+5=12 and 5+7=12 so 12-7=5 and 12-5=7!
Science: We are working on our weather unit. This week we will learn about wind and temperature as we track the weather each day. We will talk about the tools used to measure these concepts and conduct some of our own experiments. We are really hoping for some snow!!!
I am looking forward to a fun week in our first grade classroom. As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Eileen Browne
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Welcome 2016!
I hope you all had a terrific break with family and friends! I had a wonderful time catching up with family and friends, but I'm happy to be back into a routine with my first grade friends :) Below are some sneak peeks at our learning.
Word Wall & Spelling: Our new words for this week are: could, every, got, home, see, & some. During spelling we will work on 'long o' 'silent e' spelling patterns. We can see the sneaky e, but we can't hear it make any sounds! We have many different spelling words in our classroom, but most of our words all have the long o silent e pattern.
Reading: This week while the children are rotating through different Daily Five Stations, I am working with children individually. We are working on reading 'just right' books and showing what we know about our 'heart' word lists. I am hoping to pick up with our guided reading groups again next week.
Writing: We are working on adding great beginnings, endings, diagrams, pictures, and table of contents to our nonfiction stories. Using nonfiction mentor texts in our classroom is a great way for us to get some good ideas. We are spending a lot of time studying nonfiction books and the different strategies the authors use to teach readers about a topic. Try reading some nonfiction books at home or at the library too. National Geographic for Kids have great stories!
Math: We are adding doubles, doubles + 1, and doubles +2! We learned that knowing our doubles facts helps us to solve 'near doubles' addition problems quickly. Continue to practice math facts at home. :)
Science: We are just beginning a new science unit ~ All About Weather! We will read many books, create some fun experiments and projects, and track the weather each day. So far we have learned that meteorologists are not 'always' right with their predictions.
Reminders: February Conferences will take place Friday, Feb. 5th & Thursday, Feb. 12th. These days have early dismissal at 11:45. More information will be sent home soon!
Thank you for your support & Happy New Year!
Eileen Browne
Word Wall & Spelling: Our new words for this week are: could, every, got, home, see, & some. During spelling we will work on 'long o' 'silent e' spelling patterns. We can see the sneaky e, but we can't hear it make any sounds! We have many different spelling words in our classroom, but most of our words all have the long o silent e pattern.
Reading: This week while the children are rotating through different Daily Five Stations, I am working with children individually. We are working on reading 'just right' books and showing what we know about our 'heart' word lists. I am hoping to pick up with our guided reading groups again next week.
Writing: We are working on adding great beginnings, endings, diagrams, pictures, and table of contents to our nonfiction stories. Using nonfiction mentor texts in our classroom is a great way for us to get some good ideas. We are spending a lot of time studying nonfiction books and the different strategies the authors use to teach readers about a topic. Try reading some nonfiction books at home or at the library too. National Geographic for Kids have great stories!
Math: We are adding doubles, doubles + 1, and doubles +2! We learned that knowing our doubles facts helps us to solve 'near doubles' addition problems quickly. Continue to practice math facts at home. :)
Science: We are just beginning a new science unit ~ All About Weather! We will read many books, create some fun experiments and projects, and track the weather each day. So far we have learned that meteorologists are not 'always' right with their predictions.
Reminders: February Conferences will take place Friday, Feb. 5th & Thursday, Feb. 12th. These days have early dismissal at 11:45. More information will be sent home soon!
Thank you for your support & Happy New Year!
Eileen Browne
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