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 :)