May 26-29

Dear parents, 

I hope you enjoyed the nice, warm weather and time with your families over the long weekend!

This week in first grade we are waiting for our first Painted Lady Butterflies to make their appearance. We have seen three caterpillars go into their chrysalises and any day they will emerge as adult butterflies!

In science we have continued to observe and care for our mealworms. We have also begun to share the insect reports. The students have done a nice job on the reports! 

In math this week we have been working on the last of the quarterly tests. We will complete the test tomorrow and begin unit 10, which is a review of the year for math. The quarterly tests will not come home, I will share results in the final report card. A good idea for your student this summer is purchasing him or her a workbook call The Summer Bridge for first grade moving to second grade. It is available at most stores such as Target or Barnes and Noble and it closely mirrors the math program we teach in Walled Lake. It will help them retain the skills they have learned this year!

In reading we have read the book Click, Clack, Moo. We are learning about persuasive writing. We tried a"Tug of War" discussion where each student makes an argument for or against a side of discussion, in this case we argued whether or not the animals in the story should get electric blankets. It was a very good discussion! I modeled how to use the points of the discussion to persuade someone to agree with my side. Then each child chose a side to write about and persuade someone to agree with them. We will read another book and choose sides tomorrow. This is a quick unit, we will be wrapping it up the last few days of school.

Popcorn words this week are: oil, foil, joy, boy, toy, joyful. 

Field day is Friday! Please dress to be outside all day and wear sunscreen! A water bottle is a good idea, please mark it with your child's name. Our grade color is red. First grade students can wear a red shirt and have their friends sign it. If you do not wish that kids sign your child's shirt, please let me know!

Tomorrow is pizza day!

Have a good night, 

Mrs. Scheck

May 18-21

Dear parents,

We had a a lot of fun on Friday at the honeybee farm. Maybury farm is a cute place! It is also very close and open to the public.  We learned about bees and saw farm animals. We saw miniature donkeys, baby goats, horses, sheep, and pigs. The students loved the trip!

In science this week, we are observing our painted lady caterpillars as they go into their chrysalises. We have three in the pupa stage, two are still larvae. We made habitats for milkweed bugs. They are in the egg stage right now. We will see them hatch and go through four nymph stages until becoming adult insects.  We are reading a book about Painted Lady Butterflies so we will know how to care for them. We will also read the big book Busy as a Bee.  This books reviews all the things we have learned. June 2nd is insect day! We will send an invitation to come and see the insects we made in art and to hear about our insects.  Reports on insects are due this Thursday, May 21. 

In math we are wrapping up unit 9 this week. We will have a test on Thursday over unit 9. We have been working on strategies for two digit addition and on fractions. We compared fractions yesterday and will explore equivalent names for fractions today.  

Next week we will begin the final unit in math, it is a review of the entire year. The first week in June we will have our quarterly math test.

In writing, we are finishing our non fiction unit this week! We have been working on adding a how to page to our all about books, we will begin revising and editing this week.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Scheck

Honeybee farm field trip

Maybury Farm in Northville, Michigan on May 15, 2015

We had a lot of fun and learned all about honeybees. We went on a hayride, petted baby goats, played on a fun playground and tasted honey! Greay day for first grade!

Week of May 11-15

Dear parents,

This week in First Grade many exciting things are happening. We are going on our field trip to Maybury Farm on May 15. We will leave school at 9:30 a.m. We will return to school right before lunch. We will be busy as bees visiting the Honeybee Farm. We have been reading about bees and other insects all week. We will have a great time.

In reading we are continuing to read a lot of non fiction books, but we are also reading a few fun ones. We read Diary of a Fly which shared a fly's days over the summer. It included facts about flies and we learned flies have thousands of screens that are his eyes. 

We also read Owen by Kevin Henkes. We discussed the vocabulary words: essential and vinegar. We talked about how food is essential to living things, the students made great connections!

In writing we are working on All Abouts for non fiction writing, the students learned how to put a diagram in their books. We discussed how some non-fiction books have a glossary or a special words page at the end. 

In math, we are about half way through Unit 9. We have worked on adding two digit numbers and today we will go back to working on fractions. We will have a Unit 9 test next week. 

In Science we are anticipating an adult insect very soon. Our first pupa is almost two weeks old. We have learned that the larva molts its skin many times before turning into a pupa. We were able to watch one pupa do its last molting before changing right before our eyes. 

Please continue to work on insect reports and mark the calendar for June 2nd. We will be sharing reports and insect models that day with parents here in school.

Have a great week! 

Mrs. Scheck

Week of May 4-8

This week in first grade we are reading and learning about life cycles, we have noticed that the mealworms go through four stages of a life cycle: egg, larva, pupa, adult.  Some insects go through "nymph" stages instead of a life cycle.  Two more insects are coming, one will arrive this week. We will be observing caterpillars and milkweed bugs next!

Beginning tomorrow I will be stopping reading groups to begin our final reading assessment! This means books will not be coming home for a few weeks. 

The popcorn words are: ink, think, sink, thank, sank, bank.

  

In math we have begun Unit 9. The unit 8 test went home last night, please look over the test and review any problems your child missed. Unit 9 focuses on place value and more on fractions. The family letter went home yesterday. 

In writing we have begun writing non-fiction books called "All Abouts,"  we started yesterday by writing a list of topics that we know a lot about. Today we began organizing chapters within our topic. We will be working on adding a diagram to our "All About"s later this week.

In reading, we have been reading non-fiction books. The students love learning facts. We looked for books in the library today to read for our insect reports. They loved looking up information and a few students will bring their books home tonight! We read Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive. We learned many facts about bees such as; why they sting, the jobs they do for the hive, how they carry pollen and much more. We will know a lot about bees for our upcoming field trip on May 15th!

Week of April 27- May 1

DDear parents,

First graders have been observing their mealworms in class this week and today we had our first mealworm change into a pupa! This was very exciting. The pupa stage looks much different than the larvae stage. We will continue to care for and observe the mealworms until they become adult insects. We will be getting our second insect next week.

In math we are wrapping up unit 8. We spent some time reviewing place value and telling time. The unit 8 test is tomorrow, please review the following at home: counting tens and ones, greater and less than - comparing numbers, cutting a shape into two equal parts, and using a three digit number identifying place value with ones, tens, hundreds.

In writing we are wrapping up our unit on Realistic Fiction. Today we practiced putting transitional words into our stories.  We will be selecting a story to illustrate at the end of the week.

Next week we will begin a non-fiction writing unit. This unit will help prepare the students to write their insect reports at home very soon. The blank report with instructions and your child's chosen insect will come home this week. You will need be help your child find a resource and write their insect report to share in class.

In reading this week we have read the book No Queen Today. We discussed the vocabulary words horrendous and screeched. We looked for blends in the story and practiced reading the repeating phrase.  Popcorn words this week are: all, call, ball, tall, caller, taller.

The field trip to Maybury Farm on May 15th will be here before we know it! Please be sure to send in your child's permission slip and money if you have not yet sent it in to school. 

Thank you, 

Mrs. Scheck

Week of April 20-25

Dear parents,

This week in First Grade we are preparing habitats for our first insects, the mealworms, to arrive this week. Students have learned that all living things need 4 things to survive: air, water, food and space. We will be caring for the insects in the room and observing how they change. We will record our observations.  No insects will be coming home, but encourage your child to be an active observer! 

In reading this week, we are learning how to change our voices to sound like the character when there are question marks and exclamation points and action words. We read the big book A Rumble and a Grumble to practice.  We are also reading lots of realistic fiction books to get ideas for our own writing. We read Henry and Mudge to see how an author issues real problems to write about a character. Our popcorn words this week are: pack, snack, shack, crack, trash, and splash.

In writing we have begun writing our realistic fiction stories. We practiced for a few days just writing the first age of a story. We dreamed up a character and a problem for our character. Now we will learn different ways authors begin a story with action, dialogue or setting the scene. 

In math, we have worked this week on adding amounts of money together in a pretend shopping spree. We will work on dividing a shape into equal parts and begin to learn the fractions 1/2 and 1/4. Look for another home link tomorrow. 

All field trip money and permission slips are due on April 28th.

The book fair is open! Our day to shop is Friday, please send money in to school marked with your child's name.

Thank you, 

Mrs. Scheck