Final Countdown...

...until vacation!  We are really looking forward to the many activities we have planned for next week.  We shared some of them this morning during Morning Meeting.

Our skill in SWR this week is "Magic E".  We learned that Magic E has the superpower to jump backwards over one letter and make a vowel say it's name!  Help your first grader notice Magic E whenever you can and remind them that reading a whole word at once is the best way to do that- we can't sound out Magic E so it's important that we start reading words and not individual letters.  Our red words of the week are from and and.  From is tricky because some of us want to spell is f-o-r-m and others of us want to spell is f-r-u-m.  We will be working hard this week to get those letters straight!  Our WOW word this week is rapid- very quick, or speedy.

In math we learned the attributes of polygons and discussed what makes defining attributes and non-defining attributes of shapes.  For example, every square in the world has 4 sides, 4 corners, and sides that are equal.  These are a square's defining attributes or how we know it's a square.  If it is red, yellow, big or small those are non-defining attributes because not ALL squares are those things.  We spent time creating polygons with straws and twity-ties and made some awesome creations!  Check our your first graders hard at work:

 a triangle

 a rhombus and a rectangle

 a shape in a shape!

 And a demonstration how a rectangle can change into a...

 hexagon!

Our largest polygon of the day!

We have been working on Comparing and Contrasting in reading and compared the Chinese story of Lon Po Po to the traditional story, Little Red Riding Hood.  We used a venn diagram to compare and contrast these stories and then responded to the stories in our reader's notebooks.  Many of us preferred the Chinese version because it had some very clever girls in it. 

In writing we are working to wrap-up our realistic fiction stories.  The first graders have done a great job remembering that good realistic fiction stories have characters, a setting, a problem and a solution.  I know they are anxious to share theirs with you.

We explored the Yellow and Yangtze rivers by boat today in China! We learned about some of the economic and environmental issues the Chinese are dealing with with their rivers.  It was so fun!

The trimester ended on Friday.  Please look for your child's report card in their folder on Friday.