Happy 2010!! Hopefully the new year brings plenty of opportunity for for new learning experiences and excitement for you and your family! 2009 was a great year for students in Room 108 going back to students from the spring and continuing on with a new group of first graders in the fall. Learning can be designed in a very organized and structured pattern for children but the children and their personalities are always unpredictable. As we look ahead to the second half of the first grade experience, expectations are heightened for student responsibility, behavior, and performance. Remember, success is relative to individual needs and measured by effort.
Unit 5 will be underway in both Everyday Math and Open Court Reading. New math concepts will focus on place value, number problems, as well as "easy" math facts and double digit addition. Other math skills will be frequently reviewed in a variety of methods such as games, worksheets, workbook pages and mental math. The Family HomeLink Letter for Unit 5 (and all future and past units) can be found here. The next unit in Open-Court Reading is titled Weather and will storm through a variety of stories aimed at enhancing knowledge and awareness of weather. Specific reading skills for the unit will include making predictions, cause and effect, summarizing, and making inferences. Some of you might want some additional resources for the unit or a refresher on some of the basic sight words, both can use this site as a starting point.
Most of this week will also include plenty of "refresher" activities like community circle, calendar, and of course our morning routine. The idea is to get back into the swing of things in Room 108 and at Mann School. There will be spelling words for the week and they will be available on the blog Monday after school. I hope you are all ready to get back into the school routine and had a blessed and restful winter break. In parting, I will leave you with a photo slideshow of pictures I took during the Zoolights Festival at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. I'm interested to know if any of you took your family, or any other loved ones, to this light festival or the one at the Brookfield Zoo. Please comment below to share!
(Music is courtesy of Mannheim Steamroller.)
