April Update!

Another month has passed! May is here even though it doesn't feel like it outside! It was nice seeing all of you at conferences. I know the children took a lot of pride in sharing their Family Books with you.

Reading and Writing

The children are continuing to work on their reading fluency. We are working on comprehension strategies such as drawing conclusions, problem/solution and cause and effect. We have also been working on grammar and analyzing the meanings of words. The children are able to identify homophones (e.g. the difference between bee and be).  

Math

We just finished up our unit on measurement. The students practiced using nonstandard units (ex: paper clips, unifix cubes, etc. ) to measure and compare objects.

The students are now learning about plane and solid shapes. They are learning about 3 dimensional shapes (ex: sphere, rectangular prism, cone, cube, pyramid) and how many faces, sides and corners different shapes have.  They are also comparing and contrasting the attributes that different shapes have.

I know many of you have been working with your child on IXL and Xtra Math at home. This is a great way for your child to practice math skills and math facts at home. 

Science and Social Studies

We are learning about Living Things. We are discussing the characteristics of living things, what all living things need and the different habitats where living things live. In addition, we will discuss the life cycle and observe mealworms. 

We discussed Earth Day in Social Studies. We learned about different ways to protect the environment and the importance of taking care of where we live.

February Updates and Reminders!

We will celebrate the 100th day of school this Thursday, February 13th. As part of our activities for the 100th day, I am asking that each child bring in a collection of 100 of "something." It can be anything that you and your child agree upon that will fit into a ziplock bag (ex: pennies, paper clips, legos, toothpicks, rubber bands, cheerios, candy hearts, etc.) Please have your child do the counting before you put the items into the bag. Stress counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's. See how many different ways your child can group the items.

Valentine's Day will be celebrated Friday, February 14th. Children should bring a Valentine for every child in the class. We will have a Valentine's Day party Friday afternoon.

I am still missing family traditions and family pictures. Please email me your family tradition and send in a photo as soon as possible if you have not done so already.

The Spring Conference sign up form was sent home last Friday. Please return the form as soon as you can, as conferences are scheduled on a "first come, first serve basis."

Thanks!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope all of you have been having a wonderful winter break. Stay warm tomorrow and I hope to see everyone on Tuesday! Everyone had a great time at our classroom holiday party. Thank you Mrs. Taitler, Mrs. Knapp, and Mrs. Adelman for organizing and helping at the party!

December was a busy month with Children's Book Week. We celebrated Children's Book Week in many special ways. We had a great time visiting the Book Fair. We read with our buddies and had an all school Read-In in the gym. I know many of you also attended Family Reading Night.

Reading
The children are working on mastering the short vowel sounds, using consonant blends, building words from word families, looking for little words inside bigger words, using a variety of word endings and forming contractions. We are also learning about long vowels and short vowels and how words change when a "silent e" is added to the end of the word (ex: hop vs. hope). We are learning about story elements:  main characters, setting, problem and solution. We are continuing to discuss what happens in the beginning, middle, and ending of stories.

Math
The students are doing a fantastic job recognizing the fixers and filling in the missing numbers. They are able to recognize the fixer pattern when solving an addition problem. We learned that addition fact fixers can also be subtraction fact fixers! In addition to learning fact fixers, we are practicing subtraction. The students learned how to "count back" using a number line and practiced their subtraction facts by playing several different math games. One way to practice subtraction at home is to play Subtraction War using a deck of cards. The students really enjoyed this.

Science and Social Studies
In science, we finished up our unit on land and water. Next, we will be learning about weather. We will discuss temperature and learn about the different types of clouds in the sky. In social studies, we are discussing family traditions and celebrations.  Please send in a family picture and email me a family tradition. This will be used in the family books we will be making. We will begin to learn about Martin Luther King Jr. and the Chinese New Year.

Winter Weather
Just a reminder that the children are not permitted to play in the snow at recess without snow pants and boots. Please make sure to send a pair of shoes with your child so they are not wearing boots all day. Also, please send a pair of extra clothes with your child. Many of the kids are coming back from recess snowy and wet from outside!


Happy 2014!  Stay warm!

November News!

An exciting month has ended with the celebration of Halloween! The children enjoyed the parade, assembly, and class party.Thank you to Mrs. Cherpak, Mr. Meyerowitz and Mrs. Shivak for organizing and running the party.  

PARENT VOLUNTEERS
Thank you to all the parents who signed up at Curriculum Night to help in the classroom and in the computer lab. I am putting together the schedule and trying my best to accommodate the majority of parents who signed up.  

READING
The children are working hard on improving their reading skills. I am sure you are seeing wonderful growth in their skills and fluency. Completing the weekly reading logs and reading each night continues to be an important part of developing your child's reading abilities. Along with listening to your child read to YOU, continue reading to HIM/HER each night. Your child needs to hear you model good reading and share good literature. I also encourage you to help your child use RAZ kids on the computer at home. Sign in instructions and passwords were sent home a few weeks ago. This is another great way to help your child increase his/her reading fluency. 

We continue to work on word families and how to use them to decode new words. We have worked on short a words, short e words, short i words, short o words and the digraph /th/. The children practice spelling many words using these vowel sounds and changing the first and/or last consonant sounds.  

MATH
We are continuing to work on addition. Some of the skills we are focusing on are using a number line, "counting on" by starting with the bigger number in the addition problem, creating number sentences and solving and creating story problems. We are also continuing to learn new Fact Fixers.  

SCIENCE AND SOCIAL STUDIES
In October, we read books and wrote about bats. This month we will start to learn about the Earth and what it is made of. In Social Studies, the children learned about Christopher Columbus. This month, we will be discussing Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims, their journey to America and how the Native Americans helped them to survive. We will begin our study of families this month. The students will learn about their family traditions and what makes them the same and different.  

SHOW AND TELL
Don't forget the last Friday of each month is Show and Tell. Mark your calendar!

EXTRA CLOTHES
The weather is getting colder! Make sure your child comes to school dressed appropriately. Also, please send an extra pair of clothes for your child to keep in  his/her locker in case of accidents, spills or weather related incidents!

I look forward to talking with all of you during our upcoming conferences. There will be class-made books outside the classroom for you to look through. I hope you take the time to look through some of the wonderful things that the children have already done this year!

October News

Reading and Writing:
We have started working with our Harcourt Storytown series. Some of the skills we are working on include sequencing, summarizing a story, making predictions, story elements and phonics. The students are doing a great job with their Reading Logs. Thank you for your daily help. The more they read, the more confidence they will have in themselves as readers. Their sight word vocabulary will increase, as well as their fluency.

The students are also doing a wonderful job learning the different components of Daily Five. Ask them about building their "stamina" up to 20 minutes for Read to Self. They are currently practicing strategies to use when they Read to Someone. They have also learned different Word Work activities (playing word games, writing words on Dry-Erase Boards and using magnetic letters to create sight words). The first graders are also learning new ways to "Listen to Reading." They are using RAZ kids and the Listening Center to listen to new stories.

Please remember to help your child complete the weekly Tic Tac Toe Literacy assignments. The students receive this assignment on Monday and are expected to bring it back on Friday. This assignment is a great way to help your child learn high frequency words and phonics skills.

Math:
We are practicing building numbers out of tens and ones. For example, students are expected to know that the number 51 is made of 5 tens and 1 one. We are also learning how to count up to 120.

The students are doing a wonderful job learning their "fixers!" So far, they have learned these 6 fixers:

• 7, 4, 11
• 8, 8, 16
• 9, 5, 14
• 5, 2, 7
• 8, 4, 12
• 3, 3, 6

Please continue to return the math homework to school. If you find the homework is too long and frustrating, please note this on the assignment and return it to school.  

Science and Social Studies:

Our study of bees has given us many wonderful opportunities to discuss life cycles and living/nonliving things. These will be ongoing topics of study in first grade. We had a fantastic time seeing the bees at Heller Nature Center. Thank you very much to Mr. Meyerowitz and Mrs. Taitler for coming on the field trip with us.

We will begin learning about Christopher Columbus in Social Studies. 

Buddies:

Has your first grader told you about his/her 3rd grade buddy? We are buddies with Mrs. Lorenz's 3rd grade class. We will meet together to do projects, read and have educational fun!

Traveling Teddy:

Be prepared for Traveling Teddy to visit your house. Traveling Teddy goes home each Friday and needs to come back on Monday. Traveling Teddy will circulate through the entire class so please be patient.  

Book Order:

I will be sending home a Scholastic Book Order this week. This is an optional activity; however, it is a great way to build a library at your home. If you order online, our class earns materials for the classroom!

Welcome to Mrs. Markoff's First Grade Blog

Welcome to Mrs. Markoff's First Grade Blog!  I will be updating this blog every few weeks in order to keep you informed about what the students are learning in the classroom, as well as provide you with important information.  This blog includes pages describing the first grade expectations, classroom procedures, specials schedule, and helpful ways to foster a positive home and school connection.  I have also included the first grade learning links for students to visit at home on the computer.