January/ February Writer's Workshop

 HOW-TO'S

The purpose of this writing unit is for students to think closely about their audience and how they can write directions in a clear way to teach the reader. This unit also provides an opportunity for students to build their vocabulary using specific action words. Finally, this is a unit where we can introduce the idea of an author's voice coming through to the reader by writing a LEAD and by including warnings. 

Unit Goals:

•   Students will create a procedural piece of writing.

•   Students will transfer what they have learned in their Small Moment and Realistic Fiction units to their How-To writing-- spaces, trick words, end punctuation, and CAPS.

•   Students will use a variety of strategies to elaborate in their writing, such as warnings, tips, and breaking down steps into tiny actions.

•   Student's writing will become more readable through use of word wall words, word study concepts and sentence structure. 

January/February Math Workshop

Module 3: 

Ordering and Comparing Length Measurements 

as Numbers

Module 3 begins by extending students’ kindergarten experiences with direct length comparison to indirect comparison whereby the length of one object is used to compare the lengths of two other objects.  Longer than and shorter than are taken to a new level of precision by introducing the idea of a length unit.  Students then explore the usefulness of measuring with similar units. The module closes with students representing and interpreting data.

New or Recently Introduced Terms

  Centimeter (standard length unit within the metric system) 

  Centimeter cube (pictured to the right, also used as a length unit in this module) 

  Centimeter ruler (measurement tool using length units of centimeters) 

  Data (collected information) 

  Endpoint (the end of an object, referenced when aligning for measurement purposes) 

  Height (measurement of vertical distance of an object) 

  Length unit (measuring the length of an object with equal-sized units) 

  Poll(survey) 

  Table or graph (organized charts visually representing data) 

Students will be making indirect comparisons  (Building off their knowledge of direct comparisons) -When two items are measured to see which one is less than or more than the other. Indirect comparisons involve 3 or more items.

ex: My crayon is shorter than the string. The string is shorter than the book. So my crayon is shorter than the book too! 

Length Units

Students will start off using centimeter cubes as a length unit. We remind the students to measure at the endpoint, no gaps between, and no overlaps. We will make the connection from centimeter cubes to centimeters on a ruler which are standard units.

Students will be Comparing Lengths of 3 objects

Students will build on knowledge of shorter than and longer than from Kindergarten by comparing three items using centimeter cubes.

The pencil measures 10 centimeters. 

The crayon measures 6 centimeters. 

The book measures 20 centimeters. 

SO:

The book is longer than the pencil, and the pencil is longer than the crayon, so the book is longer than the crayon.

Students will be measuring With Non-Standard Units

Students must know to use the same-sized length units to get consistent measurement results. 

A pencil measured with 2 different non-standarized units will give you inaccurate

results. 

Students will be Comparing 2 objects with Difference Unknown

How much longer is the pencil than the marker?

     Marker= 7 cm         Pencil= 9 cm

          9 - 7 = 2 cm   

  The pencil is 2 cm longer than the marker. 

Students will Represent and Interpret Data

They will collect and organize data in up to three categories and show on a  chart. 

Students will learn to organize the data into 5-groups, which we will show them can go from pictures to tally marks.

Students will be asked to answer questions about the data, such as:

 How many students chose football as the sport they like best? 

 How many students chose basketball as the sport they like best? 

 How many students chose soccer as the sport they like best? 

 What is the total number of students who like soccer or basketball the    best? 

 Which sport received the most votes? 

Students will "Put together" with result unknown

“How many students were polled in all?”

___ + ___ + ___ = ____ 

Students will Compare with difference unknown

“How many more students preferred broccoli to string beans?” 

                                           or

"How many fewer students preferred string beans to broccoli?"

____ - ____ = ____

Module 3 Assessment will be given the around the 2nd week of February. We will then be starting Module 4- Place Value, Comparison, Addition and Subtraction to 40. 

January Word Study

In the month of January first graders will be working on blending words with five sounds. The words that have five sounds are the words that have a blend before the vowel and another one after the vowel. For example the word LUMP has four sounds but if you add a "C" before the word LUMP you will get the word CLUMP which has five sounds. Some other words with five sounds are: shrimp, skunk,trust…

The way we tap the five sound words is to reuse the index finger to finish the word.

We are also going to learn how to add the suffix "s" to the five sound words. For example, if we have the word plant, we add a suffix "s" to show that we have more than one plant. The word PLANT becomes PLANTS; the word TRUNK becomes TRUNKS…  

When tapping a word with the suffix "s" - we identify the base word, we tap the base word and then add the sound for the suffix "s"

WE NEVER TAP A SUFFIX!

Trick words: many, before, called, how, down, your,should, because, each

Words of the day: stump, blink, stand, crunch, drinks, plants

January Read Aloud

    

Quirky Character Unit

In January's read aloud we will discuss what we think "quirky" (unique, odd, unusual, and peculiar) means.  We will read books based on characters who are quirky- like Amber Brown and Junie B. Jones.  We will list ideas and predictions about these characters.  This unit will help students get to know these quirky characters by focusing on their problems, relationships, and  their personalities.

Once we list our ideas about the characters we will work to gather the evidence to support those ideas.  If we cannot find evidence to support our thinking we will work with students to revise our ideas and pursue a new line of thinking.

There will be lots of turning and talking with partners in this unit.  This will help our student's to take turns and to truly listen to their classmates.