March Reader's Workshop

Character Journey 

Purpose:

In this unit, students learn to follow their main character’s journey across a book by following their character from place to place. This helps them keep track of the key events in the story.  Students will learn in this unit that, when their character goes to a new place, something important is going to happen.  Students will be using a timeline to keep track of scenes and the important events that happen there.  Our ultimate goal is for students to internalize the reading strategies in this unit, so that they no longer need to write every part down. 

Goals: 

∙      Students will be able to stop when their character goes to a new place (or same place but time has passed) and name the place.

∙      Students will be able to name the important thing that happens each place.

∙      Students will be able to represent their character’s journey on a timeline.

February/March Word Study

In the month of February, we will be working on making longer words by adding suffixes

 (s, es) to the basewords.  Students have to remember that by adding those suffixes, words become plural; meaning more than one.

There are two kinds of suffixes: vowel suffixes(they begin with a vowel like -es) and consonant suffixes (they begin with a consonant like -s).   The suffix -es is used when the base word ends with a ch, sh, s, x or z.  The suffix -s is used with all other base words.

Another way to think about this rule is to ask yourself:

When I say the plural form of the word out loud did  I add a syllable?  If so, then remember to use -es as your suffix.

For example, bench becomes benches, dress becomes dresses, etc.

The way we mark the suffix -es is the same way as we mark suffix -s. We underline the baseword and circle the suffix -es.

Remember - WE DO NOT TAP SUFFIXES!!!  tap out your base word and then say your suffix at the end.

    In the month of March, we will learn about how to add suffix -ed and suffix- ing to action words.

    We add suffix -ed to show that something already happened. For example: kick - kicked. We circle the suffix -ed and underline the base word.

    We add suffix -ing to the baseword when we want to show that something is happening .  For example : kick- kicking.  We circle the suffix -ing and underline the base word as well. 

     **IMPORTANT**

     When we tap out our words to read or spell, we never tap out the suffix.  Simply tap out the base word and then add the suffix as a whole.

Trick words: never, another, day, words, look, through

Words of the day: wishing, rented, blended, slashing

Writer's Workshop

                                                         

All About Books on Topics of 

Personal Expertise

Purpose of this unit:

Students will write informational books to teach the reader about a topic they know and love. When you read a good nonfiction book, you can just hear how the author is so fascinated with the topic. They are so excited about it, it's almost contagious. This kind of excitement gets readers interested too! Our big goal in this unit is to write our informational books so well that our readers are as fascinated by our topic as we are.

Goals:

Students will be able to:

•    Generate appropriate ideas for an all-about book (the student knows enough about the topic and they can write about it in different ways)

•    Write details that support the main idea of a page (structure).

•    Make use of nonfiction features  (structure).

•    Elaborate using multiple strategies, such as: giving more details by explaining where, when, why, or how, or providing an example with a personal story; giving warnings, giving definitions of tricky vocabulary, or adding supplemental pages with papers of their choice (elaboration).

•    Add a personal touch to books by starting some sections with a lead, such as a question to the reader, or by giving an example using a story from their own life (voice).

•    Re-read work to make sure its readable- check for capitalization, end punctuation, word wall words, and spelling rules (mechanics).

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.

Class 1-210

Here are some pictures from our trip to the 

Staten Island Children's Museum on December 3rd !

December Word Study

In the month of December we will continue to learn what a digraph blend is and we will be learning about  closed syllables. (Words have parts that go together are called syllables. A syllable is a part of the word that can be pushed out in one breath.)

For example:  Bat- is a one syllable word

                       Batman- is a two syllable word

A closed syllable has only one vowel but is enclosed with a consonant behind the vowel, making the short vowel sound. A closed syllable doesn't have to have a consonant in front of the vowel but it has to have one or more consonants behind the vowel. 

For example: Bat ,at , and bath are closed syllables. 

The way we mark the closed syllable is by scooping out one syllable and underlining it with a crescent and writing "c" under the mark. "C" stands for the closed syllable. Then put a breve above the vowel that makes the short vowel sound.

 For example: last

Trick words: our, over, come,would, after, also

Words of the day: melt, brush, act, punch, ill, stiff

  

December Reading Workshop

December Reading Workshop

For the month of December, students will be working on Monitoring for Meaning as they read their fiction books. 

Purpose:

The purpose of this unit is to encourage students to stay involved in their reading.  This unit also allows the teacher to revisit strategies taught earlier in the year and to teach students how these strategies need to change as they move into reading higher level books.   

Unit Goals:

∙      Students will read actively - staying involved with their books by monitoring for meaning, connecting, predicting, and having reactions to the text.     

∙      Students will be partner reading, helping each other work toward specific goals such as reading smoothly, reading dialogue like the character, reading paying attention to punctuation, or practicing retelling.

∙      Students will be able to use strategies that are appropriate for the leveled text that they are reading.