Working Hard

Ahh, it is so nice to finally be settling into what feels like a normal routine.  Another five day week with no interruptions (except for a brief fire drill on Tuesday and pictures on Thursday) makes me feel like we're actually making some progress!

Our story this week was Henry and Mudge.  It's a realistic fiction story, so we spent some time talking about the difference between regular fiction and realistic fiction.  We were able to relate our discussion back to Frog and Toad All Year from last week and discuss the differences between the two stories that helped determine whether each story was simply fiction or realistic fiction.  Our focus skill for the week was main idea and details.  As I stated in last week's post, this tends to be difficult for the kids.  I don't think this concept is covered at all in first grade, so the fact that it's brand new on top of being such an abstract idea makes it challenging.  No worries though, we'll be talking about it again next week and the week after and throughout the entire year!

High-frequency words this week were children, different, ears, finally, hundred, and short.  Vocabulary words were deny, consider, opinionated, and bulk.  I'm really starting to see the kids pick up on these words.  I'm so impressed with their ability to use multiple high-frequency and vocabulary words in sentences.  Our goal with the vocabulary is to use them as much as we can in our daily conversations, and the kids are making such a fantastic effort with this.

Grammar this week focused on commands and exclamations.  These were fun because we got to be bossy and show strong emotions all at the same time.  We continued our letter writing unit as well.

Next week will be our first nonfiction selection.  We will read a story called Dogs.  I'm really excited about this one because it's a story that really grabs the kids' attention and interest, so they're usually pretty excited to read it.  I've even seen a few of them previewing it when they have a few free minutes during class!  High-frequency words for next week will be bicycle, sugar, special, exercise, and sometimes.  Vocabulary words will be depend, responsibility, frisky, and affinity.  Spelling words for next week have the ee or ea spelling pattern (long e sound).  Next week's words are:
see, please, need, deal, sleep, mean, green, clean, keep, eat, teapot, beehive, seaweed, peanut, mealtime, very, after, things, our, just

Our specials schedule for next week is:
Monday - music (not sure if we'll make it back from the field trip in time for this, if not we just miss it - it will not affect our schedule either way)
Tuesday - gym
Wednesday - library
Thursday - music
Friday - computer

Don't forget to check those graded paper binders for any work that needs to be corrected.  Please send corrected work back to school in the TRAVELING FOLDER, not the binder, as I do not check the binders once they are returned.  Anything with a "Please correct" stamp is fair game for corrections - not spelling tests or story comprehension tests.  REMEMBER TO SEND THE BINDER BACK TO SCHOOL ON MONDAY!

Also, don't forget that Monday is our field trip to MacQueen's Apple Orchard.  A big thanks in advance for all of the parents signed up to chaperone - your help is greatly appreciated!  We will go rain or shine, so make sure to send your second grader dressed appropriately for the weather.  They will need a sack lunch (please don't send lunchboxes) unless you pre-ordered one from the cafeteria.  I will have my camera with me on Monday, so check back next week for pictures from the trip!

Have a wonderful weekend!

* Please note that the Lake Local Schools website has changed.  It is now www.lakeschools.org.