Grade 1
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| Teachers: |
Stacey Doniger
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Beth Tassinari
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| Room Parent(s): |
Jennifer Bookman
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Ariela HaLevi
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| Recess: |
11:20 – 11:45am
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| Lunch: |
11:50am – 12:10pm
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| Specials: |
Art:
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| Monday – 2:05-2:45pm |
| Music: |
| Tuesday – 2:15-2:50pm |
Physical Education:
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Wednesday – 10:35 - 11:15am
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| Thursday – 10:35 - 11:15am |
Back to "In the Classroom"
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Classroom News
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WELCOME TO 2012
Welcome to 2012! It is a new year, and the first graders continue to shine and succeed in our curriculum. They have blossomed into true learners and love to come to school each day! Not only are the students thriving in their academic subjects, but they also have incorporated school and classroom routines into their daily lives. Upon our return to school, we discussed how we can continue to demonstrate kind and caring behavior. We have formed a first grade community and continue to develop meaningful social and academic relationships. First graders are excited to bring home weekly assignments that will further develop their in-class learning. Students revisited their Hopes and Dreams and recognize how much they have already learned in first grade, and that they have more knowledge to gain every single day!
LANGUAGE ARTS
First graders are enjoying learning about various types of communities. We have studied families, schools and neighborhoods and learned how those communities work together and what happens inside each. Students learned about several professions during Career Day. We are sure to have some very successful teachers, coaches, inventors, bakers, fashion models, race car drivers, ballerinas, doctors, construction workers and more in our future! We will wrap-up our community learning with the study of animal communities and how animals work together to survive.
Students continue to enjoy literacy centers, where they have academic choice to enhance their skills. Although students are directed as to which centers to visit and what task they “have-to” complete, students are then given the opportunity to make their own decisions and engage in activities of their choice. This method of academic choice encourages responsibility and creativity while fostering a love of learning. Activities currently focus on long vowel sounds, blends (br or tr) and digraphs (ch or sh), as well as inflected ending (ed or ing) and parts of speech. We continue to work on sentence structure and the mechanics of writing daily.
First graders continue to participate in Writer’s Workshop where they are using their creativity to strengthen their writing skills. Students write about any topic of their choice while paying attention to sentence structure, spelling, grammar and formation of letters. We have also begun peer authoring which has been a wonderful exercise in working together. The students enjoy sharing their published work during Author’s Circle.
The first graderrs love getting their Book Bags each week and look forward to discussing what they have read with their peers. As they are discovering new authors and genres, they are beginning to form preferences and request certain books based upon peer recommendations.
MATH
Math is an exciting part of student learning! First graders continue to work on their number sense and become more comfortable with number recognition and formation, addition and flexibility of number. We are currently working on the fundamentals of subtraction and the students enjoy using manipulatives and games to help understand the idea of taking part away from a whole. Children are encouraged to think mathematically and use an assortment of strategies, rather than lock themselves into one way of deriving an answer. Math vocabulary continues to be an important part of our daily lessons. We have added the words missing part, subtract, difference, equal, minus, compare and subtraction sentence into our discussions. Math continues to be an integral part of the Morning Meeting, where the children discuss the calendar and weather, count the days of schools, solidify addition and subtraction skills and establish their money skills by determining “How Much Today Costs.” We are eager to celebrate our 100th Day right after February Vacation!
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SOCIAL STUDIES AND SCIENCE
Integrated throughout the reading and writing programs, the social studies and science curricula are soaring. The students are learning about communities and what is necessary for them to survive. We continue to discuss community structure and have enjoyed meeting a variety of community workers. Our friend, Flat Stanley, is used to guide the geography unit, where children are engaged in lessons focused on mapping skills, states and countries, land and people. The children enjoy getting letters and pictures from their friends and family, who all graciously show Flat Stanley around their communities. Students are also learning about American heroes and holidays. We recently learned about the life, lessons and history of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and will soon learn about Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
In science, students continue to become familiar with scientific method through observation, elaborate discussion and hands-on approaches. They are now focusing on human, nature and insect communities, which will be followed by a unit on changes, which includes an in-depth study of weather and life cycles. Additionally, they continue to discuss nutrition and how it affects the human body. We will learn more about different body organs. Students gain experience in observation, as well as collecting and analyzing data.
HEBREW/JEWISH STUDIES
Hebrew and Holidays
First graders continue to increase their Hebrew vocabulary as we are more than halfway finished with the Hebrew aleph bet. As we complete each letter, we visit the Smart Board Lab to review the information that we learned during the week. In addition to reading and writing in the classroom, weekly reading sheets are sent home to review the lessons that we learn in class. We also will continue to add to our repertoire of Hebrew words, learning the body parts and articles of clothing. We play many classroom games to reinforce the Hebrew curriculum.
We have learned about Tu B’shvat, including vocabulary and songs about trees of Israel. After February vacation, we will begin our Purim unit. We will use various modes of learning in this unit – drama, song, dance and writing.
Torah
We discuss a Torah portion each week. We will continue learning the many stories in B’reisheet, including stories of Jacob and Joseph. Our Parsha stories are read entirely in Hebrew and the first graders are getting adept at being able to figure out how to interpret these Torah stories.
Tefillah
We do Tefillah every time we meet in the morning. We will continue to use our own class made Siddurim, until Chagigat HaSiddur which is held in June. At this celebration, the First graders will each receive their own Suddur which they will use for the rest of their years at CHA. One of the class favorites is Adon Olam sung to the tune of “Rock Around the Clock.”
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