Cooperation, Assertion, Responsibility, Empathy, & Self Control
October 28, 2023
October 27, 2023
Happy Saturday Evening everyone! I hope you all have had a great week. We started our first social studies unit this week. I try and alternate science and social studies units during the school year. This way the students get both curriculum. We kicked off our Financial Literacy unit with a group of Harwood seniors coming in to teach a lesson on financial literacy. These students are in a Financial Literacy course with Tara Kelly and they used the book A Chair for My Mama as the anchor for the lesson. Thursday afternoon, I taught our first lesson that focused on needs, choices, goods, services and wants. The lesson focused on building an understanding of these vocabulary words. I used the book, Spend It by Cinders McLeod. In this book, "Sonny (a bunny) gets three whole carrots a week for his allowance and wants to buy everything! But he quickly discovers his money won't go that far, and he has to make some choices. That doesn't sound like much fun to Sonny, especially when he learns that the bouncy castle he's been eyeing goes for ONE HUNDRED carrots. Ridiculous! But eventually, after a little math and a little more thinking, he has a blast discovering what's really important to him and worth spending his carrots on." We will finish up our work with this book next Thursday. You may have heard your child talking about getting paid for their job, on Friday afternoon. As part of this unit, I want the students to earn money and figure out if they want to save to buy a few little items or save all of their money to buy a larger item. Their job; It's to bring back their homework bag and book each day. If they do, they are paid a dollar for completing their job. If they forget, they don't get paid that day. We talked about this and how jobs work so the kids should be good with the directions. Please let me know if this is causing any kind of worry for your child. I picked a simple task in hopes that the kids would all feel they could handle it. They all seem excited about the project. If you would like to listen to the book Spend It! please check it out below.
Everyday I do a read-a-loud between our last special of the day and the start of our Reading Group and Word Work time. Our school has a goal of reading a variety of Social Emotional Learning books. We have already read 35 books in this genre. This week I took a break from that and started reading other books from our classroom library. I focused on collections (Dr. Seuss, Clifford Books, and If I had series books) of books by authors. The goal is for students to truly explore our classroom library and to choose a variety of different books, as reading homework each night.
National Pumpkin Day
Wednesday afternoon was used for a literature project. Libby (Zip's mom) read the book Perfect Square to the class. This is a story where a "Perfect Square is about a square that gets cut up, torn up, shredded and shattered. Each time something is done to the square, it figures out a way to turn the situation in a useful, positive outcome." The students then chose a perfect square of colored and designed paper and had their friends tear them up. Each student then had to use the torn square pieces to create a new picture. These pictures are hung up in the hallway by the exit door (near our room). If I was a good teacher, I would have remembered to take a picture of them!
First grade math focused on wrapping up a month long focus on story problems and creating equations with the given information in a problem. We also wrapped up Unit 1 and assessed the students on number sequencing, more story problems, and complements of 10. The 2nd graders have been working with pattern blocks and composing and decomposing shapes and designs.
This week's writing focus zoomed in on endings and staying focused in on the small moment when ending their stories. We worked on the ending being the exact next thing that happened in their story. For example, if a story was about swimming in the ocean. The ending wouldn't be, "we got out of the water and drove home." Rather the student would end it with what they did as soon as they got out of the water (most likely dried off or laid on the beach).
NOTES:
*Your child does have their homework bag and a book this weekend. Please make sure it is sent in on Monday. THEY NEED TO EARN THEIR DOLLAR!
*Reminder that no Halloween costumes should be sent on Tuesday. We will do some Halloween activities but they will be academic based.
*Please make sure your child has boots for wet, muddy, and snowy days. They should also have a pair of sneakers/shoes. We sit on the floor a lot and it's not fun when someone only has boots and gets the rug all wet.
That is all for now. I hope you have a great Sunday. If you can find a moment or two to root for the Steelers, I would greatly appreciate it. I understand if the Pecks choose not to!
Happy Saturday Evening everyone! I hope you all have had a great week. We started our first social studies unit this week. I try and alternate science and social studies units during the school year. This way the students get both curriculum. We kicked off our Financial Literacy unit with a group of Harwood seniors coming in to teach a lesson on financial literacy. These students are in a Financial Literacy course with Tara Kelly and they used the book A Chair for My Mama as the anchor for the lesson. Thursday afternoon, I taught our first lesson that focused on needs, choices, goods, services and wants. The lesson focused on building an understanding of these vocabulary words. I used the book, Spend It by Cinders McLeod. In this book, "Sonny (a bunny) gets three whole carrots a week for his allowance and wants to buy everything! But he quickly discovers his money won't go that far, and he has to make some choices. That doesn't sound like much fun to Sonny, especially when he learns that the bouncy castle he's been eyeing goes for ONE HUNDRED carrots. Ridiculous! But eventually, after a little math and a little more thinking, he has a blast discovering what's really important to him and worth spending his carrots on." We will finish up our work with this book next Thursday. You may have heard your child talking about getting paid for their job, on Friday afternoon. As part of this unit, I want the students to earn money and figure out if they want to save to buy a few little items or save all of their money to buy a larger item. Their job; It's to bring back their homework bag and book each day. If they do, they are paid a dollar for completing their job. If they forget, they don't get paid that day. We talked about this and how jobs work so the kids should be good with the directions. Please let me know if this is causing any kind of worry for your child. I picked a simple task in hopes that the kids would all feel they could handle it. They all seem excited about the project. If you would like to listen to the book Spend It! please check it out below.
