Monday, November 4, 2019

November Newsletter

CALENDAR EVENTS
11/1 All Saints Day Mass - Dress Uniform 
11/7 & 11/8 Parent Conferences, ASP Open
*11/15 Parents: Come in to View Bridges, 7:55-8:10 AM
11/18 St. Philippine Mass - Regular Uniform
11/18-22 Book Fair, Reception Room, Flood Mansion
11/20 Lower Form Assembly - Dress Uniform
11/21 2:00 PM, Harvest Celebrations, meet in Little Theatre
11/22 Free Dress for Golden Shoe Win in October!
11/25-29 Thanksgiving Break

SAVE the DATE: Harvest Celebrations
Please join us for a short variety performance on November 21stincluding music and poetry. Immediately following the program, there will be a reception in the foyer area outside the Little Theatre. Light refreshments will be served!



LANGUAGE ARTS
Girls participate in whole class and small group lessons, using posters, big books, and guided reading level books to build fluency skills with vocabulary, oral expression, and pace. The big book selection is The Little Red Hen. Girls will be performing the Reader's Theatre plays, Baa, Baa Black Sheep.  This month's comprehension strategies, include:
•Learn/review elements of fiction.
•Summarize, synthesize, and analyze story elements: character(s), setting, problem, and solution.
• Retelling events.
Word Study lessons cover additional welded sounds with __ng and __nk and  suffix endings:__ing, __ed.  Girls will have opportunities to practice word skills in class and at home by building words with letter card sets.


WRITING WORKSHOP  
Our new Writing Workshop Unit of Study, Nonfiction Chapter Books, introduces the girls to writing information. Mini lessons will cover new concepts, as well as incorporating techniques learned in the previous narrative unit.
Girls are practicing their craft of writing by: 
• Introducing the topic of their choice
• Including lots of information
• Organizing their writing

NOTE: At parent conferences, first grader's Small Moments writing workshop folders will be sent home. Please enjoy reading the delightful collection of your daughter's narrative stories. 

SCIENCE & ENGINEERING 
Girls are diving into engineering with "To Get to the Other Side: Designing Bridges". During upcoming lessons, girls will be examining the properties of various materials and testing the materials to see whether or not they will hold the weight of a car going across a short distance. How do the materials hold up during testing? 
First graders will have hands-on experiences building models of 3 types of bridges, beam, deep-beam, and arch to test strength and stability. Girls will be applying these principles to their own original bridge design.

Please come in on Friday, 11/15 at
morning drop off to view the bridges.

SOCIAL STUDIES & SEL
This month first graders continue to explore the theme of heritage with taking a closer look at who they are and being part of many communities, including family, school, and beyond. In art class with Ms. DeYoung, girls are making a self-portrait for a classroom gallery. 
Literature selections include:
๐Ÿ“•Be Who You Are, Todd Parr
๐Ÿ“•It's Okay to Be Different, Todd Parr
๐Ÿ“•Why Am I Me?, Britt, Qualls & Alko
๐Ÿ“•Happy in Our Skin, Fran Manushkin
๐Ÿ“•I'm Like You, You're Like Me, Cindy Gainer
๐Ÿ“•Listening with My Heart, Gabi Garcia
Social Emotional Learning activities and discussions teach our students how to express, understand, and connect with self and others. This month we'll explore how our actions impact others with lessons that focus on THINK. 


MATH 
In Chapter 4: Subtraction Facts to 10, first graders are learning strategies for subtraction: count back, check with addition, and using tools (number bonds, ten frames with counters, number lines, etc.) for guided practice. In math journal assignments, girls show their mathematical thinking and problem-solving strategies by showing their work with number bonds and writing subtraction sentences (__ - __= __).

Subtraction in Action
One Less on the Ten Frame



Bears in Swimming Pools: One Less




Subtraction Spinners: -1, -2, -3


A LOOK AHEAD
First graders will be learning about plane shapessolid shapes, and patterns. Working with plastic shapes and 3-dimensional foam shapes, girls will explore attributes (color, size, thickness), classify and compare shapes, and identify solid shapes (cube, rectangular prism, cylinder, cone, sphere, pyramid). Girls will be making shape models in Spark Studio with Ms. Inchausti.



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