First Grade Math September: Individual and whole class testing for placement October: Introduction to Math Folder Games. Students learn strategies in order to find the correct answers. Eliminating wrong answers is the focus of most of these games. Other concepts include strengthening number sense through the use of a hundreds chart, ordinal numbers and placement. Students will practice these games and then teach them to their classmates as the Math Folder Games are introduced into each 1st Grade classroom. November: Begin Exemplar activities, focus on problem solving skills. December: Continue Exemplar packets. Focus on showing your thinking through drawings and diagrams.
Language Arts September: Houndsley and Catina and the Birthday Surprise - practice book group rules and expectations October: Pinky and Rex Go To Camp - reading with expression - notice "talking words" and quotation marks, practice changing voice to match the characters November: Pinky and Rex and The School Play - focus on visual imagery - authors use visual images to create a feeling for their readers December: Cam Jansen - introduction to mystery genre - readers gather clues and record them in order to solve the mystery The Outside Dog - This story takes place in Puerto Rico. We experience the culture and language in this sweet story. The use of Spanish words helps us to use context clues in order to figure out the meaning of unknown words.
January: - students will practice discussion techniques for sharing in a small group. A ball of yarn will be
tossed from person to person as kids listen and take turns sharing, based on the last person's
input.
- students will begin reading The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling
February: - students will continue reading The Chocolate Touch