Ms. Soulas' Classroom 2019-2020

Here are some highlights from the week... We wrapped up our non-fiction reading & writing units this week. As a culmination check-in, the first graders had an hour to plan, write and revise an informational piece of writing - and wow, was I amazed! They were so focused, some of their pencils never even left the page! Their passion, knowledge and research on their topics has been incredible to see! They are becoming such strong writers, readers and teachers! In math this week, we began to use our understanding of place value to compare and change numbers. The first graders built and wrote numbers and saw how they changed when you add 10 and take away 10. Our goal in first grade is to mentally be able to add and take away 10 from any number. We have been working on adding two digit numbers. We use "quick ten" drawings to make this concept concrete and visual. If you are practicing adding 2 digit numbers at home, I encourage you to ask your first grader to "prove it!...

Here are some highlights from the week... Our research and writing has been going strong! The first graders are developing their note taking skills and creating incredible non-fiction books. W e have been focusing on the importance of an introduction and conclusion in our non-fiction books. We discussed different ways that we can introduce our topic, and chapters, to hook our reader and draw them in. This will be a strategy we continue to build on as we develop our writing! I encourage you to ask your first grader about the topic they are studying and you can even participate in some shared research :) In math, we are continuing to build our number sense and beginning our new unit on place value. The mathematicians are building on their understanding of the way numbers can be broken into parts. Here is an activity you can do at home to help support your kiddo's number sense: Guess My Number  (use a hundreds chart or a number line) –To play, ask one player to choose a number...

It was a short, but busy week... Wow! The first grade readers and writers have amazed me this week as we begin to merge the two subjects. We have been reading and writing non-fiction, and this week we worked on developing our research skills. We have been using multiple sources (books, online books) to gather information about a topic. The first graders worked with a partner to research and take notes on a topic. Then, from their notes, they wrote an introduction with key details! This week we had health lessons about feelings and friendship.We talked about hard feelings vs. easy feelings and discussed coping strategies when we have hard feelings. We can't stop hard feelings from happening, but we can control how we handle them. Through this unit we are working to develop coping skills and strong communication. These discussions about feelings lend themselves to discussions about friendship. I like it when my friend... It bothers me when my friend... I let my friend know how I ...