Week 28: March 11 - March 15

Welcome to another week in first grade. We had an exciting day opening the new playground.

I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend and had some to relax and have fun with your family. This week we are looking forward to sharing students' progress at conferences and discussing goals for trimester three. We will also be starting a new math unit this week on Geometry which will be lots of exploring and having fun.

From the Curriculum Corner

Readers Workshop

Dramatizing Characters

Essential Questions:

- How do you bring characters to life?

- What is the role of the director?

This week week we continue to learn about character inference. We will be discussing how quotation marks indicate the difference between the character and the narrator and we can change our voice to match. We will think about how character's feelings change in the story. Students will also be using their envisioning skills as they think about the important parts in the story, step into the character's shoes and imagine everything around.

Writers Workshop

From Scenes to Series: Writing Fiction

Essential Question:

- How can I use what I have learnt from other authors to help me?

- When I want to tell my story to other people, what steps can I take to revise my first draft to make it better?

This week students will continue to learn how to write a series book. We will be learning how to introduce the character in book one of our series and develop dialogue between the characters.
This week our writers will also be revising their books and celebrating their first series.

Math

Identifying, Composing and Partitioning Shapes

Essential Questions:

• What are the characteristics (attributes) of a shape?
• How can circles, squares and rectangles be divided into equal parts?
• How are numbers used to show a fraction?
• How are portioned shapes used to show fractions?

This week our first grade mathematicians will be sorting, analyzing and comparing shapes, and identifying the attributes of two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. The students will be building on their knowledge of shape from KG and adding to their repertoire the names; trapezoid, rhombus, cone and rectangular prism.

Parent Tips Topic A

Science

Essential Question: Why and how do scientists change matter?

In this unit students will understand that solids and liquids have properties that can be changed. This week we will continue learning about the concept of matter and learning about the different types of matter. Students will see that matter can either be a solid, liquid or gas. For this unit, we will focus on just solids and liquids. Students will be introduced to lots of different scientific vocabulary and gain an understanding about what a scientist is and does.

CIRCLE SOLUTIONS:

1C This week we will be discussing cooperation and fairness. We will be thinking about strategies we can use in and outside the classroom to be a good friend.

1M  This week and the following week, we will focus on positive communication skills to promote effective interactions. The goal is to foster motivation and opportunities to interact, self-confidence, interest in others and clarity of meaning, expression and articulation.

1S  This week we will identify feelings that arise in different situations, both in school and at home. Students will learn how to express these feelings in appropriate ways that are beneficial to their emotional growth.

ES Talent show

 The ES Talent show will be on May 3. If your child would like to audition they will take place on March 18, 19 & 20. 

For further in formation please click here

Shelter Drill

We will be having a drill on March 12 to practice shelter procedures. Teachers will discuss this as “shelter practice” with students in age-appropriate ways, but you may also want to also talk to your child about the subject. Last year, we shared this article with helpful suggestions for talking to children about safety procedures and practices. One of the things addressed is the impact of the terminology we use. Staff members will be going over this in advance, as we work together to ensure that students feel safe, protected, and aware of what to do in different situations.

Talking to your kids about a lock down

- The drill will be held at 12:00 pm, so if you are on campus, we ask that you follow instructions when asked to go to a safe place.
- Everyone who is outside will be moved to the ES Hall.

Movie Night

Thursday, March 15, 3:10 pm - 4:15 pm

Brought to you by the student leadership Team!
Pixar Short Films V2 From 3:10 - 4:15
Location: ES Hall open for PreK - 5 ( PreK & KG must be accompanied by a parent).
Tickets will be on sale by the student leaders on the week of Sunday, March 11. Students need to return the parent permission slip and 20LE to purchase a ticket. There will be no ticket sales at the door.
Ticket Price: 20 LE
 Parent Permission Form

Important Dates to Remember:

March 12: Shelter Drill 12pm
March 13: House Event: Walk-a-thon (Information here)
March 14: Parent Conferences (No school for students)
March 15: Movie Night
March 18: ASA session 3 begins
March 20: 1S Assembly in  ES hall
March 20: First Grade Field Trip

If you have any other questions or concerns about this week, please don't hesitate to contact your classroom teacher.

Your Partners in Learning,

Taryn Carr (tcarr@cacegypt.org)
Gaby Morales (gmorales@cacegypt.org)

Charlie Saunders (csaunders@cacegypt.org)