It was great to have the opportunity to connect with families this week to share the learning your child is doing in first grade.  All your children were very proud of the work they have been doing in school and have been eagerly anticipating sharing it with you.
This week we started writing "How To" books during Writer's Workshop.  We have been reading published books from the library and discussing how they are written to get ideas for creating our own books.  We have been thinking about the things we know how to do well and choosing them for topics to write our "How To" books about.  In Reader's Workshop we have been focusing on characters and comprehension strategies we can use to get to know characters and their stories better.  We finished our Fundations unit about bonus letters and will begin a new unit next week that will focus on "glued" sounds.  We will be learning about words with "am" and "an".
We have been working hard creating Crab and Sea Star problems this week during our Math time.  We will spend the first two days back after the holiday solving each other's problems, then will move on to a new unit focused on computation and place value.  A big thank you to Tim Guiterman for helping us create our Crab and Sea Star problems this week.
We finished our science unit about chemical engineering, and solids and liquids this week.  We spent the week improving a play dough recipe.  We did three trials; the first was too wet and sticky, the second too dry and the third was almost "just right".  We have been using texture and usage to judge our play dough.  I am sending home the basic recipe as an option for this week's homework for those students who would like to continue to work to improve our recipe.
Vicky Wideman joined us for another lesson this week.  She taught us about making an apology of action.  Please check this week's Friday Folder for a pink paper giving more details about this.
I hope everyone has a happy, healthy Thanksgiving break!

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