Newsletter
Weekly News
Next week is the final full week in Quarter 2. We had a busy week as we tried to learn more interesting facts in our nonfiction books. We also wrote our final Writing Assessment of the 2023 year. Additionally, we spent quite a bit of morning meeting time focusing on Growth Mindset. Here’s what happened in the classroom:
Reading Workshop
Learning Objective: Students can find interesting facts to share and read with different feelings.
Summary: In addition to learning keywords we are also learning new information and facts as we read more and more nonfiction books. Students were challenged to find something interesting each and every day to share with their classmates. We also want to study the facts, owning them, and can even share with our duddy as we read to help us remember. We also learned that not all feelings in a book are happy. Readers should use different emotions depending on what is happening in the book.
Writing Workshop
Learning Objective: Students can write their best opinion piece.
Summary: We spent this week making sure we have a grasp of how to conclude our reviews and opinions. We learned we should challenge the readers to do something at the end. For example, ‘You should go to this restaurant and try this food because it is really delicious.’ We also did a partner check as we prepared for our assessment on Thursday. Students have shown a lot of growth and progress since we first started our Opinion Writing. We will also be working on our final book review in the near future.
Math
Learning Objective: Students can use the commutative property to solve addition sentences.
Summary: We continued to take 1 from an addend to add to 9, giving us 10. We also learned that you could do the same for 8. We learned different methods to solve addition problems such as using our fingers, number bonds, and math drawings.
Social Studies/Science
Learning Objective: Students can describe how the amount of sunlight in a day affects the temperature and seasons.
Summary: We colored in a spreadsheet with the times of the sunrise and sunset for the 15th day of each month. Hopefully students were able to see the pattern and make a connection between the amount of sunlight each month to the temperature as well as season.
Homework
Please see HW Checklist
Upcoming Events
Helpful Resources
Bloomz is where I will update parents on what’s going on in the classroom. It’s a great place to see many photos and videos throughout the year so you can get a look inside our classroom.
Raz-Kids is where students will be reading each night. Students can read a story, listen to a story and answer questions about a story. Ideally students should do all 3 for at least one story a night.
Log in information coming soon.
Sumdog is a fun math game site. Students can practice their math skills while playing games, earning points, and competing against friends.
Log in information coming soon.
GoNoodle’s movement videos and games help to keep us moving inside the classroom. It makes it easy to be active, the kid way – silly, energetic, playful, and fun!
Counting by 1’s
Common core standard: Extend the counting sequence (Count to 120, starting at any number less than 120).
Counting down
We’ve been practicing counting down in preparation for subtraction.
Counting by 2’s
Common core standard: Add and subtract within 20 (e.g., by counting on 2 to add 2).
English Language Learners
These videos are for students that are just beginning to learn English.
Greetings Parents and Caregivers,
I hope you are as excited as I am about the start of school! I expect this to be a great year with lots of adventures, challenges, successes, hard work, fun, lots of learning, and memories!
First, let me introduce myself. My name is Justin Cassel. This will be my fourth year teaching at BFS and my ninth year in the classroom. My passion for teaching is found in young learners as I love their enthusiasm and excitement for education. My family has lived in Busan for 5 years.
Here are a few ideas for a smooth transition and to help prepare your child for the first day of school:
- Get lots of rest
- Speak with your child about hopes and learning goals for this year. What do they hope 1st grade is like? What are a few things they would like to learn this year in the classroom?
- Do a little reading. Do a little writing. Do a little math.
I look forward to working together with you this year to support your child and his or her growth!
Together Everyone Achieves More
T.E.A.M. First,
Mr. Cassel