First grade had a special visit from a local Chicago author, Natasha Tarpley. Ms. Tarpley was kind enough to come share her books and teach us more about the writing process.

Her children books include, I Love My Hair, Bippity Bop Barbershop, Destinys Gift, Joe Joe's First Flight and her newest book, Princess Tiana and the Royal Ball.

We've read, I love My Hair and Bippity Bop Barbershop. Ask your child to tell you about the stories and how Ms. Tarpley develops writing ideas. 

Where do you get your writing ideas from???

How-To Books

We recently started making How-To books. Use this chart at home to create more How-To books. Help your child brainstorm ideas and give clear directions. Bring to school any How-To books you make and we will share them with the class.

Here are some of the How-To books being created in room 103

After we write our How-To book, we  recheck our directions with a partner to make sure they are clear, detailed and make sense.

 Once we've practiced our How-To directions we make any revisions using sticky notes.

Genre Study

This quarter we will be exploring a variety of genres. Students identified the characters, setting and sequenced the events in the fairy tale, "The Princess and the Pea." Ask your child to retell the story using sequence words such as first, next, then and lastly.

The students have also been identifying character traits using text evidence to help build comprehension. Ask your child a character trait that describes the following characters and make sure they tell you "why" using an example from the text.

Red Ribbon Week

Our school celebrated Red Ribbon Week this week. Red Ribbon Week is a drug-prevention program. As a school community, we celebrated being drug free through spirit week and a poster contest. Cross your fingers that we win!!!

Natural Resources

Yesterday the students learned about natural resources. Below are pictures of a model the students made to observe how groundwater flows into a well. Ask your child how the water moved in their model.

During math play, students made a water well out of blocks.

Earth and Sky

We are starting a unit on the earth and sky. Students created a graphic organizer with a partner to list statements they know about the earth and sky and questions about the earth and sky. Discuss with your child their statements and questions.

Pumpkin Exploration

On Halloween we used adjectives to describe the inside and outside of a pumpkin. Then, the students created a pumpkin diagram and labeled the parts. Ask your child to use your five senses to describe the pumpkin and tell about their experience.

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