News for 4/29

Notes from Ms. Rau

• Raz-Kids - app login: drau0, student password: banana icon  
• Field Trip - On Tuesday, May 21^st, the first grade team will take a field trip to Varner Hall at Oakland University to see a performance of James and the Giant Peach. The cost for this trip is $7.00 per child and $8.00 for chaperones. You can pay with cash or checks made payable to Webber Elementary School. If you need financial assistance, please contact your teacher. All students will need a lunch from home with a drink on this day. We will eat lunch in the classroom. If you wish to order a bag lunch from the cafeteria, please let your teacher know by May 10^th.
• You're Invited - On 5/15 at 7:45 am we will be having a breakfast celebration for the end of our realistic fiction writing unit. Please see the hard copy in your students FROG binder for more details. Please sign up here if you would like to donate food for our celebration.

Save The Date:

• 5/3 - Field Trip permission slip, background check for chaperones and money due
• 5/10 - Half day for students
• 5/15 - Writing Celebration 7:45 am
• 5/21 - First Grade Field Trip to Oakland University to see the play James and The Giant Peach 9:00-12:00
• 5/27 Memorial Day - No School for Students
• 6/7, 6/14 - Half day for students

Learning this week:

• Writer's will...
• celebrate our first series
• investigate other series best
• add details to their pictures
• fiction writers include chapters
• write patterns
• Reader's will...
• learn about characters by noticing relationships
• reread to learn more about characters
• mark important parts
• become the characters
• learn characters feelings change and so do readers voices
• Mathematicians will...
• learn to order by length
• measure with length units
• use shapes and measurement in the real world
• take the unit 7 math test
• Scientists will...
• experiment sound with a bowl of water and a tuning fork
• experiment sound with a hanger against a brick wall
• In phonics we will...
• do snap word memory tricks
• isolate the tricky parts of hard to spell snap words
• combine high frequency words to make compound words 

Photos from last week:

Using stem materials to build during choice time!

Making bigger shapes by putting two smaller shapes together and making shape pictures! 

 Doing our part for Earth Day! Cleaning up our nature trail and playground.

Earning our TRAKS reward. Bubble Day! 

Seeing sound in science! Using tuning forks and watching the vibrations bounce the sprinkles in the air. Using rubber bands and shoe boxes to make sound. We can see the vibrations from pulling the rubber band. 

Learning for the week of 4/22

Notes from Ms. Rau

• Materials Needed - Please save and send in paper towel rolls and shoe boxes for our sound unit in science. THANK YOU!
• Raz-Kids - app login: drau0, student password: banana icon  
• Super Hero Day - Student Council will be raising money for The Daisy Project on Friday, April 26^th. Students are encouraged to wear their super hero gear and bring in $1 or more for the local charity. To learn more about The Daisy Project, check out their site: http://thedaisyprojectmi.com/
• Field Trip - On Tuesday, May 21^st, the first grade team will take a field trip to Varner Hall at Oakland University to see a performance of James and the Giant Peach. The cost for this trip is $7.00 per child and $8.00 for chaperones. You can pay with cash or checks made payable to Webber Elementary School. If you need financial assistance, please contact your teacher. All students will need a lunch from home with a drink on this day. We will eat lunch in the classroom. If you wish to order a bag lunch from the cafeteria, please let your teacher know by May 10^th.

Save The Date:

• 4/26 - Super Hero Day
• 5/3 - Field Trip permission slip, background check for chaperones and money due
• 5/10 - Half day for students
• 5/21 - First Grade Field Trip to Oakland University to see the play James and The Giant Peach 9:00-12:00
• 5/27 Memorial Day - No School for Students
• 6/7, 6/14 - Half day for students

Learning this week:

• Writer's will...
• begin writing series books
• introduce their character in book 1
• develop dialogue between characters
• revise their books
• Reader's will...
• retell after each chapter
• revisit books to notice more
• reread to notice pages that go together
• create new reading goals
• learn about the main character
• learn about characters by noticing relationships
• Mathematicians will...
• compose 2D shapes
• study 3D shapes
• compose 3D shapes
• go on a shape hunt
• create a shape book
• Scientists will...
• create sound using a paper towel roll
• feel their own vocal chords
• participate in an experiment to learn if you can see vibrations
• In phonics we will...
• learn the many spelling patterns for /air/ 
• share and learn from our reading bloopers

Learning for 4/15

Notes from Ms. Rau

• Please sign up for our April - May Volunteer Calendar
• Please save and send in paper towel rolls and shoe boxes for our sound unit in science. Please send them in by the end of this week. THANK YOU! 
• This week readers practiced how to make their reading sound its very best, or how to read like a star. We talked about scooping up words, changing our voices for characters, reading some parts slow and some parts fast, and paying attention to dialogue tags! Readers learned to record themselves reading on Raz-Kids and listen back to see if their reading is like a star. On the app, there are three options under each leveled reader. Headphones, to hear the book read to them; An open book, to read the book themselves; and a question mark to check their comprehension. When they are in the open book option on the top right corner of the screen there is a microphone to record themselves. When they are finished, or at anytime, they can hit the square to stop their recording and then play their recording by hitting the triangle. Try this at home! *You may have to enable the microphone setting for the raz-kids app in your settings on your device. 
• Raz-Kids app login: drau0
• student password: banana icon  

Save The Date:

• 5/21 - First Grade Field Trip to Oakland University to see the play James and The Giant Peach 9:00-12:00
• 4/18 - Half Day for Students
• 4/19 Good Friday - No school for students
• 5/27 Memorial Day - No School for Students

Learning this week:

• Writer's will...
• get serious about spelling
• take stock of their writing
• celebrate their best realistic fiction writing so far
• Reader's will...
• preview stories to get ready for reading adventures
• use the story line to predict
• retell to retain the story 
• Mathematicians will...
• study squares and rectangles
• study triangles and circles
• study equal shares
• compose 2-D shapes
• Scientists will...
• begin our sound study
• discover how bells sound
• discover where sound comes from
• feel the vibrations on our throats when we talk soft and loud
• watch the vibrations from a chime in an experiment
• In phonics we will...
• study when /er/ is not what it seems
• investigate how r changes vowel sounds

Celebrating the end of our readers workshop unit with Mrs. Burks kindergarten friends. We read two books, making our reading sound the best it can, to them.