Conferences

The first round of conferences are complete. It was nice meeting all of the parents and reassuring knowing that all of the children go home to nice and caring families. A few parents requested the following information be posted regarding Text Reading Comprehension (TRC) Levels.

Students at the level of:

• A, B, or C, need to be able to
•  retell a fiction selection including the beginning, middle, and end.
• tell the main idea supported by 2 details of a non-fiction selection.
• D or E, need to be able to answer basic who, what, where, when, and how questions.
• F need to be able to
• tell how what a character is thinking/feeling by what they say or do for fiction.
• compare and contrast ideas in a non-fiction selection.
• G need to
• tell how characters change over time as well as state the theme or lesson.
• be able to classify/categorize and make connections
• H need to identify and utilize text features.
• I need to draw conclusions from the pictures and text.
• J need to identify the problem and the solution.

A child should be at the level of J when entering 2nd grade. If you click on the letters B-J (not I) in the above list, the links will take you to detailed information (from the state of North Carolina) for each level.

Math Test Results

Of the 20 students taking the Chapter 1 Math Test, 15 passed with an adjusted score of 15 or better. The high score was 27.

Thirty-Fifth Day of School

Today in Writing, we added the transitions to our narratives. To meet the standard, each first grade narrative should have at least two transitions. On Monday, we will construct our closings.

In Engineering, we took the marshmallow challenge. The focus of the lesson is to work through the engineering process. The steps of the process are:

• Ask: What's the problem? What are the constraints?
• Brainstorm: What ideas will best solve the problem?
• Construct a plan
• Develop a prototype
• Evaluate, then circle back to 'Ask'.

Thirty-Fourth Day of School

In Writing today, we drafted the sentences for the events in our narrative. Tomorrow we will add transitions.

Fingers crossed, we will get to our engineering project tomorrow.

Thirty-Third Day of School

In Writing today, we did double duty with 2 lessons. The first lesson was drafting our setting. The second lesson was quick-sketch/planning our narrative events.

Thirty-Second Day of School

In Writing, we explicitly quick-sketched (planned) our when, where, and who (in that order) onto our setting page. Tomorrow, we will staple the event pages onto the back and quick-sketch our happenings.

Our Math test will likely be on Thursday. Tomorrow we will take home the unit opener pages (vocabulary, readiness, and the cut-and-fold) for Chapter 2.

Thirty-First Day of School

In Science, we observed a collection of liquids and generated a list of properties (tested)
 while learning a few few descriptive vocabulary words: bubbly, clear, opaque, transparent, translucent, and viscous.

We will take the Chapter 1 Math test next week.