Ms.Soulas' Classroom

It was a very busy week in Room 112... We started new units in reading, writing and math! The amazing first grade readers are sounding like reading stars! They are solving tricky words and reading like fluent readers. We got to show off that we are the "Bosses of our Reading" by reading to our 4th grade buddies on Wednesday. It was amazing to see their pride and their buddies amazement, as they read their good fit books! In writing, we wrapped up our opinion unit and the first graders began planning and writing realistic fiction stories. They are creating characters, introducing problems (uh-oh) and coming up with solutions (phewf). They are using dialogue within their stories to help develop their characters and add details to their stories. The math farm unit is here! This unit involves place value, money, area & perimeter, mapping and computation. As part of the unit, first graders will be building and maintaining their own "farms." :) As a first gr...

As the first graders start reading more challenging books we want to make sure we can read the words AND understand what we're reading! We have been working on tools to support our comprehension. This week we focused on rereading and making a movie in our head while we are reading.  One way that you can practice making a movie in our head is by stopping and sketching. Read aloud a story and don't show the pictures. Throughout the book you can stop and they will sketch what has happened. It is a great way to support comprehension, empower their imagination and build their creativity! The first grade authors are using their powers of persuasion and writing amazing opinion pieces. They are writing strong introductions, providing solid reasons and ending with a convincing conclusion! Ask your first grader about what opinions they have been writing :) In math, the first grade mathematicians have taken their problem solving to the next level. They are using their strategies (e...

Here are some highlights from the week... On Tuesday, the first graders earned a reward for their amazing effort and behavior while Ms.Mcgrady was here. The first graders had been working so hard, I thought they deserved to play hard! One of the 1st grade authors wrote an opinion piece about how "Slime is the best toy,"  and I was convinced through the power of her persuasive writing - so, we made some! It turned out to be a different consistency, more like "thinking putty," but we discussed how experiments can get different results. But we still got to have a slimy afternoon! With our buddies this week we learned about the brain’s role in receiving information from the senses, processing that information, and then controlling the body's muscles to enable movement. We played a game in which we tested our reflexes. The fact that our reflexes always have a slight delay helped your child to see that there are real pathways (nerves) on which messages from the br...

Here are some highlights from the week... We made it through the first week back from spring break! The transition back into "school mode" can always be tricky, but the first graders worked hard and are now "almost second graders!" In reading this week, we have been reviewing all of the tools in our tricky word toolbelts, and putting them in our tool box! We now have so many tools to help us solve words, that they no longer fit in a tool belt! These decoding strategies are beginning to be more automatic for first graders as they are reading. I really encourage you to have your first grader continue using Lexia at home. The program is a great way to reinforce the decoding strategies, spelling patterns and word building that we're doing in class. There are directions for how to access Lexia at home on the  Learning at Home page. In writing, the opinion writers are using their persuasive powers to write reviews (books, movies, restaurants, etc.). Y...