Ms.Soulas' Classroom

Here are some highlights from the week... We have started our 12 Days of Kindness, which coincides with the 12 days before winter break. We will be adding to our song each day (to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas) and practicing both the song and acts of kindness. We are up to our 6th day of kindness! Here they are so you can practice at home: A great big smile to everyone 2 helping hands 3 friendly greetings 4 heartfelt compliments 5 fabulous hugs 6 notes of nice thoughts In reading we are continuing to practice strategies for decoding tricky words. Our main focus has been identifying when there is a tricky word and solving it right away. The first graders are working hard to build their stamina - reading longer and stronger! Here are some strategies to reinforce when your first grader is reading at home: Check the picture Look at all of the parts of the word Try it 2 ways (flip the sound) Check-it and do a double check (does it look right? sound right? make s...

It was a busy and exciting week in Room 112... We have started our 12 Days of Kindness, which coincides with the 12 days before winter break! We will be adding to our song each day (to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas) and practicing both the song and acts of kindness throughout the next two weeks :) Our word study unit is up and running and the first graders are building their understanding of phonics through word sorts and picture sorts. We will continue to learn and practice the sorting routines and as we get more familiar, the word study will become more independent. This program will provide skill instruction that will cover spelling patterns and focus on examining and manipulating words, not memorizing them.  Students will be thinking more critically about words and work on transferring their skills to reading and writing.  In math this week we really reinforced our understanding of fact families with making our fact family triangles and playing a game called...