What a fun time we had at our Valentine’s party! Thank you so much to Mrs. Haan for organizing the event for us and for all of our dedicated parent helpers. It is always a pleasure spending time with you all. Students (and Mrs. Heath!) loved searching for candy hearts in whip cream, playing bingo, winning cupcakes in the cupcake walk. Enjoy our pictures of fun!
As we embark on our newest science unit, we are learning more about sorting and classifying. Scientist sort and classify animals by groups – mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish, and insects. We will be learning about each of these groups of animals as our unit continues. But to begin our practice of sorting and classifying we did not start with animals – we started with random items. Groups of students were given a 
collection of items to sort and classify. They had to choose a sorting rule and then make sure that all of their items fit into a group according to the rule. They had a fabulous time determining the rules and then sorting the items to fit. It was enlightening to hear their sorting discussions and to see some of the categories they came up with! Markers were sorted by brand, color, and type; buttons by shape, color, and number of holes; and candy by type, color, and whether or not they “like” it! All in a days work for a this budding group of scientists! 
When we talk about learning to read, there are many different components that must be considered. Parents often times are not sure what they should concern themselves with – do they need be concerned with accuracy – the ability to read the words on the page either by sight or by breaking the words up to decode them? Or should their concern by with comprehension – do they understand what they are reading enough to retell the story and discuss it using higher level thinking and reasoning strategies? One thing that parents may fail to consider when thinking about their child’s reading is fluency. According to reading expert Timothy Rasinski, in his book, Effective Teaching of Reading: From Phonics to Fluency: “Fluency is the ability to read accurately, quickly, expressively, with good phrasing, AND with good comprehension.” Fluency encompasses ALL of what we are looking for in good readers – accuracy, comprehension, pacing, phrasing, and expression. In 1st grade students are assessed on their fluency twice a year using the following rubric:
As with any other assessed content, we spend time in class teaching and practicing fluency. Much of the teaching and practicing is done in small guided reading groups, but we also use other opportunities to focus on fluency. One way fluency is taught and practiced is through poetry studies. Students receive new poems for their poetry notebooks most weeks. In addition to comprehension discussion on the poems, students hear the poems modeled with fluent reading and practice reading the poem using their fluency skills: expression, smoothness & accuracy, phrasing, and pace. Another way they practice fluency is through the use of Readers Theater scripts. Readers Theater allows students to practice the same text many times, increasing their fluency each time. For 2nd quarter I have instituted Fluency Fridays where students have a scheduled time that is set aside to improve fluency through poetry and Readers Theater practice. This past Friday we focused on Readers Theater. 
Focus on the components of fluency while reading aloud with your child. You can print out the rubric above and discuss with them where they see themselves at. Remind them that rereading is a great way to improve fluency!
:) Mrs.. Heath
Groundhog’s Day found this teacher at a district science training, but that didn’t stop our 1st grade friends from learning all about Groundhog’s Day! They read a story, made a puppet, and discovered that the famous groundhog, Phil, saw his shadow and forecasted 6 more weeks of winter. BUMMER! 
But on Friday, this teacher was back and ready to continue the Groundhog fun! For science we discovered what a SHADOW really is – the absence of light! Some other interesting facts that we learned:
All solid things make shadows – both living and non-living.
Night is really just a big shadow when the Earth’s position is blocking the sun from shining on our part of the Earth.
You can change the size of a shadow by putting an object closer to or farther from the light.
A clear, colored shape (like our purple clipboard) will actual leave a COLORED shadow. (That was new to this teacher!)
Flashlights are really fun to make shadows and play with!
Take some time this week to have a little fun with shadows at your house! Flashlight tag at night is great fun!!
On Wednesday afternoon my first grade friends and I got a special surprise; Specialist Ben Heath, newly returned from serving his country in Afghanistan, dropped in for a visit. Ok, I’ll admit it – it wasn’t a SURPRISE to me, but it sure was to the kids! Ben took time to show off some of his medals…
give us a world geography lesson (the red line shows how he got to Afghanistan)…
and of course answered our questions. Even using images from Google to show us what a Chinook helicopter looked like and a qualot (Afghani mud house).
The kids asked some wonderful questions about Afghanistan and how it differed from Nebraska. They also asked some other interesting questions like…Why do you have Mrs. Heath’s name on your uniform? Do you like playing with Barbies? Do you like Hello Kitty? and of course Did you know Mrs. Heath drew a picture of you with a big head and a big nose?
Thanks for coming Specialist Heath. We had a great time learning from you!
