Spelling
Practice the spelling pattern throughout the week as usual. Have a parent or sibling give your child a spelling test at the end of the week.
This week we have a new spelling pattern, the vowel team OW:
Spelling words: owl, how, now, plow, town, brown, down, round, out, our
Rule: Earlier this year we learned that OW can represent the long o sound. But it can also represent the /ow/ sound as in cow. This is the sound we are focusing on this week. The spelling pattern OU can also represent the same sound. The three first grade sight words with the ou spelling in bold will help your child learn that these common words are spelled with the ou pattern.
Notes: Continue to remind your child to “tap it out” even if they remember how to spell the word, it helps with permanent spelling memory. The OW sound should only get one tap; it’s two letters but only represents one sound.
- owl – remind your child to listen carefully for the second sound, /l/
- plow and brown have two consonants at the beginning of the word which can be tricky to hear at first, remember to tap it out.
- round has two consonants at the end of the word. The n can be tricky to hear. Practice tapping out other words with the nd spelling at the end: and, end, sand, sound…
Reading
Every child should be reading at least 40 minutes per day. This can be a combination of reading on Raz Kids to complete the required quizzes, reading on Epic, or any additional reading your child may do.
Raz Kids
Levels A-J should read and complete at least 2 quizzes on Raz Kids every day (10 per week).
Levels J-Z should read and complete at least one quiz on Raz Kids every day (5 per week).
If you are not sure of your child’s level please let me know.
I will be able to see your child’s quiz scores each time they take a quiz, so they should read carefully and look back in the book to check their answers! If they are having trouble I will email you to check in.
Math
Please make sure your child is logged onto Zearn using the username and password I provided for you. Some students have been logged onto their kindergarten account (username and password saved on home computer from last year) and have been completing wrong lessons. Username and passwords can be found under the “Student Login Information” tab. Please let me know if you have any questions.
This week we are moving on from review and are starting new content that your child has not studied before. There are four assigned lessons.
Lessons 17, 19, 20, and 21 will be due on Friday. If your child finishes all four lessons before Friday, please have them work on the homework assignments below and on IXL math instead of moving on.
If your child is behind on math, please have them complete two lessons per day.
The homework assignments below are optional. They are all in your child’s math homework book. I suggest spending 10-15 minutes on them after the Zearn lesson of the day is completed.
Zearn skips lessons that would have been a review day in school. I have included the review homework for these lessons as well- you can choose to skip them or work on them on Friday as a review. I’m trying to give plenty of work for those who want more, but please do not feel pressured to complete all of the extra assignments!
Lesson-17-Homework Click for -> Guided help for Lesson 17
Lesson-18-Homework Click for -> Guided help for Lesson 18
Lesson-19-Homework Click for -> Guided help for Lesson 19
Lesson-20-Homework Click for-> Guided help for Lesson 20
Lesson-21-Homework Click for -> Guided help for Lesson 21
Writing
This week have your child read one article each day and write about what they have learned, or what they think is most important from the text. You may read the text aloud to them and google or discuss any tricky words- it’s a great idea to have them use the new words they learn in their writing.
Student writing should be at least three sentences long with a goal of five sentences, and it should focus on the information in the article of the day. But, they can add additional information from other articles as they develop more background knowledge and deepen their understanding of the topics.
Below are the articles for the week:
Below is an example of an Informational piece of writing about guinea pigs.
This is a great example piece! It has an introduction sentence where the author notifies the reader what the piece will be about. There are 3 facts in the body of the piece. The last sentence is a conclusion sentence.
Science
In order to make sure students have the opportunity to learn all of the first grade content, I will be posting around three Mystery Science lessons per week. These lessons include a short video and an online book or activity.
The activities are not required, but they are fun!
Why do birds have beaks?
Substitute materials:
Beaks- tweezers, kitchen tongs
Food- any beans, beads or small pasta
Why do baby ducks follow their mother?
No materials needed.
Why are polar bears white?
Substitute materials:
Glue dots: use tape or simply set your “moth” different places
Moths: cut and color paper- any shape is okay!
Challenge Assignments
If your child finishes all of the work above, you may choose to have them work on challenge assignments.