What a beautiful snowy day today! On Friday we had the ipads and we went on two different apps in our room. The first app is a favorite of the kids and Nolan. It is called Noodle Words and costs $2.99 in the itunes store. It gives different sight words and puts a fun action to them. It's very cute. 
The other app that we used was called iwritewords. This is also $2.99. It helps with handwriting skills so it is a good one if your child has trouble with fine motor skills. 
The beginning of first grade reviews a lot of kindergarten skills and concepts. Our words are typically three letters (CVC) and students can sound them out. We are at a turning point in the year and students are starting to work on fluency (reading longer passages with expression, speed, and accuracy). Please practice reading with your child each night and make sure to check in with your child to see if they know their spelling words. We talked on Friday about how it is important to know these word patterns for life and not just a test so if they got some wrong they should still practice and learn those patterns to be a successful reader and writer in their lives.
Last week we read The Little Red Hen and then we had Emme and Jack's mom help us make bread. I followed a very simple recipe that I found on Pinterest. If you would like to do it with your child at home, here it is: Bread Recipe.
In math this week we will be learning about ordinal numbers. This next week we will be doing Christmas Around the World and finishing up our maps and globes unit. Thank you for sending in your information so we could travel to so many different places. The kids absolutely loved it! For Christmas Around the World they will be going to different classes each day. I am doing England and the other teachers in first grade all have picked a different country. Ask your child each day where they traveled to and what tradition they learned about. We will start on the 12th. Have a great week!
