Week of March 19th

http://asagrade1.weebly.com

Mr. Masons masonm@asamadagascar.org

Dear First Grade Families, Math:

This week we will be learning about idioms. One of the
things that really gives a language its character is its
idioms, yet when I first started teaching I was always a
little wary of spending time explicitly teaching them. If I
had to put it in a nutshell, i.e. summarise it clearly, I
would say that my reluctance stemmed from a fear that
learners would find the idioms obscure and struggle to
use them correctly. However, experience has taught me
differently. Heres why:
1) They expand students ability to communicate
2) Learners are often keen to give me a translation of
an idiom in their language and very often I can supply
the equivalent expression in English. For example, a
Korean student told me that in Korean there is an
expression along the lines of someone elses rice cake
always looks bigger than yours. In English we would
say The grass is always greener on the other side of
the fence.
3) Its actually impossible to avoid idiomatic language
altogether, and many expressions which seem natural
to a native speaker have a metaphorical meaning which,
once understood, clarifies the expression for learners.
4) Idioms abound in English for Specific Purposes, for
example in Business English we often talk
about thinking outside the box to mean not being
constrained by conventional thinking.
I hope you enjoy this learning process with your child.
Topics Covered: place value
How You Can Help: complete the following
IXL activities: W.8, E.7, D.16, D.17
When looking at 3 digit numbers, have your
child identify what number is in the ones,
tens, and hundreds place.
English Language Arts:
Topics Covered: contractions and idioms
How You Can Help: When reading at night,
look for contractions. Have your child put
them together and take them apart. Ex. Cant
= cannot
UOI: Storytelling
Topics Covered: story structure, developing
characters, digital storytelling
How You Can Help: This week students will
begin to craft their digital stories. This project
began as a research project for my Masters
of Education on home literacy last year. If you
are interested in the project, the research
and my findings, you can access the
information here.

Mr. Mason
Speaking and Listening
Monday Everyday Idioms Made Easy Your child should be
Tuesday Idioms Song reading every night on
Wednesday Idioms What are They? Kids A-Z and doing
flipped learning activities