Week 8

As we approach the last week of September, we am so proud to see how our first grade scholars are growing and come to school each day ready to learn more. Thank you for everything that you are doing at home to support their learning!

Announcements: 

No School- We will not have school this Friday, September 29th due to teacher in-service.  Enjoy the long weekend!

Love and Logic Seminar- Come on out on Wednesday, September 27th from 6pm-8pm to learn more about our approach to behavior and gain some helpful strategies to use at home!  

Thank you! - Thank you to all of the parents who have joined us as we started math and reading groups this month.  We are so thankful for your support!

Coming up this week:

Literature – This week we are continuing Owl at Home and working in our packets. We are also continuing reading groups! We will take turns reading aloud and sequencing stories in small groups. A huge thank you to those of you signed up to read with us! Homework is to continue reading every night from the leveled readers. Please bring your books back on Thursday this week since there is no school on Friday!

Spalding – In Spalding, we only have 20 words, as it is a short week. Our spelling test will be on Thursday.

Grammar: We will begin our study of verbs! We will be learning about action and linking verbs, with more of an emphasis on action verbs this week. Students will identify verbs in sentences and create sentences with verbs. 

Idiom – It at first you don’t succeed then try, try again.

Math- We will continue to explore subtraction as we use number bonds, ten frames, number lines and number stories. 

Science- We will discuss how to care for the habitats that we have learned about. We will also read a scientist biography about Rachel Carson and learn about how she helped to lessen habitat destruction.

History- We will review the knowledge about the ancient Mesopotamians and wrap up with a test on Wednesday.  A review sheet will be sent home on Monday to help prepare.

Week 7

Thank you to everyone who was able to come to Math and Phonics Night last week! Please let me know if there is any way that I can support you and your child with homework.

Announcements:

Book Bags: Your child will bring home a book bag on Monday!  This book is to be read during your child's 15 minutes of nightly reading. The hope is that by the end of the week they are able to read the book fluently.  Please record their reading in the log provided in the bag. Please return the bag, book and log on Friday so a new book can be sent home the following Monday.

Owl at Home: We will begin reading Owl at Home this week. If your child hasn't done so already, please have them bring in their copy this week. 

Love and Logic Parent Night: September 27th from 6:00pm-8pm

No School: September 29th; teacher in-service 

In Academics:

  

Literature: We are starting Owl at Home this week!  On Monday we will learn about the author and bit about owls to preview the book. We will begin reading on Wednesday! Please make sure your child has their book by Wednesday so they can follow along.

Spalding: We have 30 words as normal this week and will test on Friday.  Please make sure your child is including all markings on the words Monday-Wednesday. We have noticed quite a few homework assignments missing these. The markings let us know that your child understands the phonograms and sounds being said in each word. 

Writing: In writing, we have copy work and narration exercises from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Poem: “The Pasture” by Robert Frost

Idiom/Proverb: If at first you don’t succeed, then try, try again.

Math:   All of our hard work on addition over the past month has paid off because this week we get to begin learning about subtraction! We will practice taking numbers away, counting down, creating subtraction stories, and solving subtraction sentences. On Wednesday we will have math centers and will get to participate in some hands on activities (including using play dough and bowling) to practice subtraction. On Friday we will take a subtraction quiz and also complete a cumulative math test on Units 1-3 (addition and counting). 

History: We will continue to study the Mesopotamian culture as we explore their daily life, religion, the Hammurabi Code and the Epic of Gilgamesh. 

Science: This week in science we will review and wrap up our habitats unit. Then, we will be studying animals! We will begin by learning about food chains and the herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores that are a part of them. We will learn why all parts of a food chain are important. 

Week 6

Last Friday was a great day as we celebrated the virtue of responsibility  at our assembly and enjoyed our time welcoming grandparents into the classroom! First graders and grandparents drew and wrote about what first grade was like for them.

Reading Groups: This week begins 1st grade reading groups! Every Tuesday and Thursday we will be honored to have parents in our classroom so that we can divide into small groups and work closely on our reading skills and explore deeper everything that we have been learning in literature.

Math & Phonics Night: From the classroom to the kitchen table...math and phonics night is taking place this Wednesday, September 13th, from 6-7 p.m. Please plan on attending as we are ready to give you many tips and tricks on helping your child with our Singapore math and Spalding phonics curriculum! We look forward to seeing you here at school. No homework will be assigned that evening. Just a reminder that this will be a parent only event.

Picture Day: We will all being saying "Cheese" on Thursday, September 14th for picture day.  Regular dress-code will continue for picture day.

Coming up this week:

In Literature we are continuing Cinderella stories from around the world! This week we will read about Pear Blossom and Yeh-Shen, the Korean and Chinese versions of Cinderella. On Friday we will reflect on our favorite version of the story and decorate a shoe for Cinderella.

Please bring in Owl at Home this week if you have not done so yet. We will begin reading it next week!

In Spalding we have 30 words this week and will test on Friday! Homework will be the same formatting as last week.

Monday: live, live, hill, late, big, bag, beg, bog, bug (10 words)

Tuesday: mother, three, land, cold, hot, hat, child, ice, play, sea, see (11 words)

Wednesday: bird, cool, earth, feed, fur, green, oil, paint, pool (9 words)

Phonograms to practice: h, m, n, o, u, ai, ea, ee, oi, ur

In Grammar we are learning about pronouns in grammar this week. We have a fun, interactive PowerPoint that will help us identify and come up with pronouns to make our sentences a little more interesting!

Poem: “The Pasture” by Robert Frost – Please practice stanza 2. 

Idiom/Proverb: If at first you don’t succeed, then try, try again.

In Science this week we will continue our study of habitats. We will learn about what makes both rainforest and pond habitats unique.

This week in History we journey into ancient Mesopotamian history. Students will learn how the Euphrates and Tigris rivers were important to the civilization and will also get a chance to write in the ancient writing of cuneiform. 

This week in math we will wrap up our chapter on addition facts and take a short test on Tuesday. We will also start, and finish, our last chapter of this long addition unit. The last chapter is called “counting on” and it will allow us to focus on how numbers change when we add 1, 2, or 3 to them. Students will also participate in their second week of math groups; this has already become our new favorite part of every Wednesday! 

Week 5

Dear 1C families,

I hope that you are all enjoying a relaxing R&R weekend! We are looking forward to a great four day week. We will begin math groups on Wednesday morning, and we will have an assembly on Friday for Grandparents day! Following the assembly, grandparents are welcome to come to our classroom from 8:40-9:00 for a special activity.

Please have your child bring in the French workbook, Les Loutics A1.1 by Hachette, if they have not done so already. Also, we will be reading Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel in a few weeks. Please have your child bring in their copy or please purchase a copy for them to use. We will need the book by Monday, Sept. 11. The ISBN is 978-0064440349.



Coming up this week:

Due to the holiday on Monday, we will only have 19 words this week for Spalding. There will be two old words “have” and “are”. These will help us to review jobs of silent final e and apply job 5 to a new word. Our Spelling Test will be on Friday as normal! Please note that the phonograms on the sheet going home every Monday are the phonograms we are testing on Fridays (on the back of the Spelling Test). Please have your child practice the sounds of these two phonograms each night! Please dictate the words as though it were a spelling test so that the words are practiced and memorized for all three columns.

Tuesday: today, look, did, like, six, boy, book, by, have, are

Wednesday: had, over, must, make, street, say, come, hand, ring

In Writing, our sentences this week come from Rumpelstiltskin.

 

Poem: We are beginning a new poem this week called “The Pasture” by Robert Frost. We will study stanza 1 this week, stanza 2 the following week, and practice the poem in its entirety and recite at the end of the 3^rd week. (Recitations on September 22^nd)

 

Idiom: Review of our first three idioms: Sour Grapes, Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, and The Golden Rule.

 

In Literature, we are continuing to study stories from around the world, but this time we are comparing Cinderella stories! We will be reading the Western version that is very familiar and comparing it to the Egyptian version (Rhodopis). We will also read a story called “Billy Beg,” a Cinderella story with an interesting twist – a male main character!

 

In Math, we will finish our chapter on number stories by taking a test on Tuesday. Next, we will have our very first round of math centers on Wednesday. This will give us a chance to explore the concepts of addition that we have been learning in class by completing hands on activities and looking at numbers in new ways. Last, we will start a new chapter on addition facts this and practice completing various problems using number bonds and pictorial representations.

 

This week in Science we will continue to learn about habitats. We will learn about the plants and animals that live on meadows and prairies. We will also learn about the arctic habitat and compare animals that live in the arctic region to those in Antarctica.  

 

This week in Geography will we identify the Equator, Prime Meridian, and North and Southern Hemisphere. We will wrap up with a geography test on Friday.  Students will need to identify the 7 continents, 4 oceans and label a compass.  Students will also be responsible for identifying various landforms and bodies of water.