September 19th-23rd Newsletter

 First Grade Newsletter

September 19-23rd

Literacy

Literacy Assessments:  There are no assessments during this week. I will be building the students personal book bags for silent reading throughout this week.  

Reading Street: Unit R*

Main selection:  Tip and Tam/The Big Top

Weekly Question:  What is outside our door? / What can we do with our        neighborhood friends? 

Genres:  Realistic Fiction, Folk Tale

Comprehension skills:  character, setting

*We review concepts taught in Kindergarten during our Review Unit.

PHONICS

Lively Letters (Sounds)

• Review stories and sounds for each letter pair: x/y/c, w/wh/h, e
• Last week’s letter pairs: p/b, t/d, k/g, f/v, m/n, ng, s/z, a/o, j/ch, r/l, u/i, qu, th, th 

Fundations: Unit 1 (Week 2/3 of 3)

• Review formation of the following letters…t, b, f, n, m, c, a, i, r, o, g, d, s, e, u, l, h, k
• Alphabetical order

*Please note that Unit 1 of Fundations and Lively Letters are very fast paced reviews of the alphabet letter sounds and formations taught extensively in Kindergarten.

Math in Focus

Chapter 1

Pre-requisite skills and number sense

Objectives

-  Count from 0 to 10 objects 

-  Read and write 0 to 10 in numbers and words

     -  Compare two sets of objects by using one-to-one correspondence 

      -  Identify the set that has more, fewer, or the same number of object
                 - Identify the number that is greater than or less than another number

-               -  Make number patterns

*Please note:  Math instruction in this unit is reviewing groundwork established in Kindergarten.  We will be building upon these skills as we progress through the future math units.

Science

Our first unit of study will be living vs. non-living things. This past week we did an outside exploration of living and non-living things. Students learned that living things need food and water, can breathe air, can move, and are alive. We will continue t observe, record and share our ideas together.  This week, we will discuss and discover living and non-living things through a hands-on activity.

Social Studies

Our class rules have been posted in our room! Each morning the rules have been posted we remind ourselves what our classroom rules are to give each student a safe and friendly environment to learn in. In our Second Steps lessons, we have learned two of four Skills for Learning: focusing attention and listening. We use our attent-o-scopes to keep ourselves from being distracted and there are three parts of our bodies we use to listen: our ears, eyes, and brains. 

Our social studies learning continues to embed focusing on families and community in our reading program throughout this week. Our questions for the students will need to answer this week are, "What is outside our door?" and "What can we do with our neighborhood friends?". 

 Specialists

 

MONDAY: Music

TUESDAY: P.E.

WEDNESDAY: Music; Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

THURSDAY: P.E.

FRIDAY: Art, Music

  

Writing Workshop

This week students will begin our weekly morning work assignment that requires students to write about one activity that they did over the weekend. The purpose of this exercise is for students to practice putting their ideas on paper through words and illustrations.

                  Parent Reminders

1.  Meet the Teacher Night is Thursday, September 22nd 5:00-6:00pm. I’m looking forward to meeting all of you! Please note—This is an adult-only evening.
2. Parent/Teacher Conferences—There will be a sign-up sheet available at Meet the Teacher night for upcoming fall conferences (Oct. 20th /Nov.17th )
3. Topsfield Fair Field Trip (Oct. 5)- A permission slip went home on Friday, September 16th with your child. The permission slip and $3 are due on Friday, Sept. 23rd.

4. I am still looking for biographical information, pictures for stars, and quilt squares from a couple students. Please send those in ASAP.

5.    Scholastic book order- September’s order is due on Friday, September 23rd.

6.    Number Formation Guide- The guide will be sent home this week along with which numbers your child needs practice forming. Try and isolate just one number to practice each night for a couple minutes. Doing too many at once will not help them break bad habits.
7. Wish List- Thank you for all of the donations! 

Have a great week!

Miss Biggar

Homework

Monday:  Reading Log (due on Friday)
Tuesday: Number Formation