September 18th-22nd, 2017

 First Grade Newsletter

September 18-22nd

Literacy

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

Reading Street: Unit R*

Main selection:  Snap/Tip and Tam

Weekly Question:  Who is in our family?/What is outside our door?

Genres:  Realistic Fiction

Comprehension skills:  setting, 

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

PHONICS

Lively Letters (Sounds)

• Review stories and sounds for each letter pair: qu, th, th, 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

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
**Chapter 1 Test on Tuesday, September 19th**

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

There has been a change to our Science curriculum and our first unit of study will be weather. Last week the class brainstormed words and concepts that they knew about weather. This week we will discuss what weather is and important vocabulary that is associated with weather. 

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, "Who is in our family?" and "What is outside of our door?". 

 Specialists

 

MONDAY: Music

TUESDAY: Early Release

WEDNESDAY: Music; Backyard Growers

THURSDAY: P.E.

FRIDAY: Art, Music

  

Writing Workshop

This week students will begin our weekly literacy center 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 28th 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. 26th /Nov. 9th)
3. Topsfield Fair Field Trip (Oct. 5)- The first grade will be going to the Topsfield Fair on Thursday, October 5th. Be on the look out for a permission slip in your child's folder. I am looking for 3 parent volunteers who would like to chaperone.  Please contact me if you are interested!  Please note:  You will need to be CORI checked in order to chaperone.

4. Scholastic book order- September’s order will be due on Friday, September 22nd.

5.    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.

6.    Wish List- Thank you for all of the donations! 
7.  Children should bring in a small healthy snack (separate from their lunch) to have in class at 9:45 a.m. Please make sure that it is nut-free and has no glass products.
8. Help needed—Room Parents:  I am still looking for two room parents who can share the class contact list.  Room parents coordinate calling parents for special classroom celebrations. 

Have a great week!

Miss Biggar

Homework

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