Two weeks already?
Howdy Parents!
It’s hard to believe we have been in school for two weeks already. Our favorite days go by so fast! We had a great start to a new school year! We learned about many school and classroom procedures and expectations. Throughout the first two weeks, we have reviewed cafeteria, recess and hallway expectations and along with community building within our classroom and expectations of effort. It was great seeing so many parents at Thursday’s Back to School Night. I hope I answered a lot of questions. I am sure there are more to come as the year continues. If you have questions or concerns please contact me.
I enjoyed the children's presentation about their "Special Me" bag. We had so much fun learning about one another, our favorite sports, toys, families, friends, pets and so much more! Each one of us is special in a different way. The children got to ask and answer questions and reflect on how each of us are different and alike in many ways.
Reminders:
Thursday, Sept. 8 will be our first visit to the library. Begin to look for library books in the backpack.
SPECIALS:
Tues - PE
Wed-music
Thurs - art
Fri - PE
HOMEWORK
READING -reading logs will be sent home beginning Monday, September 12. A parent letter explaining the reading logs and tips for reading with your child will also be in the folder and posted in the tabs at the top.
SOCIAL STUDIES - As we begin our identity and cultures unit, we will be building a “families quilt.” A “quilt square” with directions for its completion is being sent home in Tuesday’s folder. The quilt square will be due Monday. September 12. In addition to magazine photos, feel free to use google images. Below is a sample of a quilt square and a photo of the completed "quilt". It will hang in the hallway outside our door all year. Students will take quilt squares home in May.
Reading
The students are doing a wonderful job building their reading stamina in the Read to Self workstation. They LOVE going to the classroom library to browse and choose books in Read in the Library workstation. We are still working on choosing “just right” books. We are working on making predictions about what will happen next in a story and justifying our prediction with what the author says or what we notice in the illustrations.
Writing
We continue to learn what writing is like in first grade: Introducing the writing tools (papers, pencils, markers and crayons, tape, glue, scissors), and resources such as the alphabet charts, first grade words, and the print around the classroom. I will continue to model how to brainstorm, sketch, and write about my story idea, something that I know and care about. The children are writing true stories about themselves, something that they have experienced and want to share. They are great listeners when classmates are sharing and are already helping each other make their stories more interesting by asking questions and giving suggestions.
MATH
This week in math we continue to explore numbers. Numbers represent different and specific quantities. We will think about things that we can count and different ways to find the answer to the question, "How many?" At this age, some children count objects one at a time and some can count by using sets of 2, 5 or 10. If asked to show 6, some children count one by one and some can show 6 in one set. Our goal this week and forward is to push children to use the benchmarks of 5 and 10 to make different sets instead of counting one by one. We will continue to work on recognizing instantly the quantity of structured arrangements and to use skip counting as a more efficient strategy of counting large numbers of objects.
Social Studies/Science
This week’s unit is identity and culture. We will be exploring families, holidays, customs, celebrations and traditions and why they are important to our families and communities.
THANK YOU!
Thank you for being a partner in your child's education. I appreciate all of your help and support!
