First Grade News

Hi! Wow…what a week! It was so great seeing so many of you last night. It was such a fun way to celebrate our school and community! The kids obviously had a super terrific time because I have heard, “Happy, happy, sun, sun” lots this morning…so cute!

We are really getting used to our routine and rules. We are still working on our Super Hero and Friendship Unit. We will continue with this for two more weeks and then switch to our science unit, Light and Sound.

READING AND LANGUAGE ARTS

We are getting used to Daily 5. We are working on building stamina during Read to Self. This means staying in one place and reading during the entire time. We’re up to about fifteen minutes. I will start pulling reading groups sometime next week. If you see a book in your child’s folder, please have him/her read it to you, sign the bookmark and return both the next day.

We are working on our reading strategies. We look at pictures to get our mind thinking about the story and to give us clues on words we do not know. We reread and get our mouth ready by saying the first sound of a new word…sometimes that word pops right out!! We also make sure what we are reading makes sense…does it look right? Does it sound right? If not, we go back and try again! Some words cannot be sounded out. This is why it’s important to do lots of other strategies first. It also helps with fluency.

We had our first Spelling and Dictation Test today. The Dictation Test is looking for kids to use punctuation, spacing and capitals where needed. I am also looking to see if they can transition their spelling words into their writing. It usually takes the kids a few weeks to get used to the process :)!

MATH

We got into our math book this week! We also started math homework. You will see a math home link each night now. However, on assessment days, two lesson days and nights I know there is a school function I will not send one home. Your child will know if there is one in their folder or not. Any extra counting you do at home will help! We practice counting up and back to 100 by 1, 2, 5 and 10. We will also start counting money soon so if you want to get ahead we will count pennies and nickels first :)!