FIRST GRADE NEWS 9-6-19

Hi! We continue to make progress with our first grade routines. Reading Workshop and Chrome Books were introduced this week. Spelling will begin next week. Your child will bring a list home each Monday to practice. We will have a test on the words on Friday. We will be working with these words and their special sound pattern at school as well.
Chrome Books are the highlight of Grade One. Students learned how to take care of them and how to get to Portaportal. I have bookmarked my Portaportal for the kids so they can get to it easily. This site has all of the websites they will use this year all in one place.​ I am attaching a list of your child’s passwords to the sites we use the most.​ Feel free to use them at home as well!

During Reading Workshop your child reads quietly from his/her book box. I have begun to put books in their boxes on their level. Eventually they will be able to pick their own books out. I have the books leveled in the room so it makes it easy for them to find something that they are comfortable with and interested in. Guided Reading groups will hopefully start next week. We need to get the routine of quiet reading down first :). Your child will bring his/her guided reading book home to practice each night. Please have them read their book to you and then send it back in the next day. If it’s a long book or it’s a “swim” night, feel free to keep it an extra day but please try to return soon so they can have it in their book box.

READING AND LANGUAGE ARTS

We are enjoying Mo Willem’s books. We are also reading lots of back to school books. In writing, we wrote about ourselves on an All About Me Cactus. During writing time I am trying to get the kids to take risks. It is okay not to spell words correctly in grade one. I want them to listen for sounds and look for patterns. I also have them using the print around them. We, of course, are working toward correct spelling. However, for right now it’s more important to actually get our ideas on paper. This is a hard step for many. Please praise all writing attempts. You’ll be amazed how quickly their writing changes :)!

MATH

We finished our first unit in math. It was basically a review of kindergarten. We started the assessment today and will finish them next week. We will begin Math homework on Monday. It will come home Monday through Thursday nights. Please have your child do it and return it the next day in their folder. It is okay to help your child if they need it. At the beginning of each unit you will get an introduction to the unit with all the answers for the homework. It’s a good idea to keep this paper incase you want to see what the program is asking for.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

• ●  We learned about cacti this week. We also talked about plural words and how sometimes you can just add s and sometimes the whole word changes. We made edible cacti, rock cacti and handprint cacti. We talked about how we are a First Grade School Family and we need to stick together!
  
• ●  We had Guess Box for the first time this week! The kids worked together to ask yes and no questions to guess what was in it. It was gummy sloths!
  
• ●  Progress Notes will begin coming home on Friday, Sept. 13th.
  
• ●  BLOG - Don’t forget to check it out weekly for pics from our week. You are also free to use any of my pics of your child that you like. Screen shot away :). http://vcslk1.blogspot.com/
  
• ●  Picture Day is Monday, Sept. 23rd. More information to come.