December 20th Newsletter

 Important Dates

December

          20 – Classroom Holiday Party

          23 – Winter Break Begins

January

          6 - Classes Resume

          15 – Early Dismissal – 12:00

          20 – No School

– Martin Luther King’s Birthday

December Reading Logs

          Your child can return his/her December reading log on January 6 when we return from the holiday break.  I am sending home January’s log on December 20 so you can begin recording the books they read in January starting January 1. 

Cookie Exchange

     Thank you to everyone who took the time to bake cookies and send in food for the cookie exchange.  It was all very delicious.  My family was thrilled with the cookies (and so was I)!

We won’t be having any homework this week due to the holidays.  Enjoy the break!

Reading

      We will be reading An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni as a part of our Making Meaning curriculum.

Vocabulary Words

          The vocabulary words for this story will be:

        Pebble, island, wonder, mound, astonished, amazement, commotion, and triumphantly

Comprehension Strategies

          The children will be working on sequencing events and retelling a story.

Phonics Skills

          Our phonics lessons will be centered around blending long i words.  We will also review the soft sound of “g” /j/ and “c” /s/.

Grammar Skills

          We will practice using pronouns in sentences.

Spelling Words

The spelling words are:

six, pad, smell, bike, time, smile, prize, like, have, bridesmaid

Have a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year!

December 13th Newsletter

           

 Important Dates

December

    17 – Early Dismissal

       20 – Classroom Holiday Party

                 23 – Winter Break Begins

January

          6 - Classes Resume

December Reading Logs

Your child can return his/her December reading log on January 6 when we return from the holiday break.  I am sending home January’s log on December 20 so you can begin recording the books your child reads in January starting January 1. 

Barnes & Noble Fundraiser

     It sounds like the Barnes & Noble fundraiser was a big success.  I wish I could have been there.  Thank you to everyone that attended or helped out in any way.  Our school district is very fortunate to have such supportive and giving parents.

In math, we have been working on place value – tens and ones.  We played some games in the computer lab and also in the classroom to go along with this concept.

Reading

Comprehension Strategies

          We will be reading The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats in our Making Meaning curriculum.

The vocabulary words from this book are tracks, smacking, packed, adventures, heaping, and firm.  We will continue to work on visualizing, schema, and inference.

Phonics Skills

          Our phonics lessons will be centered on blending long a words using the VCe (vowel consonant e) pattern.  We will also review the soft sound of “g” /j/ and “c” /s/.

Grammar Skills

          We will practice using and identifying verbs in a sentence.

Spelling Words

Our spelling words for next week are: ran, hat, scar, came, grape, name, cake, only, old, baseball

     We won’t be having a student of the week next week since we will be having our holiday party on Friday.

***There won’t be any homework next Thursday due to the holidays.  Enjoy!

December 6th Newsletter

                    

 Important Dates

December

          17 – Early Dismissal – 12:00

          20 – Classroom Holiday Party – 2:00

          23 – Winter Break Begins

January

            6- Classes Resume

Author of the Month/Computers

  We explored the Chris VanAllsburg website and played some of the games on it. The children enjoyed the memory game, puzzles, and coloring activity.  If you would like your child to play some of these games at home, you may go to: www.chrisvanallsburg.com 

Winter Holiday Party

  Our holiday party will be on Dec.20 from 2:00-3:00.  Parent helpers will be allowed in the room at 1:50.  (No siblings are allowed due to limited space.)

FYI - all first grade classrooms will not be doing a gift exchange this year.  The teachers have purchased a small gift for each child in their own classroom.

      Our student of the week for the week of December 9-13 will be Marcin.

Math

     In math, we have been working on counting forward by 1s and 10s up to 120.  The children had the most difficulty counting by 10s when we started with a number other than 10 – such as 7, 17, 27, 37…   Many of the students were able to do that, but got confused when the numbers went beyond 100 – such as 87, 97, 107, 117…  I tried to work with the students that were having difficulty, but I ran out of time.  If you notice that your child had difficulty with this concept, please review it at home.  Thanks.

Comprehension Strategies

     We will be working on using schema and inference as they visualize what is happening in a story.

Phonics Skills

We will be reviewing short vowel sounds.

Grammar Lesson

We will review alphabetical order and discuss how to use a dictionary.

Spelling Words

The spelling words are:

sad, let, trip, blue, orange, gray, black, one, by, color