September Newsletter

LITERACY:
In Reading Workshop we have finished our first unit, Readers Build Good Habits. The students learned how to decode tricky words with many different strategies.  Please come to  First Grade Literacy Night on Wednesday, October 4th from 6-7 p.m.
We will talk about ways to help your child with reading at home.
1. Look at the Picture
2. Get your mouth ready for the beginning sound
3. Look through the word- "What would make sense?"
4. Go back to the beginning of the sentences and Get a running Start....
5. Read around the word, "What would make sense?"
Students have been working on stamina (reading long and strong) with their books. Your child should be bringing home a book or two almost daily in the Blue Reading Bag. Having a just right book to read at home helps build fluency and comprehension.  Be sure to ask your child to retell the story when they are finished reading. You could ask other comprehension questions after reading such as: Where is the setting?, What was your favorite part? Why? or Why did the character do that?
Understanding the story and Making Meaning is the key to reading!

SPELLING: We just started learning about and practicing the short vowel A.   Many activities focus on the sound of the letter, how the words look in text and application in their writing.
LOOK FOR: Students will start bringing home sight words to learn and be tested.  We will continue this for the first semester.
First Set of Words:   the, was, and, see, went

WRITING: We are writing true small moment stories. We are learning all stories have a beginning, middle and an ending. We are learning to start our stories with: One day, Over the weekend, Last Night, Yesterday, One day, etc. We are learning to end our stories with what we think, feel or dialogue. We are writing a lot of details stretching out the story bit by bit. Next, we will help the characters come alive by writing with action and dialogue.

We continue to practice our literacy skills in Partner Work. Learning to value others ideas, listen to another and share thinking is important for success in school.  These partners are used for reading, writing and math. We do change partners every few weeks so students learn to work with more then just their friends. We get new partners about every 3 weeks so by the end of the year every child has had every student in the class as his or her partner.

MATH:
We finished Chapter 3 Addition up to ten and will finish Chapter 4, Subtraction up to 10 on Friday, October 6th. Being able to compose (make) and decompose (take away) numbers up to ten fluently helps students as they work on harder math skills. The goal is to be able to visualize the numbers in their heads and move between addition and subtraction with ease.  Many websites are available to help with this skill. One we use in school is:

http://gregtangmath.com/games.html


SCIENCE:
We are waiting for  our meal worms grow from larvas to pupas. Hopefully, many will change into beetles soon. In addition, we just got our Painted Lady Butterfly caterpillars.  Learning about the life cycle of living things is fascinating to the children. Next, we will plant brassica(fast plant) and lima seeds.  These plants allow the students to see the complete life cycle in an efficient timeline. We will study about pumpkins and apples to go along with plant life cycle at the end of October.

Upcoming Dates:
Tuesday, October 10th- Picture Retake Day
Thursday, October 12th- Scholastic book Orders Due
Friday, October 13th No School- Teacher Prep. for Conferences
Monday, Oct. 16 through Thursday, Oct. 19- Parent Teacher Conferences
Thursday, October 19th- Early Release
Friday, October 20- No School
Tuesday, October 31st, Halloween Party and Parade starting at 1:30

Scholastic Book Orders will be coming home. Orders are due: Thursday, October 12th.

If you order, there are 2 ways to pay:
A) Return order sheet and a check made out to Scholastic.
B) Online order with your credit card.
1. go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
2. use my class activation code: fmr3g
3. shop and pay.