Dear Parents/Guardians,
The children have been working very hard learning their play lines, songs, and poems for our upcoming Thanksgiving performance. By Friday, most of the first graders had their play lines memorized and seemed to be much more comfortable going up on stage during our daily practices. Please encourage your child to practice their play lines as part of their nightly homework. The more familiar they become with their lines, the less likely it is that they will be nervous on the day of the performance. While your child is reciting their play lines each night, please also urge him/her to say them loudly as the students will not be speaking into a microphone. A fun way to tell whether your child is speaking loudly enough is to stand in an adjacent room and see if you can still hear him/her. As always, thanks for you continued support from home!
Believe it or not, this Friday marks the end of the first quarter marking period. We will spend our shortened week completing our end of the quarter assessments. I will not be introducing any new spelling patterns this week. Instead, we will spend some time reviewing previously learned spelling patterns to ensure that the children can still readily recall the spelling patterns that we’ve learned so far this year. I am once again sending home the first 40 sight words that we have focused on in first grade. Please review these sight words with your child as they will be assessed on them throughout the week.
Please remember that we do not have school Wednesday in observance of Veteran’s Day. We also have an early release day on Friday for scheduled Parent-Teacher conferences. I look forward to meeting with all of you to discuss your child’s progress in first grade! Have a terrific week!
Look what we’re learning this week…
English Language Arts:
*This week’s story: The Farmer in the Hat (continued)
*Comprehension Skills: Identifying cause and effect
Making text-to-text connections; retelling story events
*Associating the sound /a/ with CVCe spelling pattern
*Associating the sound/s/ with the letter c and the sound /j/ with the letter g
*Writing– - Using nouns and proper nouns correctly in writing
-Sequenced writing (First, Next, Then, Finally)
*Spelling: Review previously learned spelling patterns
Mathematics:
*Problem solving strategy “draw a picture” to solve equations
*Reviewing counting on and using a number line to add
*Chapter 5 math test is scheduled for Tuesday
*Use previously learned strategies to memorize addition facts
Social Studies/Science:
*Create circle map for first Thanksgiving
*Anticipation/Reaction activity for the book Thanksgiving Day by Gail Gibbons (to check
accuracy of prior knowledge)