Mrs. Teach’s First Grade News
December 5, 2008

Happy Friday! I can tell the holiday season is upon us. The students have been excited to share a family holiday tradition with their
classmates. We have a variety of ornaments, pictures, a Christmas sack for presents, advent calendars, song book, and ticket to the Nutcracker
on display. Our traditions bulletin board is filling up quickly. There is still time to share items from home that represent a family custom or
tradition.
Before winter break the first graders will be introduced to the seven continents. Yesterday, Mrs. Williams spoke about Australia. She and
her family lived in Australia, and she taught school,too. The children enjoyed an Australian folk tale called How the Kangaroo Got It’s Pouch.
They learned that in Australia a friend is called a bloke, and cookies are called bisquits! We also read about native people called Aborigines and
how their paintings showed animals and human beings and the places where they lived and traveled. The students created their own Aboriginal
designs to hang in the hall. Today the students located Africa on a map of the world. We read an African folk tale called, Sister Hen’s Cool
Drink. We learned that there are grasslands, deserts, and rain forests in Africa. Next week the focus will be on South America, Antarctica and
Asia.
This week in math the children practiced telling time to the half hour, looked for patterns on a number line, and learned to use frames-
and-arrows in which they count forward and backward by 1s,2s,3s,5s,and 10s from a given number. Today, they completed frames-and-arrows
diagrams in which a sequence of numbers is given and they were to find the rule. Thank you for your support at home with the homelinks.
There has been a time change for our holiday party. The high school choir will perform for the RLS students and staff at 8:40 on December
19. Our classroom party will begin around 9:15 and end at 10:30, followed by the school sing-a-long at 10:40 in the gym.
Have a great weekend!

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