February 8, 2010
What a fun week we have ahead of us! On Friday, we will have our Valentine’s Day party from 1:50 – 2:45. Recently, your child brought home a class list that he or she compiled to help with addressing valentine cards. Please feel free to send in your child’s valentines any morning this week. Valentine cards need to be at school by Friday morning at the latest so that the students have time to pass them out. Our deepest appreciation goes to Krista for coordinating our party and to those of you who have volunteered to help out.
VOLUNTEER REMINDER:
This semester there are many fun first grade activities that we would love to have parent participation. If you would like to volunteer for an event in the classroom, please take time to fill out the necessary volunteer paperwork. This district-wide policy is required for all activities that involve students other than your own child. This would include events such as field trips, Ocean Day (or other thematic events), working with small groups of students, volunteering in the cafeteria, lunch recess, Watch Dog Dads, field day etc. The application has to be completed every school year. If you are unsure if you have completed it for this school year, please email me and I am happy to check with Becky Klaus. It takes 72 hours for the paperwork to go through the system. Each adult in your family has to complete the volunteer application in order to volunteer. It is not a family application. To find the application, please visit the Round Rock ISD website. Click on the “Students/Parents” tab and then the “Volunteer and Mentor Application.” Directions are provided to walk you through the process. Thanks for filling out this application, and we look forward to seeing you in the classroom this semester! Please email me if you have any questions about this process or how to locate the application.
CLASS NEWS:
As noted in last week’s newsletter, the February reading project is posted under the “Reading Project” section of our web page. This month the children will read a biography about a real person. Our school library has a wonderful selection of biographies. Mrs. Whisnand has set aside a cart of biographies for the first graders to use when selecting a book. This project is being completed by the entire grade level, so I encourage your child to check out a book soon before the selection dwindles. The public library and local bookstores also have a supply of age appropriate biographies. Please let me know if you have any questions about this new project.
Thank you, parents, for making reading time an important part of your evening! We had several days last week when every student brought their planner to school, filled in the titles, and had your initials! This nightly practice time is important for the students in so many ways!
Our week will include:
LANGUAGE ARTS
Reading: Our focus during small group instruction is on building our vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension as the stories we read increase in length and difficulty. One skill we have been working on is using the dictionary!
Writing: This week the students will practice writing factual information about the United States Symbols. Also this week, the students will learn how to self-edit their stories and look for capitals, punctuation, adequate spacing, and that all of their words have vowels. Finally, we will write in our First Grade journals.
Spelling: Check out the new patterns on the Spelling section of our webpage! Keep up the excellent studying you are doing at home!
Handwriting: At this point in the year, your child should be writing all the capital letters correctly, as well as all lower case letters except f, q, x and z. If you notice your child starting a letter at the bottom, please correct him/her! (Remember to check out the Handwriting Helpers section of our web page to find out the strokes for all the letters of the alphabet.) We have talked about the need to print letters correctly so that cursive writing will be easier when it is taught in second grade. I appreciate your help!
MATH
This week’s math facts test will be subtraction facts from 9.
We will continue learning strategies to help us solve addition problems with higher numbers. This week the students will learn the make a 10 strategy. For this strategy the students learn how to change a number sentence like 9+3 into 10+2. We have discussed in class how easy it is to add numbers to 10. We are also working hard to understand the relationship between different number sentences. For example, doubles number sentences all have even answers (e.g., 6+6=12. The students were very excited when they realized that the answers to doubles facts are going up by two. The students also learned last week that 6+7 is just the doubles fact plus one. Hopefully these strategies will help your child build his/her computation skills.
On Friday, the children will have special Valentine’s Day activities to do during Math. We will review the concepts of place value and measurement and explore the new concepts of fractions and time!
SCIENCE / SOCIAL STUDIES
This week we will discuss the important symbols of our country. To record their learning, the students will make a United States symbols book. For the symbols book this week, we will focus on the American flag, the Statue of Liberty, the Great Seal, and the bald eagle.
HOMEWORK FOR THE WEEK
1. Practice Spelling patterns each day.
2. Practice Math facts each day.
3. Read 10-15 minutes each day. Record your book titles on the February reading log!
4. Work on those February reading projects, which are due very soon! Please let me know if you have any questions!
SPECIAL STAR Celeste is our Special Star this week!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Bryce on Feb. 8!
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
Feb. 9: PTA Meeting and First Grade Program, 6:30 p.m.
Feb. 10: Early release at 12:45
Feb. 12: Valentine's Day party at 1:50
Feb. 15: Student holiday; Staff Development Day for teachers
OTHER
Please encourage your child to be the best listener he/she can be. Make sure your child is getting enough rest each night! Thank you!
Have a lovely week! I’ll see you on Tuesday evening! Happy Valentine’s Day!
Kim Flott