November 30, 2009

Welcome back!  I hope your family had a safe and relaxing Thanksgiving break! 

Last Tuesday, we said goodbye to our wonderful student teacher, Allie Duffy.  She will definitely be missed!  We hope that she comes back for an occasional visit.  She is definitely headed for great things.  Thanks for all of the goodies you provided for our class gift.  Your thoughtful donations will definitely help her in her future classroom. 

It is hard to believe that the Winter Break is just around the corner.  This time of year can by very busy, so I thank all of you for your continued support at home with nightly homework.  The November book projects sharing days are this week.  Thanks for helping your child prepare before his/her day.

There will not be a reading project for December. However, I am asking that the students continue reading during the week and recording titles in their planners.  Additionally, the January reading project instructions are posted on the class website a little early.  You will need to scroll down below some information that I included about the first graders reading homework for December.  This is a longer activity so the winter break may be a great time for your child to get started.  I am sending home a stapled book for your child to record his/her learning on Tuesday, January 5th.

Coming home in the Tuesday folder this week, you will find a letter providing information on how to access our district’s math book adoption online.  This is a resource you can use to help your child practice math at home.  Each first grader has his or her own username and password to use when accessing the website, so please keep your letter in a safe place.  The purpose of this site is to provide parents with a glimpse into their first grader’s math learning.  As a team, we pull from many math resources; therefore, the math adoption is not used exclusively.  Please refer to the math section below each week to get information on what we are learning.  If we are using the math book adoption to teach a concept that week we will note the “Topic number.”  When you go online, you can search for that topic number to pull up activities that you can use to supplement your child’s daily learning.  If we are integrating other resources, a topic number will not be noted that week.  Please refer to the letter that is coming home for more information. 

SCIENCE DAY…
Science Day is December 4th. We will need many volunteers for this event to happen. There will be 4 rotations at the times below.
The topics will be: Recycling, Lights, Engineering, Ocean/Shells.

1st rotation: 10:40 -11:10
Break for lunch
2nd rotation: 12:15-12:45
3rd rotation: 12:45-1:15
4th rotation: 1:15- 1:45

Please contact Liz Green, if you are able to volunteer.
lgreen69@gmail.com
257-1060

THANK YOU…
-Thank you to Athena’s family for donating baby wipes! 

PARENT DONATIONS...
- I am running low on hand sanitizer.  The new district policy is to use alcohol free hand sanitizer.  If you are out-and-about and find some alcohol free hand sanitizer, we would love the donation!  We are working hard to stay germ free!  Thanks in advance!

HOLIDAY CRAFT…A note came home in the last Tuesday folder asking for your help with a special holiday project.  Each student in our class will need a 9 inch Pringles can.  Please send it to school with a lid, empty and clean.  Thanks for your help!!  If you have any extra, please send them too!

STAR OF THE WEEK…
Congratulations to our Star-of-the-Week, Sam!  His special star poster will be up on our class bulletin board all this week.  We look forward to learning more about our special star!

THINGS TO REMEMBER…
- Friday, Dec. 18 – Holiday Party in the classroom
- Friday, Dec. 21 – Monday, Jan. 4 – Winter Break

HOMEWORK
1. Read for 10-15 minutes; record titles in the planner
2. Practice Math Facts daily
3. Practice Spelling words daily
4. Look at the December reading project posted on the web page and start thinking with your child about the January reading project.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY:
- Happy Birthday to Zachary on December 8th!

THIS WEEK AT A GLANCE

PHONICS: This week we will discuss how to read words with 2 vowels in the middle (coat, seat, meet, etc.).  I added a link under the "Helpful Links" section of our website that is great for practicing this rule. 

WRITING:  The first graders will continue writing in their journals and Writer’s Notebooks, as well as practicing handwriting.  Also, this week we will begin a short study of letter writing.  We will discuss the 5 parts of a friendly letter (date, greeting, body, closing, and signature) and learn how the mail system works.
   
READING:  This week we continue to work on building a strong sight word vocabulary, strategies for figuring out unknown words, and retelling. 

SPELLING: This week's spelling patterns, writing words, and bonus words are now posted on the website.   

MATH: This week’s math test will be over the addition facts of 6.  You can find these facts listed in the Math Fact section of our classroom website. Last week, we finished our discussion of the 100s chart, counting forward and backwards, skip counting, and identifying odd and even numbers.  This week we will introduce place value and explore numbers using tens and ones.    The first graders will practice counting groups of 10s and counting groups of 10s and 1s together to make two-digit numbers.

SOCIAL STUDIES: This week we will discuss our three basic needs: food, clothing, and shelter.  Then, we will compare our needs to our wants.  During the holiday season, there are examples of generosity all around us.  We will talk about generosity, good deeds and helping those in need.  Also this week, we will read some Aesop's fables, folktales and legends that originate from various countries around the world.  The students will learn the differences between these types of stories.

Also this week, the first graders’ very first research project will come home in the Tuesday folder.  For this project, the students studied 3 topics: Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, and Native Americans.  The purpose was to introduce them to nonfiction sources, gather information as a class, and records their learning in a question and answer book.  We discussed the parts of a nonfiction story (e.g., labels, captions, table of contents, photographs, and maps) and how it is made up of facts.  Please take a minute to look over it with your child. The first graders worked very hard on this assignment.  

Have a wonderful week!
Jean Riggins