Saturday, March 25, 2017

      First Grade Home to School Connections
             Week of March 27th

      FIRST GRADE is Performing at the SPRING 

             Concert with Mrs. Barrette             

    at the Smithfield High School Tuesday, March 28th at 6:00

            FUNDATIONS....Unit 10…Closed Syllables that have five sounds.
These are words that usually have a blend (  two consonants each with their own sound) at the beginning of a word and a blend at  the end of a word.  The word slump is an example. The sl is the blend at the beginning and mp is a blend at the end of the word. The suffix s will also be added.
Essential Question:  What is a closed syllable?
1.   Closed syllables can only have one vowel.
2.   The vowel is followed by one or more consonants (closed in)
3.   The vowel sound is short.  To indicate the short vowel, the vowel is marked with a breve. 

Essential Question:  What is a vowel team?
What is a closed syllable?  What is the magic “e” rule?


MY MATH………Practice Math Facts….Timed or Untimed   Fact Dash - Macmillan/McGraw-Hill

·      Chapter 6 Adding and Subtracting Two Digit Numbers
·      Essential Question: How do you add and subtract two digit numbers?
·      All the vocabulary in this chapter are review words

New Foss Science Kit …….. Plants and Animals Science
What happens to rye grass and alfalfa seeds in moist soil?
Investigation 1: Grass and Grain Seeds

Reading Workshop Strategy.......Schema......Making Connections

            Text to Self   Text to Text  Text to World         

Saturday, September 24, 2016

 First Grade
Home to School Connection
Week of September 26th Newsletter Highlights
Math Fluency
We are currently working on becoming fluent in addition to ten. This means that students can add 30 addition problems (3+6,2+8,5+5,etc.) to 10 within 2 minutes with 80% accuracy.
Our New Unit
Unit 3……Concept of consonanat diagraphs,key words and sounds: wh,ch,sh,th,ck (CHECK ON Fundations page)
Trick Words: as - has - to - into - we - he
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Writing: We are working on different kinds of sentences in our writing. We are using punctuation marks (. ? ! ). We are discussing asking (?) and telling (.) sentences. We also are talking about sentences that show excitement (!).
              
Reminder Student Homework will not be graded.  I am sending home a ticket.  I will only return if corrections are needed.
                                          
First grade is responsible for the garden area under our window.  We will be caring for it throughout the school year.  If you would like to assist and have your BCI check, please let me know and we could use your assistance caring for that area and keeping it looking lovely.

W-A-N-T-E-D … Tulip/Daffodil Bulbs

Sunday, September 18, 2016


First Grade
Home to School Connection
Week of September 19th
Weekly Highlighted Version
                                                             
Fundations: Unit 2, Week 2.  CVC Words… Check out the info on our website for in depth details..
Blend ,read and spell three short vowel words.
We are changing end sounds to make new words.
           A reading log was sent home for the month. Return at the end of the month.
                                                                                     
 Writing: Starting this week we will be writing Weekend News.
 Air and Weather Science
Our class is beginning a study of air and weather that involves observing patterns in the day and night sky.
Reminders:
 ***Bring a labeled Water Bottle Daily it is still warm and children get thirsty. Students may bring their water bottles to gym.
***Please return your Scholastic News payment
Scholastic Book Club on line.  Orders until the 30th.

Please Return Little Mermaid Permission Slip with Payment

Sunday, September 4, 2016

First Grade Home to School Connection
Week of September 5th
Open House
I look forward to meeting families at open house on the 15th. You will get to see your child’s classroom and will learn about your child’s year of learning in first grade. If you have any questions, please feel to email me at anytime. Please check this site each week to keep yourself up to date with classroom happenings.
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Right now the children are learning some sight words, and there are lots of ways you can help your child become a skilled reader.
  Skilled readers glance at a page of printed matter and get meaning almost instantly.  They can do this because they recognize the words and the meanings so rapidly that the words do not seem to come between them and the meaning at all.
*Sight words are words that we know at sight.  As soon as we see them, we know what they are.  We memorize them, just as children memorize McDonald's, pizza and Barbie.
*Sight words are service words.  If children don't know them "by sight", they spend a lot of time struggling with their reading.
                  Helping with Sight Words
The words on the Dolch 220 Basic Sight Vocabulary list make up 65-70% of the running words in early readers and children's picture books. We also include Fundation sight words on our list.
*Our sight vocabulary continues to grow throughout our lives.  As adult readers, we rarely find words in our recreational reading that we don't know; however, we often find new words in our instructional reading.
As children begin learning sight words, let them work with a few new words at a time so they don't become discouraged.  It is very important that children see this as a game and that you call attention to words they know with "one look" rather than calling attention to the words they don't know. (SRA DOLCH READING PROGRAM)
                        Sight Words a   all   am an   and are   at   can  come  did do   for   get  go  have here   I  is in  it  like  look  me   my  on  out  put  said  see   the  that to  up  was  went   what  when who  why    where  you  your   with
(Partial List to begin with, more to follow)

Check out the Kindergarten Word Wall Page on m on m website. Your child should also know how to spell these words so that will assist in both reading and writing.  We will be working on the Trick Word Wall Words all year.  These are the FUNdations words.

ESSENTIAL Question: What are the letter names, their sounds and how do you write them?
Please check out the first Fundations unit on my website.  It is the last one at the  bottom.  It explains what we are doing.  It is a review from Kindergarten.
Charts and writing paper is also available for you online to use at home.  I will not be sending this home.  It is your responsibility to run it off.  If you are unable to, please email me and I will send it home.  I really want to do my part in helping the environment and not over whelm you with papers.
Math Connects:
Trimester Math Essential Questions
●What are the next ____numbers after ____?
●How many are in this set? How can you write the numeral?
●What number comes before ______?
●What number comes after______?
●Explain with pictures, words, or equations: What is a turnaround fact?
●How does a turnaround fact help you learn math facts?
●Use manipulatives to show a number sentence for:
--Addition
--Subtraction
●What is a fact family?
●What does an equal sign mean?
Writing
Essential Question:  What is a complete sentence?  What elements does it need (capital, spacing, neatness and punctuation mark) to be a complete sentence?

We are working on writing a complete sentence.  They should contain all of the above.  Please reinforce this at home.
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Reminders: ***Bring a labeled Water Bottle Daily it is still warm and children get thirsty. Students may bring their water bottles to gym. PLEASE label with their name.
***ORDER Books online at Scholastic.  Check out the link on our webpage.
***PLEASE send in money for Scholastic/Science News.

***HOMEWORK will begin next week. Please check your child’s folder daily.  Completed work does not have to be returned until Friday.