August 25-29, 2008

What a way to start our third week of school. I hope everyone stayed safe and as dry as possible today. The children did absolutely wonderful today considering we were completely off schedule, ate lunch in our classroom, and spent a good amount of time in the hallway.

This week we will continue to focus on learning school and class rules, and practicing our routines of the school day. We have discussed in detail about the importance of not talking while Mrs. Wright is talking and also in the bathrooms and hallways. Several of the children are having difficulty being quiet at the appropriate times. Please encourage your child to work hard each day and do their very best!

Please support our school by becoming a member of the PTA! Our PTA works extremely hard and helps us in so many ways. If you have not joined please consider joining! Memberships are $10.00 and if you have more than one child, please join for each child. Remember grandparents and relatives can join also!

Don't forget that Monday, September 1st is a holiday. Enjoy the long weekend!

If your child has not memorized his/her lunch number please help them! If you do not know their number please send me a note and I will send it home.

Be sure and check through your child's take home folder each night. Look on both sides of the notebook for papers to keep at home and papers to return to school. Don't forget to sign the conduct calendar and reading log EVERY night.

WORD WALL WORDS
Check your child's notebook for this week's word wall words. Children will be tested on the first 9 weeks word wall words at the end of the nine weeks grading period. The test will consist of the children reading the words to me correctly. So please practice reading these words. If your child can already read the words you may want to practice spelling them, although they will not be required to spell them correctly for a grade until January.

LANGUAGE
Language rules are introduced and practiced by copying sentences from the overhead Monday - Thursday. Beginning this week the sentences will contain errors that will need to be corrected as they are copied. The corrections will be a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence (rule 2), a period at the end of a statement (rule 3) and a capital I when alone (rule 5). We go over these sentences and where the corrections should be every day after the children complete their DOL (daily oral language). The children will bring these papers home daily and should be reviewed each night. On Friday I will choose 5 sentences directly from the sentences the children copied earlier in the week and they will copy and correct these for a daily grade. I will take a daily grade every Friday in Language. Check your child's notebook to see all the grammar rules.

MATH
I was so proud of the children on their first Math test. Everyone did a great job!! We will begin Chapter 2, exploring the Order of Property; ex. 2+4=6, 4+2=6. The children will also learn how to write vertical addition sentences. Please continue to practice the 1's addition facts. We will begin the doubles addition facts this week, ex. 2+2=4, 3+3=6. You will need to make flashcards of the doubles up to 9 and practice each night. We will have a "practice" timed test (one minute to complete 20 addition problems) this Friday. I will send it home so you can see how your child did. Beginning next week timed tests will count as a daily grade. When practicing flash cards the goal is for the children to memorize the sum. We will continue to add new facts each week, be sure and practice every night so your child does not get behind. Research shows that daily practice is required to develop an automaticity with math facts and that if children develop an automatic recall of math facts in the early grades, in later grades they will be free to concentrate on learning higher level concepts of mathematics.

READING
We are continuing to practice the routines of working in literacy centers and small groups. We have also been checking books out of the library. Library books should come to school EVERYDAY, even if your child has not finished reading the book, the book/s should come to school each day. There is time in our schedule that the children may read and take AR tests. Hopefully we will begin taking Accelerated Reader tests this week. For those of you who are not familiar with Accelerated Reader (AR) I am working on a Parent Handbook and will send it home at the beginning of next week.

Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Have a great week!

Popsicle Party!

August 18-22, 2008

We had a great Monday and learned so much today! We are starting our reading groups and will be working together in small groups while Mrs. Wright works with a reading group. We really have to practice using our inside voices and working together during reading because we want everyone to be super readers! We also begin working on our addition facts. I want to encourage you to use flashcards every night for just 10 or so minutes. This can be so helpful, we want these addition facts to be instant, we want to avoid the crutch of always counting on our fingers. Right now we are working on the zero facts and adding 1 to numbers 1-9. PLEASE practice this each night as well as listen to or read to your child each night, also don't forget to practice reading your word wall words in your child's notebook. If you have any questions feel free to e-mail or send me a note, I am here to help. Working together we can help your child become a successful 1st grader!!

A few reminders:
- PTA is tomorrow night at 6:3o in the cafeteria.
- Our 1st grade "Popsicle Party" is Thursday at Thorington Road Park from 6:00- 7:00. I know this is also the Volunteer Orientation, I am sorry that these two conflicted.
- The last day to order First Grade T-Shirts will be this Friday, August 22.

First Day Of First Grade!

Our first two days of school have been simply wonderful! We are working really hard on listening and following directions the first time they are given. We are also working on remembering to raise our hands before we speak and listening while others are speaking. Everyone has so much to share and we all want to be heard. Thank you for sending all of your paperwork in so prompt! Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions or concerns you may have! I am looking forward to a fantastic year!

First Day of First Grade! 2008-2009