March 17-20

Dear Parents,

We have had a busy and fun-filled past couple of weeks in first grade! One of our class goals has been to become better writers by using adjectives to expand our sentences and make them more powerful to an audience. The students are also working diligently to edit their own papers by correcting capitalization, punctuation and spelling.  I have definitely seen an improvement in their writing. Please continue to make sure that when your child sends in his or her homework that they have checked for any mistakes.

In math, we have also been focusing on adding and subtracting larger numbers to one another by focusing on place value and will continue to work on this next week as well. We have added a couple of new games to our math games tub that help the children practice explore place value and subtraction. The students are always excited to practice new strategies through play with their friends J

The children have LOVED our study of American History and have had lots of questions regarding our new unit of inquiry! Our field trip to the Atlanta History center next Friday, March 20^th will be the perfect way to bring their learning to life as they will better understand what life was like in the 1800’s.

                                           Here’s a look into the curriculum this upcoming week:

Spelling:

Magic ‘e’

make, grade, kite, flute, woke

Red Words: look, has

Grammar:

Identifying base or “root” words with ending and beginning affixes.

Ex: playing (base word is play) unlocked (base word is lock)

Math:

Identifying how place value helps us to add and subtract.

Writing:

Continuing to write an opinion piece.

Reflecting and writing about our progress throughout first grade in preparation for our Portfolio Parties.

Important Updates and Reminders:

Congratulations to last week’s Star Student, Scottie Brown! Scottie is open-minded when she listens to her other classmates and is enthusiastic about learning. We learned many things about our Star Student this week and were proud to display her poster and biography outside our classroom door. Way to go, Scottie!

Our newest Star Student is Sean Pollock! We are proud of Sean for always “thinking outside the box” and participating in all class discussions. We look forward to learning more about what makes Sean so special this upcoming week.

Please mark your calendar for the following dates:

March 16-Teacher workday- No school for kids

March 20- Field trip for all first graders to the Atlanta History Center

March 20- Sarah Smith Auction- Also at the Atlanta History Center

April 6- Spring Break Begins