November 26-30

Dear Parents,
     I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Break! I want to thank those of you who attended, served, and brought dishes to our Thanksgiving Feast. It was a huge success! It's hard to believe that December is almost here. In the month of December we will be studying our responsibility of helping others. All first grade classes will participate in a candy gram sale to raise money for the local Ronald McDonald House. More information will go home in your child's Red Folder detailing volunteer opportunities for this special project.

Here's a look into this upcoming week:

Reading: Junior Great Books! We will be reading, discussing, and responding to the story: Imagination.

Phonics:Reading, spelling, and writing words with oe. (ex: toe, goes)

Social Studies:Discussing and Introducing wants and needs.

Math: Building number fluency (automatic addition and subtraction problems) composing/decomposing numbers, and solving number stories using different strategies.

Writing: Students will begin writing their first persuasive piece. 

Announcements and Reminders:

• Please remember to practice the spelling words for the week as our words become more difficult. 
• Please bring in 5 boxes of traditional or flavored candy canes for our candy cane gram sale benefiting the Ronald McDonald House. 

Thank you for your continued support at home!

                                                       Mrs. Peake 

November 12-16

Dear Parents,
     I have some exciting news for you! Our class filled the BIG bucket of fuzzies for the first time this year and the children have voted on their prize....a class pet! Tomorrow morning, we will welcome a new member to our class family. Before we voted on our reward, each child agreed to be responsible for the care of our new friend. I will keep you updated on this exciting new adventure.
   Speaking of family, we have our THANKSGIVING FEAST coming up on Thursday, November 15th. A note should have gone home in your child's red folder detailing what your child wanted to contribute. I hope to see many of you there, as we celebrate our thankfulness :)

Here's what to look forward to in the curriculum this week:

Reading: Students will be comparing and contrasting stories using graphic organizers.

Words to know:

girl

boy

together

when

people

care

water

Grammar: Identifying past and present tense verbs.

Phonics: "s" blends (strap, string, scram) and "Bridge e" (same, tile, use, note, Pete)

Identifying syllables.

Social Studies: Students will study the history of Thanksgiving and show their gratitute to others through writing.

Math: Students will continue exploring measurements and composing/decomposing numbers.

Writing: Students will use a graphic organizer to begin writing and revising a personal narrative.

Reminders and Announcements:

• Please turn in the bottom half of the Thanksgiving letter in your child's Red Folder on Monday, Nov. 12th.
• Remember to have your child keep track of the books they are reading (or you are reading together) for our monthly "Book It" challenge!  If they reach 20 books they will receive a sticker and a free pizza from Pizza Hut.
• Keep studying the spelling words each week!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Sincerely,

      Mrs. Peake

November 5-9

Dear Parents,
    Last week was so much fun! We enjoyed reading The Mouse and The Wizard and discussing topics that were geared towards the children's interests. They really impressed me with their ability to listen to one another's ideas and develop their own interpretations of the text, using evidence found in the story. We LOVE Junior Great Books! We also enjoyed dressing up for Halloween, and making Autumn Trees with pretzels and M&M's for Fun Friday. We are looking forward to another great week ahead.

                                        Here's a look into the curriculum for next week: 

Reading: Students will "be detectives" and make predictions before, during and after reading. 

*Questions to ask your child to practice making predictions: What do you think this story will be about? What do you think will happen next?*

Words to Know:

hello

could

walk

pull

all

oh

*Also our Spelling and Red Words from SMART*

Phonics: Vowel Valley sound /au/ /aw/: haul, crawl, paw, August. We will also look at words with  the a_e spelling. For example: pale, make, tape, ate

Social Studies: Students will read and write about the Presidential Election. We will also continue to discover how Human Safety is connected to Weather by conducting experiments.

Math: Students will continue skip counting, reading thermometers, and measuring using Standard and Non-Standard Units.

Writing: Students will write a personal narrative. "If I Were President of the United States"

Reminders and Announcements:

• Please continue studying the Spelling Words each week. These words become more complicated as the year progresses and the "criminal words" must be memorized since they do not follow the rules. The children are given opportunities to practice during the school day, however, this time alone will not be enough to excel on the weekly spelling tests.  Please keep up the good work!
• We do NOT have school on Tuesday, November 6th. It will be a teacher work day.

Thank you for all of your continued support at home! 

Sincerely, 

    Jean Peake