Newsletter Dec. 8-12

 

Dear Parents,

What an exciting time to be in first grade! Our students are enthusiastic about our new unit of inquiry entitled: Helping Others. Our central idea is that helping those in need is one of our responsibilities as a member of a community. This week we have brainstormed different scenarios where members in our community might need help and ways to help them, identified the differences between needs and wants and created an action plan for our two fundraisers that will benefit the Ronald McDonald House.

 We have also been working on decomposing numbers in math into tens and ones. We have also been working hard to improve our problem solving strategies in math using our newest research based curriculum: Math Exemplars. I absolutely LOVE this program and the children do too! They are so proud of what they can show when given a story problem. When we are given a problem, the students must use the Problem Solving Procedures to not simply answer the problem but demonstrate a complete understanding of the mathematical concept.

Your child visits the Media Center each Thursday at 8:30 to check out books. They choose one AR Book and one book that they are interested in having read aloud to them at home. Their AR Book is a book that is on their reading level that they can read independently. Once they have read their book three times, they will take a quiz on the computer to check their comprehension. Your child may take his or her AR book home to read to you as well as long as that book is returned to school the very next day. Please help your child to keep up with this responsibility by asking them about their books each Thursday J

 

Here’s a quick look into the curriculum for next week:

 

Reading:

JGB Story Rumplestiltskin. A homework sheet explaining Monday and Wednesdays assignments will go home.

                                  Phonics:

Continue working on the “FLOSS” rule. When a short word ends in f,l,s,or z after a vowel, you double to consonant.

Ex:

buff

class

buzz

well

Red Words:

can, said, there

Writing:

Students will choose a gift to give to the world. Students will explain why they think their gift would be beneficial to all people.

Mathematics:

Continuing to explore place value and using problem solving strategies to solve complex problems.

Important Announcements and Reminders:

-First Grade is raising money for the Ronald McDonald House during the month of December. We are holding two separate fundraisers: a Candy Cane Gram Sale and a Teacher Outing Raffle.

-The Candy Cane Gram Sale will take place Dec. 9^th and 10^th. All SRS students may buy a gram for 25 cents to benefit the local RMH

-The Teacher Outing Raffle will take place December 16^th and 17^th. Your child can buy a ticket for $1 for the chance to spend the afternoon with one of the fabulous first grade teachers J

*I have encouraged the children to ask you if they can serve in any way around your home (wash dishes, sweep the floors, feed the dog, etc.) to earn quarters for these fundraisers. *

-Our class is having a Book Exchange on Dec. 16^th. A letter went home in your child’s Wednesday Folder including details about this upcoming event.

-A letter went home in your child’s Wednesday Folder about sharing Holiday Celebrations. If your family celebrates a holiday other than Christmas and you would like to come in and share your traditions with us, please send me an email.

-Our Class Holiday Party is scheduled on Dec. 19^th @ 8:30.

-We will be holding “Winter Conferences” in place of the Fall Conferences that did not take place. Thank you for your patience as I spend this time instructing and gathering as much information as possible about your child. This will help me to have a productive conference with each of you. These conferences are tentatively set to take place during the month of January. You will receive a Signup Genius invitation to choose a time that is convenient for you. I am looking forward to meeting with each of you and discussing your child’s progress in first grade!




Congratulations to our new Star Student, Yamil! He has done a wonderful job following the Essential Agreements and is caring to his friends. WAY TO GO, YAMIL!