September 16th - 20th

Dear Families and Friends,

We have completed another great week of 1st Grade and are beginning a new one already! Can you believe that we are already more than 1/2 through the month of September? Your children have been working on setting up Writer's Workshop, Reading Workshop, Math Place Value and Greater Than, Less Than, and Equal To. In Science, we have set up our journals and even completed our first experiment! Wow! Life is fun and full of learning! Please read on to see what we will be learning this week.

Math:  This week we are exploring numbers as we count forward and backward from 0 to 120.  We will continue to compare numbers using symbols and discuss before, between and after.  We will solve problems that make us think about numbers, their place value and how they are related to each other.  We will look for patterns and relationships!

Reading Workshop:

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT YOUR CHILD'S LEARNING AT HOME?
As you and your child read together, stop periodically and ask your child what do they think will happen next? If your child is confused, review the clues in the story.  You can also pretend that you are confused about a part, or you didn't pay attention well and model how you can go back and re-read it again. These are some comprehension strategies that as adults we do naturally, but children don't do it naturally and therefore they need to practice these skills.

This week we will continue reading independently for a longer period each day to build up our stamina during read to self.  We started student reading assessments this week and when we finish, students will be placed in different guided reading groups.  That is when you will get your child's homework packet with a book appropriate for his/her level. This week we will emphasize couple of reading strategies such as, re-reading and making predictions.  There are times that we lose concentration when we read. 

Strong readers always catch themselves when this happens and this is when they need to go back to re-read what they just read.  Strong readers also make predictions.  When we understand things that we read, we can predict what is coming next.  These strategies will help us to be a better reader and to comprehend what we read better.

Writing Workshop:  

This will be another very busy week in Writer's Workshop as we will learn the strategy of stretching and writing words by slowly saying the words we want to write, stretching the sounds out, and writing what we hear. We will also learn how to use  the Word Wall when we write and begin labeling our sketches to help us recall more details and the order of events

Science:  In Science we will learn about matter and properties of matter.  Matters are objects around us, things that we can see, smell, taste, and touch.  Matters can make sound too.  For example you could hear the crunchy sound of dry leaves under your shoes.  We use our five senses (see, hear, smell, taste and touch) to describe the matters. Matters have properties that we can observe.  For example, they come in different sizes, shapes, color and texture.  We will learn that we can sort matters based on their physical properties.

Social Studies:

Tuesday is Constitution Day.  We will discuss the constitution.  What are our rights and what is the constitution and who are the founding fathers of our country.

I would like to send a BIG thank you to all of our volunteers that helped in various ways last week! 

Reminders:
Wednesday - Early Release Day
Thursday - Computer Lab and Library