It was a pleasure to meet many parents at Open House last week. If you have not already done so please contact me to set up an appointment during our Parent/ Teacher Conference Days on November 19th and 20th. Plenty of times are available.
Curriculum News: This week we are marking the first day of Fall and Johnny Appleseed's Birthday! On Friday we will be having special apple activities in the first grade classrooms. We will also be watching a short animated video clip on the Smartboard.
SUPERKIDS News: The children have been well prepared for their first two weekly spelling quizzes. Thank you for your help at home. Each day we practice our words and we are so proud to show what we know! In Units 1 and 2 the children will be working with the sounds of /sh/ /ch/ /th/ and /wh/ . In addition to phonics skills we are learning about pronouns, punctuation, comprehension, cause and effect, and synonyms. In first grade the class will be learning to read and spell memory words with each unit. The memory words can be tricky as they are not usually spelled as how they sound. By practicing these words and seeing them in context the children will have them mastered in no time at all.
Math News: During the first 6 weeks of school we spend a great deal of time reviewing concepts. We will be practicing number formation, ordering numbers, making and understanding simple graphs, left and right, ordering from least to greatest and the reverse, sorting and collecting data, problem solving, and some basic geometry skills. In addition to our Saxon math program the children will have the opportunity to work with math center games and challenge fun problems.
Religion News: The first graders will be going to daily Mass each Tuesday. If there is a whole school Mass scheduled for another day during the week we will be attending that one instead of the Tuesday morning Mass. Our first chapter is God Is Our Father. The children will be learning about taking care of God's gifts, God's promise to us, and the Holy Trinity.
Social Studies News: The children will be working with our Nystrom Social Studies program this year in first grade. This wonderful program incorporates hands on learning with maps, globes, and atlases. Topics for the first unit include Looking at our neighborhoods: our class, our school, our families, kinds of neighborhoods. We will also learn about basic needs, needs and wants, and rules. In addition to the Nystrom program we will be learning about and observing important national holidays.
Science News: Our first units will be out living and nonliving things, animals and their habitats, and autumn. We will be enjoying many science related stories and projects in the coming weeks.
Our school is very fortunate to be a part of the Discovery Education Streaming Programing. We often use the Smartboards to play video clips from this website to help us further our learning of the curriculum. Please take a look at discoveryeducation.net to see the many, many great resources that we will be using this year. In addition, we will be accessing brainpopjr.com on our Smartboards this year to enrich our learning. When these resources are incorporated in our teaching practices we often find that the children benefit greatly. Please contact me with any compliments, concerns, or questions.
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