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News from Mrs. Martin’s First Grade Class
September 28, 2009
IMPORTANT DATES:
· Sept. 29-Oct. 2~ MAP testing
· Oct. 5~ Picture Money due (Make up pictures will be taken on 10/21)
· Oct. 5-8~ Book Fair in the Media Center
· Oct. 8~ Family Literacy Night 5-7 pm (book fair will be open)
· Oct. 16 & 19~ Teacher In Service & Workday/ Student Holidays
· Oct. 23~ First Grade Field Trip to the Carolina Foothills Heritage Fair/FFA Farm City Day at West Oak High School
Parent Conferences: As we complete our MAP testing this week, I will begin to schedule parent conferences with each one of you. Please look for a letter to be returned later in the week. Thanks in advance for your help with this!
REMINDERS:
The “School Store” will be open for business before school on Wednesday & Thursday of this week.
Please help your child remember to wear sneakers on our PE days, Mondays & Wednesdays. Our library day is Friday. Please also remember to send a small, healthy snack that can be quickly and independently eaten in the mornings. Thanks for remembering to send all money to school in an envelope, clearly labeled with your child’s name, my name, and what the money is for.
THANK YOU: Special thanks to Mrs. Hare for volunteering in our classroom. She has been a tremendous help getting our Take Home Reader program going!
Homework: For this week, please begin reading the following first grade high-frequency words.
all, eat, got, has, have, like, of, play, was, will
We will go over these at our upcoming conferences. If your child can easily recognize them for reading, go ahead and begin practicing the spelling of these words. Our main goal now is for the children to be able to read them at first sight; spelling will come later.
Please continue to review the K words: a, and, away, big, blue, can, cat, come, dad, dog, down, find, for, funny, go, help, I, in, is, it, jump, little, look, make, me, mom, my, not, one, play, red, run, said, see, the, three, to, two, up, we, yellow, you
Continue to set aside 15 minutes each day for you and your child to read together. The Take Home Reader program has gotten off to a fantastic start! I am seeing growth in the children already! At times, your child will have more than one book per night. On these days, please be sure to read everything in the folder. Thanks for your cooperation with homework! Together, we can work together to help your child reach his or her fullest potential!
Language Arts: We are working on spelling using beginning, middle, and ending sounds of words, writing sentences with spacing between words, and including periods at the end of sentences. We are continuing to focus on using our fingers to point to the words as we read, using the pictures for clues, and “getting our mouths ready” as we face unknown words. We're noticing patterns and rhyming words in our reading.
Math: We’re working on the class number grid, which begins with a few negative numbers and goes up to 110. We’re reviewing counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s up to 50 and higher. We’ve begun reading our class thermometer, which counts by 10’s and 2’s. We’ll work more with nickels and pennies, counting combinations of these 2 coins. We are making and reading graphs.
Social Studies: We joined other SC students in learning a little about the constitution and symbols of our country last week.
Science: We are working on our observational skills, as we study the weather and the changes in our environment due to the change in seasons! We are learning to classify objects by shape, size, color, and texture.
