Hi Parents,
I've listed some helpful tips as you head into the "Twelve Days of Christmas"...
-put time limits on technology
-set aside time for journaling/journal with them as well
-play board games
-teach waiting...waiting in a store, waiting at a restaurant, waiting for their time to talk
-teach monotonous tasks...Santa loves a hard worker.
...folding laundry
...hanging laundry
...unpacking groceries
...setting the table
...clearing the table
...making breakfast/lunch
...making their bed
Social Things to work on-
-taking turns
-sharing
-winning and losing nicely
-compromising
-complimenting others
-using please and thank you
Christmas vacation is a great time for snuggling in front of a fire and sharing a great book or telling a story. Spend quality time with your child this season...next year they will be a year older and much bigger so cherish each moment and enjoy your family time!!
Merry Christmas
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Sunday, November 19, 2017
November 19, 2017
November was filled with many activities related to Native Americans, the Pilgrims and our first Thanksgiving. The students discovered the different land forms that were homes to the Native Americans and how they used the land to survive. They studied about the homes and survival skills of the Ojibway, the Iroquois, the Cherokee, the Lakota, the Hopi and the Haida tribes. We drew different types of homes (tepee, long house and pueblo) , made pottery from play dough, wrote summaries of each tribe and played a few Native American games. We learned a rain dance and are waiting on the rain to come!!!
All of the children have made exciting progress with their reading skills and look forward to their time for independent reading each day.
We are studying odd and even numbers, adding 2 to a number, ordinal numbers, symmetry, telling time, counting money, capacity of containers, estimation, and using standard and nonstandard measurement. The children are copying and creating beautiful patterns using pattern blocks and they enjoy using calculators to solve and check higher level math problems.
There is never a dull moment in our classroom...first grade is fantastic.
We will be boarding the Polar Express and going around the world to learn about Christmas in other countries during December.
November was filled with many activities related to Native Americans, the Pilgrims and our first Thanksgiving. The students discovered the different land forms that were homes to the Native Americans and how they used the land to survive. They studied about the homes and survival skills of the Ojibway, the Iroquois, the Cherokee, the Lakota, the Hopi and the Haida tribes. We drew different types of homes (tepee, long house and pueblo) , made pottery from play dough, wrote summaries of each tribe and played a few Native American games. We learned a rain dance and are waiting on the rain to come!!!
All of the children have made exciting progress with their reading skills and look forward to their time for independent reading each day.
We are studying odd and even numbers, adding 2 to a number, ordinal numbers, symmetry, telling time, counting money, capacity of containers, estimation, and using standard and nonstandard measurement. The children are copying and creating beautiful patterns using pattern blocks and they enjoy using calculators to solve and check higher level math problems.
There is never a dull moment in our classroom...first grade is fantastic.
We will be boarding the Polar Express and going around the world to learn about Christmas in other countries during December.
Thursday, October 19, 2017
October 19, 2017
October has been a busy month in first grade. The students have researched and learned so many interesting facts about bats, spiders and pumpkins. If you see a first grader walking around, ask them to share their knowledge on these topics. The 1st and 2nd graders "got to know" a pumpkin this week. Each student brought a pumpkin to school. They wrote adjectives that described their special pumpkin, they read to their pumpkin, they weighed the pumpkin and measured the circumference of their pumpkin. We mixed all of the pumpkins into a big pile and they had to find the pumpkin that matched their description. Each pumpkin made it to its rightful owner. Today we "gutted" each pumpkin and boy oh boy did we have pumpkin faces, hands, knees, elbows and arms as we worked on this project. Tomorrow we will have the help of some 8th and 9th graders and each student will carve a face into their pumpkin. I'm excited to meet the jack-o-lanterns that will be created.
The first graders are rocking in their math shoes!!!!! Every student scored 100% on their math test yesterday! I am seeing improvements each day.
We have completed theme 2 in our reading series and are now in theme 3. The students are always saying..."WE ARE READERS,,,WE ARE READERS!!!" They are so excited to read to anyone who will listen, just ask our pumpkins, lol. In theme 3 we will focus on sequencing, main idea and details, topic sentences, summarizing, words with double consonant endings, consonant blends, long vowel words, plurals with -s, and verb endings -s, -ed, and -ing.
There is never a dull moment in first grade!!!
The first graders are rocking in their math shoes!!!!! Every student scored 100% on their math test yesterday! I am seeing improvements each day.
We have completed theme 2 in our reading series and are now in theme 3. The students are always saying..."WE ARE READERS,,,WE ARE READERS!!!" They are so excited to read to anyone who will listen, just ask our pumpkins, lol. In theme 3 we will focus on sequencing, main idea and details, topic sentences, summarizing, words with double consonant endings, consonant blends, long vowel words, plurals with -s, and verb endings -s, -ed, and -ing.
There is never a dull moment in first grade!!!
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
October 3, 2017
HaPpY OcToBeR....Things here in first grade are getting a little "batty"!!! Yes we are studying bats this week and we have some large vocabulary words to prove it. Bats are nocturnal mammals. Some bats hibernate. All bats use echolocation to navigate. Microbats eat millions of mosquitoes and insects, we like that! Megabats eat fruits and help spread seeds. We will make bats, read about bats, research bats, compare bats and play games using "echolocation".
Next week we will have our theme 2 reading test, the information for that test will be in the weekly folder this week. I am so proud of the progress the children are making. We are reading CVC words and are learning to read CVCe words. We have mastered all of our first high frequency word list and are working on list 2. We will work with "s" blend words this week. We are dividing words into syllables to decode and we have learned the "i" and "e" sound that -y makes at the end of a word.
Fun in math.
The children learned a rap song to help them memorize their doubles facts. They are writing number sentences and solving word problems. They are creating amazing patterns with pattern blocks. We are using ordinal numbers, color words, directional words and number words every day. Math time is a busy time in first grade
Stay tuned for SpIdErS, pUmPkInS and other HaLlOwEen things...
Next week we will have our theme 2 reading test, the information for that test will be in the weekly folder this week. I am so proud of the progress the children are making. We are reading CVC words and are learning to read CVCe words. We have mastered all of our first high frequency word list and are working on list 2. We will work with "s" blend words this week. We are dividing words into syllables to decode and we have learned the "i" and "e" sound that -y makes at the end of a word.
Fun in math.
The children learned a rap song to help them memorize their doubles facts. They are writing number sentences and solving word problems. They are creating amazing patterns with pattern blocks. We are using ordinal numbers, color words, directional words and number words every day. Math time is a busy time in first grade
Stay tuned for SpIdErS, pUmPkInS and other HaLlOwEen things...
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Welcome Fall!!
We welcomed fall by painting leaves and learning a poem about fall. We are watching for signs of fall outside. We are sooooo ready for the temperatures to "fall".
The children are becoming such good readers. We have worked on one and two syllable words and have learned how to segment a word by syllables. We know our short vowel sounds and are working on the long vowel patterns. We will be working on comparing reality and fantasy as well as sequencing events in a story. Please use the key words, first, next, then and last when discussing a story with your child. Have your child make a sandwich or help you prepare a meal. Discuss what you did first, next, then and last. We are writing complex sentences by using "and" and "because" to link more information in the sentence. We are working on writing on a topic and adding details in the sentences to "paint pictures in your head".
In math we are working on the doubles facts through 9+9. Please study the flash cards each night. We are working word problems and writing number sentences to match the problem, ordinal numbers through sixth, counting by 2's, 5's and 10's, color words, number words and shape words.
Thank you for all that you do to help your child learn! I am seeing progress daily.
The children are becoming such good readers. We have worked on one and two syllable words and have learned how to segment a word by syllables. We know our short vowel sounds and are working on the long vowel patterns. We will be working on comparing reality and fantasy as well as sequencing events in a story. Please use the key words, first, next, then and last when discussing a story with your child. Have your child make a sandwich or help you prepare a meal. Discuss what you did first, next, then and last. We are writing complex sentences by using "and" and "because" to link more information in the sentence. We are working on writing on a topic and adding details in the sentences to "paint pictures in your head".
In math we are working on the doubles facts through 9+9. Please study the flash cards each night. We are working word problems and writing number sentences to match the problem, ordinal numbers through sixth, counting by 2's, 5's and 10's, color words, number words and shape words.
Thank you for all that you do to help your child learn! I am seeing progress daily.
Monday, September 18, 2017
Monday, September 18, 2017
We were so happy to be back together after the hurricane and excited that our families didn't experience major damages.
The children did very well on the Theme 1 reading test!!!! I'm sure you are beginning to notice that their reading vocabulary is expanding and that their excitement for reading is growing. Please praise your child, and allow them to share with you the phonics rules that we are studying. We have covered all short vowel sounds and are able to read and write CVC words!!! Last week we studied the CVCe pattern and have started sounding out long vowel words. Today I introduced the rule, "when 2 vowels go walking, the first one does the talking and says its name" to the class. With the expansion of their decoding abilities, fluency and comprehension will follow. You can help you child with comprehension by asking who the main character was in the story and important details about the character.
Please continue to review the correct formation of the lowercase letters by referencing the direction sheet that was sent home. We are working on forming complete sentences with a capital letter at the beginning and an ending mark at the end. We will be using the words "and" and "because" in our sentences in order to give more detail and meaning. Having your child orally answer questions in complete sentences is a great way to help them as they are learning to write complete sentences.
We will start learning the "doubles facts" in math this week. Your child will be bringing home a box with flash cards. Please flash these each day.
The fund raiser will end on Thursday, please send all orders and payments in on Thursday. Thank you for your participation!!
We were so happy to be back together after the hurricane and excited that our families didn't experience major damages.
The children did very well on the Theme 1 reading test!!!! I'm sure you are beginning to notice that their reading vocabulary is expanding and that their excitement for reading is growing. Please praise your child, and allow them to share with you the phonics rules that we are studying. We have covered all short vowel sounds and are able to read and write CVC words!!! Last week we studied the CVCe pattern and have started sounding out long vowel words. Today I introduced the rule, "when 2 vowels go walking, the first one does the talking and says its name" to the class. With the expansion of their decoding abilities, fluency and comprehension will follow. You can help you child with comprehension by asking who the main character was in the story and important details about the character.
Please continue to review the correct formation of the lowercase letters by referencing the direction sheet that was sent home. We are working on forming complete sentences with a capital letter at the beginning and an ending mark at the end. We will be using the words "and" and "because" in our sentences in order to give more detail and meaning. Having your child orally answer questions in complete sentences is a great way to help them as they are learning to write complete sentences.
We will start learning the "doubles facts" in math this week. Your child will be bringing home a box with flash cards. Please flash these each day.
The fund raiser will end on Thursday, please send all orders and payments in on Thursday. Thank you for your participation!!
Thursday, September 7, 2017
Thursday, September 7, 2017
With hurricane Irma spinning off of our coast I am praying for the safety of all of you. Please keep up with the THA web posts as information will be given as soon as it is available. In order to keep your first grader practicing on the skills we have covered I'll list some things that you may want to do with them while we are out of school.
1. Continue reading and signing the reading log daily.
2. Practice reading the word lists in the HW note book as well as in the Phonics Dictionary.
3. Practice spelling cvc words.
4. We've started using the cvce rule to decode long vowel sounds, practicing that pattern with all vowels will be helpful.
5 Practice counting and writing to 100 by 1's, 2', 5,s and 10. Talk about those patterns.
6. Math words to know: most, least, greatest, fewest, color, circle, draw, triangle, square, number, first, second, last, between. Color words and number words (zero - ten).
7 Write a sentence or 2 every day.
8. Draw a picture with lots of details, tell about the picture, tell the topic of the picture.
Our number one priority is safety. We will all be back together very soon, stay safe.
1. Continue reading and signing the reading log daily.
2. Practice reading the word lists in the HW note book as well as in the Phonics Dictionary.
3. Practice spelling cvc words.
4. We've started using the cvce rule to decode long vowel sounds, practicing that pattern with all vowels will be helpful.
5 Practice counting and writing to 100 by 1's, 2', 5,s and 10. Talk about those patterns.
6. Math words to know: most, least, greatest, fewest, color, circle, draw, triangle, square, number, first, second, last, between. Color words and number words (zero - ten).
7 Write a sentence or 2 every day.
8. Draw a picture with lots of details, tell about the picture, tell the topic of the picture.
Our number one priority is safety. We will all be back together very soon, stay safe.
Monday, August 28, 2017
Monday, August 28, 2017
Please review the high frequency and vocabulary words in the homework notebook. These words should be easily read by sight. We have several math vocabulary words that we are using, you may want to make flash cards for these words:
write
draw
color
most
least
square
circle
number
first
second
third
last
between
middle
All primary color words.
I am seeing much improvement in handwriting...keep up the good work!!
Please review the high frequency and vocabulary words in the homework notebook. These words should be easily read by sight. We have several math vocabulary words that we are using, you may want to make flash cards for these words:
write
draw
color
most
least
square
circle
number
first
second
third
last
between
middle
All primary color words.
I am seeing much improvement in handwriting...keep up the good work!!
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