First Grade Home to School Connections

                Week of April 27th                                            --Enchanted Engineering STEM Night at LaPerche was a great success!  We hope you and your child had a great time.

*****Special THANKS to our  Guest   Mystery Readers who came to read to our class during Reading Week.  ***** 

***SAVE THE DATE:  We are planning a YOUNG AUTHORS’ MOTHER’S DAY VICTORIAN TEA   on Friday, May 8^th at 9:30.  Please RSVP.***

          Writing

Essential Question:  What is Opinion Writing?

An opinion is the way you think or feel about   something. Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic they are writing about (hook the reader), state an opinion, supply two reasons for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.

Please bring in your COLLECTION in your zip lock bag.  We will be judging our Collections and choosing BEST IN SHOW. Students will be writing opinions about their collections and explaining their judgments about their choices in convincing ways. Opinion writers write with lots of reasons, not  just one and they support those reasons with detailed specific observations, not just with generalities.  

Pleas

***

 Unit  11  Syllable Pattern.. Vowel-Consonant-e

Essential Question:  What are vowel-consonant-e words?

1.   Has the vowel-consonant-e combination

2.   The e is silent

3.   The first vowel has a long sound

Rule: Magic e is silent.  It kicks the vowel and makes it shouts its name (long vowel).

***** Please let me know if you need a copy sent home.  Trick Words…friend-nothing-another-­other.  Word cards are available on Fundations site with unit pack. Create FLASH CARDS at home. Continue practicing spelling and writing these words. They appear with high frequency in your children’s readings and are used when they are writing.  Knowing them with automaticity assists fluency in both reading and writing.

 Math Connects .. Our unit is Using Fractional Parts

Vocabulary:  equal  parts, fraction, part, whole, one half, one third, and one foubrth

Check out the Math Connects website for games to play at home ……

Practice Math Facts on https://www.xtramath.org/home/student_sign_in access code for each student was sent

 home.

Ten Marks Homework on Line

         Life Cycles

Essential Question:  What is a life cycle?

VEGETABLES…..We continue to work on our plant unit. The students each planted a vegetable.  Every week we will be observing its growth. We will measure its growth and observe the changes and write about them in our   observation journals.

 BUTTERFLIES…..To continue with our life cycle unit the students also will be observing how caterpillars go through metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly.This also takes approximately 21 days.  Students will observe the cycle of Painted Butterflies. 

First Grade Home to School Connections

                Week of March 30^th

       HAPPY  EASTER  and  PASSOVER!!!!

                  READING WEEK….April 13^th

                        

                      Wednesday, April 15--Enchanted Engineering STEM Night at LaPerche from 6:00-8:00--Each classroom will present a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) challenge.  Students will work with their families to complete the various challenges found throughout the classrooms.  This will be a hands-on engaging evening for all ages. 

          Many other events have been planned. It is also a time for parents to come in and read to their child’s class as a “Guest Mystery Reader”. If you would like to read to the class, a note will be coming home this week to sign up.

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We are finishing up Unit 10… Closed  Syllables  that have five sounds.

Students are working on words with suffixes…s-ed-ing.

NO SPELLING HOMEWORK this week.      

Trick Word cards are available on Fundations site with unit packs. Create FLASH CARDS at home. Continue practicing spelling and writing these words. They appear with high frequency in your children’s readings and are used when they are writing.  Knowing them with automaticity assists fluency in both reading and writing.

***Practice identifying and spelling trick words.  They appear frequently in reading and students need to spell them correctly in their writing. Try to use trick words in your spelling sentences too. A Fundations word Wall is available to you on my website. Run it off and keep it available for your child when they are doing their homework especially writing spelling sentences. Students need to SPELL TRICK WORDS correctly.

Math Connects …Our unit is Understand Place Value

     **Numbers and Operation in Base Ten**

Add within 100, including adding a two-digit number and a one-digit number, and adding a two-digit number and a multiple of 10, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used. Understand that in adding two-digit numbers, one adds tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose a ten.

Key Vocabulary: tens, ones, round, greater than, before, after, between and  regroup

Check out the Math Connects website for games to play at home at

 http://www.mhschool.com/math/mathconnects/grade1

 Facts FLASH… Students  continue work with a partner using addition subtraction flash cards. We are working on Fact Families as well. 3+2=5  2+3=5 so 5-3=2 5-2=3

Students are still being timed for addition and subtraction to 10.  Practice at home.  Students should score 24 or higher out of 30 problems of 15 subtractions and 15 additions for 2 minutes. Students who have achieved this standard are now working on fluency to 20.

MATH COMPUTATION: We continue to work on adding (regrouping) and subtracting double digit numbers.

Practice Math Facts on https://www.xtramath.org/home/student_sign_in access code for each student was sent home. 

TEN Marks Homework is online.

Writing

Essential Question:  What is Opinion Writing?

An opinion is the way you think or feel about

something.  Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic they are writing about (hook the reader), state an opinion, supply two reasons for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.

     

   

 Life Cycles

Essential Question:  What is a life cycle?

VEGETABLES…..We will be working on our plant unit. This week the students will plant a vegetable.  Every week they will be observing its growth. We measure its growth and observe the changes and write about them in our   observation journals. BUTTERFLIES…..To continue with our life cycle unit the students will be observing how caterpillars go through metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly.  This also takes approximately 21 days.  Students will be observing the cycle of Painted Butterflies. This will begin after vacation. 

First Grade Home to School Connections

                      Week of March 8^th

^{The trimester ends Friday, March 13th.  Report cards go out on March 25th.  The children are having Trimester writing and math assessments this week.}

PLEASE check out the Fundations  Page on the  Our new unit is Unit 10…Closed Syllables  that have five sounds.

These are words that usually have a blend (  two consonants each with their own sound) at the beginning of a word and a blend at  the end of a word.  The word slump is an example. The sl is the blend at the beginning and mp is a blend at the end of the word. The suffix s will also be added.

Essential Question:  What is a closed syllable?

1.   Closed syllables can only have one vowel.

2.   The vowel is followed by one or more consonants (closed in)

3.   The vowel sound is short.  To indicate the short vowel, the vowel is marked with a breve. 

Essential Question:  What is a vowel team?

***** Please let me know if you need a copy sent home.  Trick Words before-called Word cards are available on Fundations site with unit pack. Create FLASH CARDS at home.

Spelling Words: Fundations: vowel teams oa/oo

VOWEL RULE: When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking. It shouts out its name. It is a long vowel. For example:  each ….eeeeeech   sweet…sweeeet

….Spelling words are now differentiated…A pre-test will be given each Monday.  Students will have different lists  **Doing  your homework assists you in studying your weekly words. This week our words have long a…ai and ay.

***Practice identifying and spelling trick words.  They appear frequently in reading and students need to spell them correctly in their writing. Try to use trick words in your spelling sentences too. A Fundations word Wall is available to you on my website.  Run it off and keep it available for your child when they are doing their homework.

Math Connects  

Students are working on Place Value, greater than and less than, telling time and measurement review.

New Unit…… Two and Three Dimensional Shapes.  Vocabulary: square, triangle, square, rectangle, cubes, rectangular prisms, cylinders, spheres, pyramids, faces, corners, vertices  and angles.

Check out the Math Connects website for games to play at home at

 http://www.mhschool.com/math/mathconnects/grade1

 Facts FLASH… Everyday students work with a partner using addition subtraction flash cards. We are working on Fact Families as well. 3+2=5  2+3=5 so 5-3=2 5-2=3

We also practice double facts.  We continue to work on becoming fluent adding and subtracting to ten for 2 minutes. We are practicing adding and subtracting to 20 as well untimed. Children who are fluent to 10 are working on fluency to 20.

Ten Marks homework will be online this Tuesday.

               READING WEEK….April 13th

 Many events have been planned. It is also a time for parents to come in and read to their child’s class as a “Guest Mystery Reader”. A form will be sent home or email me day and time during the week of April 13^th that you are available if you would like to be a guest.

We are finishing up Non-fiction Writing.

 Essential Question:  What is informative/explanatory writing?

CCSS: (W.1.2) I can write informative/explanatory texts where I name a topic, write some facts about a topic, and provide a closing.

First Grade Home to School Connections

                Week of February 2^{n    CONGRATULATIONS to the Patriots on their Super Bowl win!}  

Valentine Cards  

 ^{We exchange Valentine Cards in Class.}

^{This week I will send home a list of Classmates.}               

                                                                                                                                                                                             

                                      

 We are focusing on these two skills as we read during guiding reading. When I send home your child’s F and P level, I will include their Fluency rate of words read per minute along with their comprehension level. Periodically I will be sending home a passage for your child to read.  To improve their fluency play beat the clock.  Read it several times and try to beat your timed rate.  We also will be continuing with reading passages to check students’ comprehension.                                              

^READING              FLUENCY

Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with expression. Fluency is important because it provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension. When fluent readers read silently, they recognize words automatically. They group words quickly to help them gain meaning from what they read. Fluent readers read aloud effortlessly and with expression. Their reading sounds natural, as if they are speaking. Readers who have not yet developed fluency read slowly, word by word. Their oral reading is choppy.

Because fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding the words, they can focus their attention on what the text means. They can make connections among the ideas in the text and their background knowledge. In other words, fluent readers recognize words and comprehend at the same time. Less fluent readers, however, must focus their attention on figuring out the words, leaving them little attention for understanding the meaning of text. (Reading Rocket)

                                                           Comprehension

Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read. To be able to accurately understand written material, children need to be able to (1) decode what they read; (2) make connections between what they read and what they already know; and (3) think deeply about what they have read. One big part of comprehension is having a sufficient vocabulary, or knowing the meanings of enough words.

Readers who have strong comprehension are able to draw conclusions about what they read – what is important, what is a fact, what caused an event to happen, which characters are funny. Thus comprehension involves combining reading with thinking and reasoning.(Reading Rocket)

                                               

Our new unit is Unit 9…Closed Syllables 

Essential Question:  What is a closed syllable?

1.   Closed syllables can only have one vowel.

2.   The vowel is followed by one or more consonants (closed in)

3.   The vowel sound is short.  To indicate the short vowel, the vowel is marked with a breve. 

Essential Question:  What is a vowel team?

***** Please let me know if you need a copy sent home.          Trick Words… -see-between- site with unit pack. Create FLAH CARDS at home.

Spelling Words: Fundations: vowel teams ee

VOWEL RULE: When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking. It shouts out its name. It is a long vowel. For example:     sweet…sweeeet

….Spelling words are differentiated…  Students will have different lists  **Do your homework using the Fundations paper.

***Practice identifying and spelling trick words.  They appear frequently in reading and students need to spell them correctly in their writing. Try to use trick words in your spelling sentences too. A Fundations word Wall is available to you on my website.  Run it off and keep it available for your child when they are doing their homework.

                 Writing

We are continuing with non-fiction writing of teacher books.    

In our teacher book writing we will include an introduction to our topic, facts about our topic and then a closing statement about our topic.

                                  

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 Social Studies                                                                                     

We are graphing postcards from all around the US and using our compass rose to locate the different states (N-S-E-W) using RI as our starting point. The children are so exciting about receiving a postcard from family or friends.

First Grade Home to School Connection

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Week of January 5th

***Star Student Posters went home for you to work on over vacation. See website for Star Student Info. Place a photo if possible on the poster and color it. A bag will go home for your child to fill on their assigned week. Send back your poster when it is complete.*** Our first STAR Student will begin on Monday the 5^th. Each student will have an opportunity to be the STAR.

                                 

 We continue with Unit 7 Welded/Glued Sounds. A glued sound is one in which letters have their own sounds but they are difficult to separate. The glued sounds that have been introduced to are ing-ung-ang-ong-unk-ank-am-an-ink-all.  Info of activities to practice are online. Please let me know if you need a copy sent home. Trick Word Review will be spelling this week.  Word cards are available on Fundations site with unit packs.

Continue to practice reading as well as spelling these trick words.  It is important for students to recognize them when they read as well as spell them correctly when writing.

Math Connects ….Our new unit is Organize and use Data.   Students will be using bar and picture graphs, taking quick surveys and using tally mark.

  Essential Questions: What is a survey? ( a survey is when you ask questions about a topic and collect data) What is data? ( data is the information collected from a survey) What is a graph? ( graphs are ways to represent your data) We use bar, picture and tally graphs.

We continue to work on computation skills, adding and subtracting.  Please reinforce with your child that they need to look at the sign, even circling it so that they know the operation that they need to perform. We practice adding and subtracting to 10.  Your child needs to be fluent. They are working on doing 30 problems for 2 minutes. Most can add given extended time. They need to do this with automaticity!! Set the timer on the stove. Give your child 30 problems, addition on one side, subtraction on the other and try and beat the clock.

Our new Social Studies Unit is focused on Mapping.

Mapping Skills Essential Questions

*What is a map?  What is a globe?

What are they used for?

Why do people use maps and globes?

*How are maps and globes the same and different?

*How is a map key and legend used? 

Why are they important?

*Why are symbols important?

*What is a compass rose?  How is it used?

  

       

                  SOUTHWEST 

                                                                                                       

As part of our social studies unit, we are pleased that Paul Grenon is our adoptive Pilot in first grade. He will be visiting our class and we will be tracking his travels on our classroom map. We cannot wait to explore our country with him. 

            REMINDERS

**Return your child’s pencil box replenished with tools for a new year.

**Return your child’s STAR of the Week Poster.