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.