Happy December! The kids are really excited as they look forward to the new month. They wrote about why they like December today so make sure and take a look at their writing and what they had to say. Remember that December is a short month. Our first day of vacation is December 21st and we return on January 14th.

Language Arts: Our strategy focus is summarizing a story and our comprehension strategy is making generalizations. Practicing these strategies while enjoying your books at home is a great idea! We will be reading Me on a Map which has to do with a little girl showing us where she lives by looking at a maps. This is a good time to take out those old maps you have and talk about where you live: USA, California, Aptos.

Our new word wall words are....could, over, so, he, girl

Social Studies: We are learning about the many different holidays that are celebrated around the world during the winter and the many different symbols that represent those holidays. We have started with Christmas and will continue with other holidays next week. Stop by the class and see how we have decorated! It looks fabulous.

Science: We are continuing to  learn about the 5 different food groups and focusing on a different one each week. We learned about picking the right snacks last week and will talk about making a good choice at breakfast in the week to come.

Homework  Log:  A new homework log will be coming home on Monday so please notice that a column for math has been added.  Now, in addition to your child reading to you, please find a way to practice math with your child whether it be on any electronic device, orally giving math problems, playing card or dice games that use adding or worksheets.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Looking at next week, remember it is a very short one as we get to start our Thanksgiving holiday early on Wednesday! I look forward to celebrating at home with my family and I will be giving thanks for this wonderful group of children I get to work with daily!

In your child's folder on Tuesday, you will find a special at home project based on the story they heard,  Knots on a Counting Rope. Help your child remember to bring back the rope on Monday when we return.

Report cards are going home on Tuesday so please keep the report card, sign the envelope and help your child remember to bring it back to school on Monday.


In Language Arts we will be continue focusing on clarifying our stories. The Houghton Mifflin stories we will read help us learn how to do this. We will read a darling story about a dog who gets lost and makes a big mess! I am sure the kids will be able to relate!

No new word wall words. Please take this time to review those previously taught.

No new phonograms so please take the time to review these and find them in the words that you read.

We will be continue focusing on writing with much detail as we write about the many things that we are thankful for. Children who speak with many details are those who have an easier time writing with many details so help your child in the area whenever you can. We practice it all the time here in the classroom.

Did you hear about our garden? Yes! It is sad but true! The deer came and had quite a feast leaving us with only one strawberry! Thanks to Mrs. Spencer for replanting the garden right away.

In Social Studies we will be looking at times long ago. We will enjoy guessing who are the kids in the baby pictures this coming week so if you haven't sent in your child's baby picture with three clues yet, you still have time.

Looking forward to our coming week! Remember there is no school on Monday so it will be a short one.

In Language Arts we will be focused on clarifying our stories. The Houghton Mifflin stories we will read help us learn how to do this. We will read a darling story about a dog who gets lost and makes a big mess! I am sure the kids will be able to relate!

Our word wall words are: down, their, would, than, or

Our phongrams will be: oa, oe, igh, ir, ur, wor, ear.

We will be focusing on writing with much detail as we write about the many things that we are thankful for. Children who speak with many details are those who have an easier time writing with many details so help your child in the area whenever you can. We practice it all the time here in the classroom.

Our garden is looking amazing and we will be harvesting and then eating some of the vegetables this coming week. Stop by before hand to have a look. We are quite proud of our garden!

In Social Studies we will be looking at times long ago. We will enjoy guessing who are the kids in the baby pictures this coming week so if you haven't sent in your child's baby picture with three clues yet, you still have time.

What a fun week with celebrating Halloween right in the middle! We made a class book about Halloween 2012 so look for it to travel to your home soon. Thanks to all of you who made our Halloween so special. Our party was a blast.

Math: We will work in Chapter 9 this week and also talk about fact families for the rest of the month.
Continue with your daily at home flash card work as it is really helping the kids know their facts faster!

Language Arts: We will enjoy two great stories this week with the strategy focus being evaluation and comparing and contrasting. We will also learn how to write in a different language! We will focus on the short e sound this week so you could also do that in your nightly reading.

Our word wall words for this week are: know, them, about, each, then

Our phonograms for this week are: oo, ng, or, oa, oe. It is fun to watch the kids find phonograms in the words they read and see how much it helps them with their spelling.

Science: We will continue our study of plants and seeds.

Social Studies: We will start our unit on times now and long ago. Thank you for sending in your child's baby picture to participate in the Everybody Changes activity. It is a fun to see how every has changed and it also helps us remember how important details are in our writing!

Happy Halloween Week!

We will be having our Halloween Parade at 8:15 Wed. morning so plan to be here with your cameras ready. Also, you should have gotten an email from our room mom telling you about our celebration here in the classroom starting at 11:30. Thanks in advance if you are bringing food, activities or just coming to help out. It will be a fun time for all! I can't wait to see all the fun costumes!

First grade students are really enjoying our new program. They were excited to see other friends from other classes. We worked on contractions, which is a concept that slowly children will understand.

We are starting in Chapter 10 this week in our Houghton Mifflin math books. This chapter is about data and graphs.

Word Wall Words

an

if

how

just

her

We are having so much fun studying plants and seed while tending to our garden. Please help your child remember to bring in his/her mystery seed for our board. It is a fun way to learn more about plant and seeds.

Have a great week!

We are looking forward to a busy, fun week. 

 

We will enjoy two new Houghton Mifflin stories that focus on contractions and word endings. We will have lots of opportunities to write too this week! 

 

Choir started last week thanks to the support of the Parent Alliance and all of the fund raising you have supported already this year. Ask your child to tell you what they did in choir each Tuesday.

 

The Harvest Festival was a huge success and thank you to all those families who made it a success, fun and enjoyable for all!

 

We started RTI today and it went off without a hitch! The children were excited to see their other friends in their new groups. We have a fantastic first grade team with many years of teaching and experience along with a very supportive staff so it will be a great program for all! 

 

In math, we will continue with subtraction, (also keeping up on our addition skills) focusing on different strategies that can be used when subtracting.  Please follow along in Chapter 8 at home.  I'm seeing good progress with the timed math, so continue practicing math facts daily at home.

We have started learning our phonograms, letter combinations that can make one or more sounds. These are extremely helpful for your child as they learn to read and write better. Each day we will review the phonograms we have learned from the previous day so ask your child to tell you the sounds they learned during your nightly reading time. So far they have learned sh, th, and ee phonograms. 

We will continue our study of plants and seeds and enjoy taking care of our beautiful garden this week too. 

Our word wall words for this week are....more, many, two, too, some

Our phonograms for this week are....er, wh, ar, or

A big thank you parents for all the wonderful conversations surrounding your child this week. It was such a pleasure to meet you all and I love the way everyone is making such a quick adjustment to first grade.


Next week we will enjoy two new stores in our Houghton Mifflin book. Both stories will focus on making predictions before reading the story. We will also learn about nouns and verbs this week as well as learning about when to use an apostrophe s.

Our word wall words for this week are....every, first, why, did, had.

We will continue our lessons in nutrition and continue our discussions of what are good food choices.

We will start our study of seeds next week and work to get our garden ready for planting.

Subtraction and addition are our continued focus in math. The kids love using our flashcards so continue that at home too and watch their eyes light up!

Thank you so much for the books that you bought the class from the Rio Book Fair. We will enjoy them and think of your child for years to come!

We had a great week filled with lots of learning and for the first time, each student wrote his/her own story extension. Didn't you love reading the continued adventures of Jasper and his beanstalk? I was so impressed at their ability to write a story complete with a beginning, middle, and end.

We will focus on evaluating the stories we read looking at the topic, main idea, and details. We will also practice summarizing the stories we read.

In math this week, we will be start learning the concept of subtraction using Chapter 6. Now you can add subtraction flashcards to your daily home support with your child. 

We will continue our lessons in nutrition. The class is really starting to notice what they are eating and understanding how they can make better choices. We will start our unit about seasons too. Enjoy reading non fiction books at home about seasons too.

Remember next week is Conference Week so each day the students will be dismissed at 12:20. If you forgot your child's conference time please shoot me an email and ask.

Next week is our Rio Book Fair so please take the time to drop by the library and see the wonderful books that are for sale. 

Another fun week was had by all in Room 6!

Language Arts: We listened and read many different books this week. With each book, we listened for the short vowel sounds in words. We went on short vowel hunts several times this week and it is getting easier each time to hear the short vowel sounds. We  learned about Bossy E and how he makes the vowel say their names. Next week we will do a story extension with Jasper's Beanstalk!

Word Wall Words: also, been, has, little, make

Math: We will continue working in Chapter 5 next week and start on Chapter 26 taking a look at shapes, sides and corners. Continue daily work with flash cards at home as I see a big difference when that is part of the daily homework.

Science: We will continue our study of seasons focusing on Autumn. Look for your child's Science Journal to come home for one night. You can enjoy hearing all about what your child has learned in science. Please write on the Readers' Comment Page and help your child remember to return it to school the following day.

Health: We will continue our study of the different food groups focusing on the grain group. Help your child at home by talking about the difference food groups represented on his/her plate each night at dinner.

Library: Remember that we go to the Rio del Mar Library each Friday so help your child bring back his/her book by Friday of the next week.

What a fun week we had! Did you hear all about our ants? They have been just as busy as we were working and playing together! Fluffy arrived this week too! We are happy to have him as our class pet. If you would like your child to take Fluffy home for the weekend, please send in a signed note telling me so. We loved our special music assembly that was provided by the Cox Family and we enjoyed writing a thank you letter telling them how much we appreciated it.

Here is a peek at the coming week:

Language Arts: All of our stories this week will be focused on summarizing so after each story we will work on this. Enjoy doing this at home too. Our stories will also have many action words so we will work on noticing all the them in our stories.

Word Wall Words: most, where, him, go, friend,

Handwriting: We finished learning how to write all of our lower and upper case alphabet letters and it would be very helpful if you had your child practice at home too. They love to show you how well they are writing and they think it is fun too!

Science: We will finish our study of insects this week. We will put all of our insect work into our Science Journal. You child will bring home his/her Science Journal for one night for you to enjoy. Please writing on the comments page in the back of the journal and help your child remember to bring it back to school the next day.
We will also start of study of the four seasons as we move from summer to fall.

Math: We will continue our study of addition. It has been very helpful to see how many of you are helping your child at home with the use of flashcards and extra math worksheets. Remember to follow along in your At Home Math Book as we work through Chapter 5.

PE: We are so thankful that you are helping your child remember to wear the appropriate attire on Mondays and Tuesday so he/she can participate fully in all of our physical activities. Thank you!

Health: We will continue our study of nutrition with a focus on the fruit group. Good health and good food choices are so important for children to understand. Enjoy many different fruits this week to help your child learn more about our food group focus this week. 

Library: Remember that we go to the Rio del Mar Library each Friday so help your child bring back his/her book by Friday of the next week.

Thank you so much for coming to Back to School Night! I loved seeing all of you and I only wish we had more time and I could have talked with each of you. The kids will be so surprised when they take out their white boards and see the notes that you left for them.

Here is a peek at next week:

Science: We will continue our study of insects as we watch our ants work in their ant farm. We are realizing how much the ant community and our classroom community are the same as we see them work and play together just like we do. We are learning that each ant has a job and when everyone does his/her job well, it helps the whole group! Hey we are a lot like ants!

Reading: All of our Houghton Mifflin stories this week focus on fantasy and reality so as we read, we will be discussing what parts of each story is based on reality and which is based on fantasy.  Many of our stories this week also deal with opposites so we will have fun playing opposite activities.

Word Wall Words: said, me, we, your, favorite

Handwriting: We will finish learning how to write all the capital letters the first grade way. Your child has the alphabet on his/her desk name tag along with one that goes across the front white board. Now would be a good time to put the one I gave you in your packet last night up near your child's favorite home writing spot so he/she can refer to it often.

Math: This week we will continue learning about adding objects and numbers. Using flashcards and playing games are great ways to reinforce this skill at home. The kids love playing Around the World with flashcards so ask them to teach you how to play.

Health: We will continue our study of nutrition with a focus on the vegetable group. Good health and good food choices are so important for children to understand. The Dairy Council has developed a great program and as parents you can help reinforce your child's learning by encouraging them to become a bigger part in your family's food choices and  meal planning

We enjoyed a great short week and boy, did it go by fast! 

I wanted to let you know that each Friday is our library day so please help your child remember to bring back his/her book by the following Friday. 

PE: Starting next week we will be having PE every Monday and Tuesday. Please make sure your child has shoes appropriate for running, exercising and playing games.

Homework: On Monday, I will be sending home your child's first Reading Log along with a note explaining our first grade homework policy. Please record your child's nightly reading and help your child remember to return the Reading Log to school every Friday. If your child forgets, he/she can bring it in on the following Monday.

Handwriting: We have completed all of our circle (2 o’clock) letters and all of our straight line letters. We will now start to learn how to write capital letters the first grade way!  Please find some time each day to help your child with his/her handwriting skills.

Next week:

Language Arts: All of our Houghton Mifflin stories will focus on noting details. Details add so much to a story and we will be working on adding as much detail as possible when we do our shared writing and illustrating next week. We will also focus on capitalizing proper names next week  as we do our shared writing. Please help with these skills at home as you read and write with your child.

Word Wall Words: do, after, by, what, can 

Math: We will start our chapter on addition. The children love adding and many understand the concept of putting groups of things together and then seeing how many you have in all. So it is time to get out those addition flashcards and fun math games to help your child at home. There are many fun computer games that help with the concept of addition too!

Science: We will start our study of insects next week and I expect our shipment of "friends" to arrive on Monday or Tuesday so ask your child all about it then! It is also a fun way that we learn about the concept of community and working together too!

Thank you so much for all the generous donations of your time, talent and gifts! I appreciate it so much and cannot thank you enough. 

Have a fabulous weekend,

We had a wonderful second week of school with everyone getting into the groove of first grade! It is so wonderful as a teacher to watch these young ones want to quickly become independent and do things on their own. I hope you are seeing this at home too! I am loving it!

Here is peek at our 4 day school week:

Math: We will work in chapter 11 which is a review of patterning. Enjoy making more challenging patterns at home with your child as they play with legos and other manipulatives.

Language Arts: We will enjoy three Houghton Mifflin stories this week with all of them having the same focus: cause and effect/evaluation. We will also focus on the short i words and make word families to help us practice. Last week we spend a lot of time looking at the beginning, middle and end of stories and this week we will do the same but have fun making up our own endings to stories.

Word Wall Words: Each week I will introduce 5 new word wall words. This week's are
all, who, find, one, went. Making an at home word wall is a great idea. Add these words to the ones we already have on our Word Wall. The words are, at, as, and, a, are, because, for, from, have, his, in, I, is, it, like, my, of, on, play, see, said, she, to, this, that, they, the, want, was, with, you.

I appreciate all of the classroom supplies you have so generously donated and we are all set EXCEPT for ink for our HP Photosmart C4680 printer.

Thank you for labeling all of your child's clothes and lunch boxes. It helps your child locate his/her things easily.

Have a great weekend and remember to email me, if you haven't already, that you have read the blog and then I will be able to add your name to our email blast that I am making.

Cheers,
Mrs. Robinson

Welcome to first grade! I am so excited for our new school year!

Here are a few things to help tomorrow run a little smoother.

I will greet each child at the door and ask him/her how he/she will be going home.  If your child's going home procedure changes after the first day, please send me an email and let me know. 

If your child brings a lunch from home, have them leave the labeled lunchbox  outside the classroom under the windows. If your child is  buying hot lunch, either send in $3.00, or purchase a ticket online. Please send your child with a snack each day as many of the children are hungry before our scheduled lunch time. Please put the snack in a different section of the lunch box or make sure your child knows what is the snack for the day so he/she can easily take it out and up to snack recess.  

Please let your child know what to expect when he/she first arrives on the first day of school. 

1. Put your lunch box under the window in the hallway

2. Hang up your backpack on the hook under your name

3. Find your desk, write your name on the activity page and start drawing a picture of your favorite part of the summer.

Starting Tuesday, August 21, when your child arrives at school,  please have your child go right up to the playground with his/her backpack.  School starts at 7:55. Please do not drop off your child at school before 7:30 as there is no supervision. If your child comes to school before 7:40 they go directly to the intermediate playground where they are supervised  and at 7:40 the supervisors take them up to the primary upper playground.

                My email is lea_robinson@pvusd.net.  Please email me telling me you read this blog, so that I know you have received this information and then I will also have your email address. 

As a reminder, this Wednesday is a restructured day so dismissal is 12:20. Each child has his/her own pencil box with the needed school supplies but if you would like to send in a boxes of 24 colored Crayolas that would be great as I know the children like to have many difference colors to choose from.  No need to purchase any other school supplies.

Looking forward to a great year,

Lea Robinson

I hope all of you heard about our Jog-A-Thon last Friday! It was so fun and the kids ran so well! I am not sure how much money our class brought in but you still have time to make a donation as the money isn't due until Friday, May 11. 

Open House is this Thursday at 6:30. I hope your entire family will be able to come and visit our classroom. Your child is very excited to show you around. He/she will be your personal tour guide so stick close to him/her and be ready for a great personal tour! 

Have you seen our new garden box? It is fabulous! The students did a wonderful job redoing it. Much thanks to Linda Morales for leading them in this project! 


Our end of the year party is on Wednesday, June 6. We will be going to Seacliff Beach. A permission slip will be coming home soon. If you plan to drive, please make sure your driver's forms are updated and in the office well before the date of the trip. 


Many thanks to all of our wonderful workshop volunteers who have helped us all year long. I wanted to let you all know that we appreciate your help and that we won't be having workshops anymore this year. 


See you Thursday night!

First Grade

We will enjoy the story the New Friend which will help us force on evaluating the structure of a story. We will answer the comprehension questions also to make sure that we are understanding what we read. The story also shows us how there are words that take an ES at the end instead of just an S to make it plural.

We will continue our study of habitats focusing this week on the ocean. I hope you enjoy many non fiction books about the ocean at home this week too. 

In math we will refocus again on fact families. Please complete chapters 18 and 19 in your at home math book to reinforce this concept. It is very easy to make worksheets of fact families so feel free to make homemade ones as well. All the extra practice will help!

This Saturday at the Capitola Mall there will be the Author's Fair. Please take some time to stop by the mall  and look for the Rio del Mar table. Each class will have student made books there for all to enjoy. Each year they ask students to come up front and read his/her book to the crowd. If your child is interested in doing this, find the person in charge and sign up.

Remember that this Friday is our school's Jogging for the Arts. Help your child to remember to come to school ready to run!

A special thank you to Linda Morales for all her hard work with the students decorating our garden box. It looks amazing! She will finish planting with the student this week so please send in your child's favorite flower to be planted.

Welcome to a new week. I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weather this past Saturday as I did! We were hoping that the weather stayed nice so Mrs. Morales could work with the kids to finish the garden project! Have you seen it? I love the bright orange color they picked. The designs that they will paint on the garden box will finish it off! We will get out there again when the weather gets better. If you haven't sent in your child's favorite flower please do so soon so it can get planted into our Room 6 Garden Box.

We have a new story this week that will help us focus on the different sounds that the letter y makes depending on where it is in the word. This story also helps us focus on details and how they provide so much interest in a story. We will try to add many details in our writing this week and from this point on. A good way to help you child with this is to ask him/her to speak using many details when telling you about something.

In math we will learn how to relate subtraction to addition and the other way around. For instance, if you know that 2+7 is 9 then you know that 9-7 is 2. This should be your focus this week while doing the daily math review with your child.

In science, we will study a new habitat, the desert. Do you have desert books at home? If you do, this week is s a good time to read them. The kids are enjoying adding all the new learning to their science journal. It will come home again soon for you to see what they have been doing.

This week we will celebrate Earth Week with many different activities. You child should come home talking about ways you can help save the earth by reusing, recycling and reducing. They noticed today how much trash they have daily just in their lunch! This is something they are going to try to reduce.

Have a great week!

Welcome to a new week! It is nice to have a full week!

We started our study of habitats last week which is always fun. Your child heard many non fictions stories about the temperate forest and then wrote in their science journal what they learned. They also had a directed drawing lesson on the temperate forest with Mrs. Werner. Their drawings are amazing and you will see them soon when your child brings home his/her science journal.

In math we will continue our study of money. Your child is learning to put the coins in order from the highest value to the lowest and then add the value of all the coins. This is really fun for them so please continue this at home as it is a fun way to help your child and it really makes a difference when the concepts we are studying here at school are continued at home.

After last week's crazy weather, I decided it was a good time to read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Afterwards, your child pretended to move to the town of Chewandswallow and became a meteorologist. While in Chewandswallow, they wrote their own version of the story. The stories are fantastic so take a minute and stop by to read them.

This week we will read all about Johnny Appleseed and learn how to take facts from a story to retell it to a friend. This story will also help us learn to sequence a story to make it make sense.

Have a great week!

Welcome back!

I hope all of you had a wonderful break and spend quality time with your family. I had an amazing trip to DC to visit my daughter who attends The Catholic University of America in DC. The weather was beautiful and being with her was the best!

The children had a great time performing their Reader Theater plays for you. Weren't they amazing? I hope you all took videos! They were proud of all of their hard work. I know everyone had fun skating afterwards and thanks to those of you who volunteered your time and help to make it a great time for all.

In science, will be studying habitats so please enjoy non fiction books at home as well as talk to your child about different habitats.

In math we will continue learning about money and start learning about time to the hour and half hour. Please work on telling time at home to by using a traditional clock or watch.

We are also getting ready for Open House which is Thursday, May 10.

Please continue to have your child read to you nightly and also practice math facts (addition and subtraction to 20).

First Grade

This week we will be reading a non fiction story about the life cycle of a butterfly.

Our strategy focus will be learning how to evaluate a non fiction story. We will use this

story to help us learn how to find the topic, main idea and details of a story.

We will use this story to help us review words with the endings s, es, ed and ing.

In math, we will continue working in Chapter 20 learning about money. We will be identifying and

finding the value of pennies, nickels and dimes. We will be skip counting by 5 and 10. Now is

a great time to take out all that change you have been collecting at home and let your child

sort, identify and count them. Skip counting by fives is like counting nickels and skip counting

by tens is like counting dimes.

In science, we will continue our unit on weather so please take time while at home together

to read the weather report in the paper and or listen to the

weather report on the news. We plan to act as meteorologists daily here in the classroom too.

Please remember to send in your child's permission slip to attend our field trip this Friday to the Roller Rink. Please also remember to send in $10 cash that is needed to attend the trip.

This Friday we will performing our reader's theater plays. We hope you all can come and watch. We will start at 8:30 am so be in the classroom by then please and don't forget your video camera!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Let's hope that those pesky Leprechauns don't come around Room 6 this year or if they do, that one of my students catch them!

This week we will be enjoying the story The Forest which is a non fiction story about the forest. We will use this story to help us learn how to write an informational piece. Our strategy focus will be summarizing a story. Our phonics focus will be on base word with ed and ing endings. We will also be focusing on verbs.

In math, we will be working in Chapter 20 learning about money. We will be identifying and finding the value of pennies, nickels and dimes. We will be skip counting by fives and tens. Now is a great time to take out all those coins you have been collecting at home and let your child sort, identify and count them. Your child will learn that skip counting by fives is like counting nickels and skip counting by tens is like counting dimes.

In science, we will start our unit on weather so please take time at home together to read the weather report in the paper and or listen to the weather report on the news. We act as meteorologists daily here in the classroom already.

We had fun making pancakes this week and special thanks to Mrs. DeFrancesco and Mrs. Rigor who came in to help us.

Special thanks also to those who drove and chaperoned on our field trip to the jr high. We loved seeing the play.

Your child brought home a field trip permission slip to go to the Roller Palladium on Friday, March 30. We will be leaving about 10:00 and returning about 1:15. Please remember to return the permission slip along with the $10.00 in cash. Thank you for following the district policy that states that no siblings are allowed to attend field trips.

Remember, Monday is a holiday so enjoy the long weekend!

This week we will be enjoying the story If You Give a Pig a Pancake along with the other books written by Laura Numeroff. We will be looking at cause and effect along with giving it our best shot to write a story in the Laura Numeroff style.

We will be learning how to use pronouns in our writing and to recognize them in other's writing. Have you seen how well your child edits now? I am so proud of their efforts and the peer editing that they have started to do too!

We will also be learning about recipes and making our very own pancakes!

In math, we will be working in Chapter 17 which is using addition strategies to add doubles and doubles plus one. It also focuses again on adding three numbers and the strategy to do so. We will continue with our timed math. All of these concepts should be the ones you have your child do as his/her daily math homework.

Our class will be attending the play Mulan Jr performed by the junior high students at Aptos Jr. High. If you have not sent in your child's permission slip along with $1, please do so ASAP. If you are a driver and or a chaperone, please add $1 for you too.

This week we will be enjoying the story, Lost and our strategy focus will be to monitor and clarify what we are reading. Our comprehension strategy will be looking at the sequence of events in a story.

In phonics, we will be focusing on words with the the phonogram /oo/ and the three sounds it makes: boo, book, door. We will also be continuing our study of compound words. Take a moment when you are doing your nightly reading with your child to find the phonogram /oo/ and also look for compound words.

I will finish introducing the rest of our our word wall this week and can you believe that we now know have 100 of our first grade word wall words!

We are going to wrap up our study of famous Americans this week by taking a look at a VERY special American! Ask your child who it is!

In math, we will be working in Chapter 16 which is a look at subtraction, counting backwards and relating addition and subtraction to solve equations. We will continue with our timed math. All of these concepts should be the ones you have your child do as his/her daily math homework.

Enjoy your week,

Lea

This week we will be enjoying the story, Red Eyed Tree Frog and our strategy and comprehension focus will be making predictions and inferences. In phonics, we will be focusing on words with the phonograms /ai/ and /ay/ which both say /a/ as in rain and play. We will also focus on the phonograms /ee/ and /ea/ which both say /e/ as in tree and beach. Have fun going on a phonogram hunt with your child nightly while you are reading together. We are reviewing already presented word wall words this week so no new word wall words to learn. Go on a word wall hunt during you nightly reading with your child. We do this in class so practice at home too. As part of our social studies curriculum, we are continuing our study of famous Americans . We will study a different famous American each week. This week will be learn about Abraham Lincoln. My hope is that you will read books at home about famous Americans also and look for book about famous Americans when you make your weekly trips to the public library. In math, we will be working in Chapter 14, this week and next. This chapter covers comparing and ordering numbers; greater than and less than. This is a new concept so practice at home would be very helpful.

This week we will be enjoying the story, The Sleeping Pig and our strategy focus will be summarizing the story. Our comprehension strategy will be looking at the story structure.

In phonics, we will be focusing on words with the long /o/ sound and the long /u/ sound. We will also be continuing our study of contractions. Please help your child find contractions when you are doing your nightly reading.

I will continue teaching phonograms, one at a time, to the class. Knowing these will really help your child with his/her reading and writing.

Our new word wall words are.......each, into, little, long, who

As part of our social studies curriculum, we are starting our study of famous Americans starting with Martin Luther King Jr. We will study a different famous American each week. My hope is that you will read books at home about famous Americans also and look for book about famous Americans when you make your weekly trips to the public library.

In math, we will be working in Chapter 12 which is a continuation of place value, ones and tens, one more, one less, ten more and ten less. Please practice this concept daily and record it on your reading/math homework log.

Welcome back and Happy New Year!

This week and next we will be enjoying the story, The Kite and our strategy focus will be monitoring and clarifying a story. Our comprehension strategy will be looking at cause and effect in a story.

In phonics, we will be focusing on words with the long /i/ sound and we will also be studying contractions. Please help your child find contractions when you are doing your nightly reading.

I will continue teaching phonograms, one at a time, to the class. Knowing these will really help your child with his/her reading and writing.

Our new word wall words are.......only, or, every, girl, one

As part of our social studies curriculum, we are starting our study of famous Americans starting with Martin Luther King Jr. We will study a different famous American each week. My hope is that you will read books at home about famous Americans also and look for book about famous Americans when you make your weekly trips to the public library.

In math, we will be working in Chapter two which covers place value, ones and tens. This is a difficult concept for most students so please give as much help at home as you can. I appreciate it!