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!

Welcome back to school and let's all hope we have electricity for the entire week!

First Grade

This week and next we will be enjoying the story, Me On The Map, and our strategy focus will be summarizing a story. Our comprehension strategy will be making generalizations about what will happen next story.

As part of our social studies curriculum, we are starting our study of holidays around the world looking at the different parts of the world and what holidays and traditions are celebrated. We will be asking you to talk with your child about the different traditions your family has and holidays that your family celebrates. Look for the Traditions Homework Activity that will be coming home soon.

In Phonics, we will be focusing on long /a/ sound, silent /e/ words and words ending in /ng/ and /nd/.

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.......house, out, were, way, may

In math, we will be review solid shapes and reviewing how to sort figures by different attributes. We will also learn to identify the faces of solid figures. This is all in Chapter 27 in our Houghton Mifflin Book.