Week 27- February 13th-17th

Dear Parents,

We hope everyone had a relaxing weekend and are ready for another exciting week of grade 1!

Thank you to all the parents that voluneeterd their time to come with us on our first field trip. The students and teachers had a great time!

Thank you to the parents who came Friday morning to MAP meeting. We have attached the short presentation to our blog (right hand side). We included a few links about MAP and the Lexile. They can be found under the 'Links' heading. Also, just as promised, we have also attached games that are linked to the RIT scores which can also be found under the 'Links' heading. For those parents who did not recieve a text from either Ms. Colette or Ms. Magda about Friday's meeting, can you please email us your phone number or send it in with your child on Monday. There might be a mistake with the phone number we have.

We are still planning another field trip for February 21st or 22nd to Walmart in connection with our Economics unit on needs vs. wants. We need 4 parents per class to join us. Ms. Magda's class has 4 volunteers but we are still looking for 3 volunteers to join us with Ms. Colette's class. If you would be interested in volunteering your time please email or text your child's teacher. We will not be going on the field trip if we do not get 4 parents/class.We would leave the school at 8:30 a.m. and be back around 11a.m.

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Just a reminder that if your child would live to give out Valentine's cards, he/she must give one to every child in grade 1. The class lists are posted on the right hand side of the blog.

Just a reminder that there will be no school Friday, February 17th and Monday, February 20th. Progress reports will be sent home Thursday, February 16th. There will be a half day on Wednesday, February 29th. The teachers will be having their monthly Professional Development workshop in the afternoon.
This week, your child will be inquiring into the following:

Language Arts

• Phonics- This weeks words are little, work, know, place, and years. Your child will be learning these words along with reviewing older words through various words activities and chants.
• Reading- You child will be exploring the reading skills of predicting, using vowel sounds to decode unknown words, and identifying the main idea through reading the third chapter of Father Bear Comes Home by Else Holmelund Minarik.
• Writing- Your child will be investigating singular and plural nouns this week and asked to use them in a piece of writing about school. You can help your child understand what a noun is by asking him/her to identify nouns in a story he/she is reading and tell you if the noun is a person, place or thing. 

Math- This week your child will be learning how to model and write two digit numbers in their expanded form, exchange tens and ones, and write numbers that are ten more/less and one more/less than a given number. The last skill is quite difficult for first graders to grasp. You can help your child with this skill be reviewing counting to 100 by ones, asking him/her to identify the tens and ones place of a given number and asking them to count by tens from a given number, example from 32, so 42, 52, 62 etc.

Theme- Social Studies- Maps- This week your child will continue to work in groups to create a 3-D community. The class will also start a new unit 'Needs Vs. Wants'. Some vocabulary words that you can review at home in order for your child to better understand this unit are needs vs. wants, goods, services, and products. You can also help your child by asking him/her to identify the things you see at shops as needs or wants next time you go shopping.

Homework
Monday
Math- Expanded Form worksheet
L.A- Unscramble Words worksheet
Reading- read 10 minutes and fill out the reading log

Tuesday
Math- Exchanging Tens and Ones worksheet
L.A.- Reading comprehension worksheet
Reading- read 10 minutes and fill out the reading log

Wednesday
Math- 10 more/less and 1 more/less worksheet
L.A.- Study for the Spelling Challenge
Reading-read 10 minutes and fill out the reading log

Reminders

No School- There will be no school Friday, February 17th and Monday, February 20th.
Valentine's Day-Valentine's Day is Tuesday, February 14th.
Water Bottles- Your child needs to bring a water bottle to school everyday. Please write your child's name on the bottle.
Sweaters/Jackets and Other Objects: We ask parents to label all their child’s belongings with a permanent marker. This makes it easier for us to help you look for things if they are misplaced or lost. We also ask for your cooperation by sending back with your child any item he/she brings home that does not belong to him, and to notify the homeroom teacher about it (by text message, email or phone call).
Library- Please make sure your child brings back his/her library book on his/her library day every week.
P.E- Please make sure your child wears proper running shoes and clothes on the days when he/she has P.E.
D.S. T-SHIRTS- If you are interested in purchasing Discovery School t-shirts or polo shirts you may do so at CAMISERIA ATUAN, located at Mall El Dorado,  Blvd. Morazan.
Links
Lexile information
NWEA- More information about RIT scores
MAP Math
MAP reading
Kids Health- Importance of Water
Reading Rockets- Homework Tips
WAHM- 5 Ways to Make Homework Fun
Gamequarium- various place value games
Woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk-Various online story books to read and/or listen to

Secret Word- nature