August 13-17

Dear Parents,

We hope everyone had a great weekend and are ready for the first full week of school! We had a great time meeting everyone last week.

This will be a positive year for your child as we build on past successes and learn new things in first grade!! With home and school working together, your child´s academic and social skills will become even stronger throughout the year.

In many ways, 1st grade is a year of important transitions; children leave behind much of the play of preschool and kindergarten and dive into developing deeper academic skills.  1st graders progress from having beginner reading and writing skills to becoming beginning readers and writers, as they read and write more with greater comprehension and ability.  

First grade is a crucial year for building reading skills. In 1st grade students begin to define themselves as what kind of readers they are. More specifically, research has shown that the most effective and successful 1st grade classrooms are those which are very positive places, encouraging reading and writing and conveying the message “You can be a reader,” to the students. While this is being done in the classroom, it can certainly be done at home too.

This week we will continue going over the daily routines and classroom expectations.

On Monday, your child will take home an All About Me Bag. This is an empty brown paper bag. Please help your child fill this bag with 4 items that your child can use to tell the class about him/herself. If an object does not fit into the bag, you may print out a picture and include it with the other objects. Send back the bag the next day. Your child will share his/her bag with the class.  

Here are a few reminders:

Discovery School subscribes to IXL. This is an online math and language support for students. Every student will get his/hers password. Feel free to use this for extra practice for your child.  New usernames and passwords will be sent home this week.

Under the heading Pages (to the right of our blog) you will find all the links to the different blogs. Please refer to them weekly.

Please send in your child’s school supplies as soon as possible. If you have any questions about anything on the list please do not hesitate to contact us.

Students need to bring a water bottle EVERY DAY. This can be filled in school with extra water when needed.

We will not be sending any homework on Fridays; however, it would be great to read with your child 10 minutes each evening.

 Last, we would like to remind all the parents how important it is to read the blog every Monday. The blog is where we will communicate all the important events, weekly teaching and learning objectives and daily homework.

This week your child will inquire into the following:

This week your child will be reviewing the words from the Fry List that they learned in Kindergarten. The class will be doing various activities and chants with the words. We will introduce the following words:

we

when

your

can

said

On Friday, the students will have a spelling challenge in which they will have to write these words correctly. Please practice with them at home.

This week your child will be reviewing his/her book knowledge. Your child will be inquiring into book elements. We will be reviewing Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. We will start reading  A Kiss for Little Bear by Maurice Sendak. Your child will identify and describe the characters, discuss the setting of the story, and describe the major events of the story.

The students will begin writing opinion pieces. The students will be able to write state their opinion, supply at least one reason for their opinion and provide a sense of closure.

This week your child will be beginning Chapter 1, Patterns and Number Sense. Your child will be identifying, extending and creating patterns. Your child will also be making sets of a certain number and showing how a number can be divided into two parts.

For the next few weeks your child will be inquiring into citizenship. We will learn about the five themes of citizenship through shared readings, videos, various role playing activities, and projects.

 Please label ALL of your child´s belongings (sweaters, food containers, water bottles,  etc.)