First Grade Focus October 2007
THIS AND THAT
It was great to see so many of the first grade parents attend the curriculum meeting that was held on September 20th. If you were unable to come please read the information packet that came home in your child’s Thursday folder.
Remember that parent/teacher conferences are being held October 9 and 11. This is a great opportunity for us to get together and share all the neat things that your children have done. Be sure to check and return the yellow sheet that is in Thursday folders today. This sheet lists the time that your child’s conference has been set for. Please sign and return this sheet indicating whether the appointed time works or needs to be changed. If the time does need to be changed your child’s teacher can then call to set up a time
The children have begun to bring homework home. It will come once a week on the first day of the week, in a special folder. Math pages that are sent home should be completed and returned as soon as possible in the folder. Spelling lists will also come home in these folders starting in second quarter.
Be sure to watch for information about an upcoming field trip to the fire station at the end of the quarter. We would like one or two volunteers per classroom to go with us as we will be walking and it is helpful to have several adults when we cross streets. If you would like to volunteer to go with us, please contact your child’s teacher so we can get an accurate count to send in.
NOTEABLE NOTES FROM THE STUDENT HANDBOOK
For the safety of your children please be sure to follow the traffic pattern that is shown on p. 8 of the student handbook. It is important to note that students will not be dismissed from their line until we see their contact and they can get to that person safely. Please do not expect children to run between cars, or come to a car that is not parked up against the curb. We understand that this can take a bit longer, but we want to ensure that all of the children leave safely.
READING INFORMATION
October will mark the start of our second reading theme, Surprise!
The stories in this theme all include characters that get surprised or are surprising to others.
The comprehension skills that we focus on during this theme include: noting details, fantasy and reality, and story structure. We will continue to work with the reading strategies of questioning, monitoring, clarifying, and summarizing. Summarizing a story is very difficult for children. Help your child by reading them a story then closing the book and asking them what the story was about. Look for things like sequential order of events, including the beginning, middle, and end, and including important details.
We will continue reviewing the consonants and short vowel sounds, concentrating on the short sound for o, e, and u. Grammar instruction includes capitalizing names, naming words, and action words. Remember to practice the words on those green word lists, each child will be reading that list to the teacher at the end of the quarter.
Even though formal spelling tests begin after the quarter break, we already have spelling each day. The children are learning to say words slowly and listen for sounds that they recognize, and then write the symbol that is used to represent each sound. To help your child practice this skill and prepare for spelling tests, pick some three-letter words in which you can hear each sound. Say each one very slowly and have your child try to write them. Try words like cat, big, hot, net, and tub. It is helpful to let children write the letters as they say them to help build the connection between the sound they hear and the symbol to write.
MATH NEWS
Chapter two worked with concepts of addition and addition facts. In chapter three we will learn about the concepts of subtraction, and began to learn the subtraction facts. In October we will begin chapter 4. We will be learning about data collection and graphing. In this chapter we will learn about tally marks and how to use them to make a graph. We will also learn about different kinds of graphs. After these four chapters are complete, we will have completed one whole unit in math. The next unit includes more practice with addition and subtraction facts with numbers up to 10.
Our first official timed test will be coming up in November, so dust off those flash cards and start practicing the addition facts up to a sum of 10.