December 12th, 2014
Hello families,
Welcome to December! December is passing by very quickly! It is almost Christmas time! I hope this letter finds you well; below are a few updates and announcements.
Rehearsal for Christmas concert
We had our first rehearsal this past Thursday, December 11th. It was a great success! Your child did a great job! We cannot wait for the real concert to come so that you can come to join them and celebrate Christmas! Our dress rehearsal is on Wednesday, December 17th. We will NOT have students wear their Christmas concert costumes during dress rehearsal. This shouldn’t affect our class much. Make sure that your child wears jeans and the shirt we bought on Friday, December 19th. Our students will perform for families from 8:30-9:45 am on Friday, December 19th. It will be an exciting concert!
Christmas Party
Christmas is an important time of the year. We are having a Christmas party on Wednesday, December 24th. Right now, we are planning to have a class party where we can share what Christmas is about, eat snacks, and watch a Christmas movie. We are also thinking about having a present exchange. Each student will buy a present, write a number on it, and bring it to the party. They do not know who the present is for. Each student will be assigned a number. They will then get the present that has the matching number that they were assigned. If you have suggestions or ideas, please let me know. We have not decided for certain yet, and I am open to ideas!
Reading
In reading we worked more on identifying the main idea and details in a nonfiction text. Main idea is the focus of the text (what the entire book is about), and details tell us more about the main idea. Our students are getting better at it, but feel free to practice at home to help your child have a better understanding of this skill. The benchmark students will be assessed on at the end of the unit is:
· Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
Next week, we will switch to fiction again. The skill that we will be focus on is asking and answering questions about fiction text. We will read more fictions and help students to ask questions and find answers in the original text. The benchmarks that students will be assessed on by the end of the unit is
· Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
Note: Many parents informed me that Raz-kids have been really slow lately. We have contacted the technology department. In the meantime, students can read other books at home. The library also has leveled books that the students can read.
Grammar
This week, we talked more about verbs. We focused on regular past tense. The rules are similar to making nouns plural.
1. We add “ed” to most verbs (jump – jumped).
2. We add “d” to most verbs that end with “e” (create – created).
3. If the verb ends with consonant+y, we change the “y” into “i” and add “ed” (cry – cried).
4. If the verb ends with vowel+y, we add “ed” (stay – stayed).
Next week, we will focus on irregular past tense verbs. There are many verbs that have irregular past tense (e.g., run – ran; make – made; swim – swam; write – wrote). We will send home a list of verbs that first graders need to master so that you can practice with your children at home.
The benchmark students will be assessed on is:
· Use verbs to convey a sense of past, present, and future (e.g., Yesterday I walked home; Today I walk home; Tomorrow I will walk home).
Spelling
This week’s spelling list is I3, which we sent home on Monday. Students will have a test on these words and 6 words from previous lists on Monday, December 15th.
If your child is really struggling with spelling, 6 or more words incorrect a week, make sure you and your child focus on words 1-20. The “word of the day”/”smart words” (21-24) are beyond grade level and do not have to be mastered.
Next week, we will do spelling list I4, we will send the new list home on Monday, December 15th.
Writing
Students are continuing to focus on their small moment stories. We are still working on making sure our stories have a topic; who, what, where, when; a beginning, middle, and end; interesting and describing words that use the five senses. The skill students will be assessed on at the end of the unit is:
· Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure.
Math
We are practicing our addition skills and improving our fact power! Fact power is the power to do addition facts without using your fingers. Right now, we are focusing on addition facts with numbers below 10. Students are loving it!
Next week, we will continue to practice our skills to add. We will also have an assessment on Unit 4. The benchmarks that students will be assessed on are
· Tell time to the hour and half hour using digital and analog clocks.
· Find the value of any set of coins using one denomination of coin.
· Group and count objects by twos, tens, and fives to 100.
· Identify, read aloud and write numbers to 100.
· Write, compare, and order numbers to at least 100 using the words equal to, greater than, less than, greatest, and least and recording the results of comparisons with the symbols >, =, and <. When appropriate.
· Use a number line or chart, locate, compare, and order whole numbers less than 100 and identify the numbers coming before/after a given number and between 2 given numbers.
· Estimate and verify by measuring, length, weight, and capacity using nonstandard units (e.g. sticks, paper clips, blocks, beans)
· Use a variety of nonstandard units to measure length.
*Note many of these standards reference where students should be at the end of grade 1. For example, by the end of first quarter students will need to identify, read aloud, and write numbers to 25.
Social Studies
We are having fun learning about jobs, goods, and services. We primarily focused on different kinds of jobs this week and goods and services. Next week, we will focus more on what people do at different kinds of jobs and why each kind of job is important. It all comes back to some bigger picture concepts that all jobs are important and that we all need and depend on each other. We will have a project at the end of the unit (December 22nd, 23rd). We have sent home a packet that will help you better understand the project. Please work with your child on this project. It will be a lot of fun! The benchmarks we will focus on are as follows:
· Describe roles resources play in our daily lives.
· Describe how we depend upon people with specialized jobs.
· Distinguish between goods and services.
Important Dates:
December 19th…..Progress reports sent home
December 19th…..Christmas Concert
December 24th ….Christmas Party
Dec 25-26th………Christmas Holiday
Jan 1-3……………….New Year Holiday