First Grade Newsletter

We hope everyone had a great weekend! As we move into September after this week, we are looking forward to some great activities and a lot of learning with your kids!

We are looking for tissue paper donations for our classrooms as part of our Hispanic Heritage Month celebration! More details and pictures to come!

If you have not yet signed up for PTA, it is $10.00. PTA helps our school put on events such as the Fall and Spring Festivals, Field Day, and daily snacks for the students at Park Street. In addition to this, it is a competition this year to see which grade level can get the most PTA support. The winning grade level will be rewarded with extra recess and a popsicle party!

Also if you haven't already we are still selling our spirit wear as part of our PTA! A order sheet went home in your students folders. If you need another one please reach out to your child's teacher.

Please remember to send your students with a water bottle, and tennis shoes every day! We do a lot of running and playing and we want to make sure your student is prepared.

Please also remember to send headphones with your child as part of the supply list. Headphones should go over your child's ears and plug into the computer. It is very important that all students have headphones as we use them daily in the classroom!

Reading: This past week we continued out unit Stories that Build Community! We looked through the lens of what is a community and and the different character traits of a community.

Phonics: This week we started working on initial blends with our students. We practiced blending, segmenting sounds, and writing sounds and words with initial blends.

Writing: We continued working on the writing process and discussing the foundational skills of writing. We worked on writing throughout the day with responses to reading and discussing how we pull information out of informational text to use in our writing. We officially started our Informational writing unit! We are starting with finding out facts about different objects in order to create unique full sentences.

Math: In math we continued our look into comparing numbers, and solving addition and subtraction problems with the change unknown. Students engaged in framework task and practice. We will also used our background knowledge from the previous week of building 10s, to figure out building teen numbers up to 20. Students engaged with tens and ones to figure similarities and differences of numbers.

Social Studies: This past week we took a look at different landforms and their characteristics. Students created a landform book.

Vocabulary Words for the Week:

Scowled: an angry frown

Polite: to use manners

Honest: to keep your promises

Cooperate: to work together

Discovery: The act of learning something new

Transforming: To change in form

Community: A group of people working together

Coincidence: a surprising connection

Unique: special, one of a kind

Haste: quick

Diversity: differences

Adversity: difficulty

Reading: This week we will begin our second unit "Me on a Map". Students will engage with visual representations, informational text such as articles and secondary sources, to learn about where we live and the environment around us.

Phonics: This week we will be continuing our work with blends, focusing on final consonant blends. We will be practicing blending, segmenting sounds, and writing.

Writing: We will continue working on informational writing. Students will practice and explore informational text and how they can be used to to assist in writing.

Math: Using their background knowledge of 10s, 1s and teen numbers, students will continue to work through framework task to help engage, explore, apply, and reflect on mathematical concepts.

Social Studies: Continuing with landforms from the previous week, students will work on where different landforms are located, the different continents and oceans, and map keys.

Vocabulary Words for the Week:

Element: a part of something

Location: a particular place

Features: an important part

Direction - a way to go or a way to look

Map - a drawing of an area of the earth or sky

Symbol - an object or shape that gives meaning.

Globe - a map in the shape of a ball

Continue to focus on building positive evening routines such as: reading together, talking about your day, and going to bed on time.

Have students go over adding and subtracting within 10 and 20.

A great way to do this is getting dried beans, buttons, or whatever you have at home to practice making tens.

Example: "Here are 7 beans, how many do we need to add to have 10 beans?"

Practice handwriting at home and spelling high frequency words such as: said, ask, you, their, six, two, who was, ran

Make sure you and your student are going over homework and practicing concepts within the packets given out on Mondays. The homework packets represent skills that we will be working on during the week. While we are not grading homework, it is important that your student is completing the homework on their own/ with your help. This is a great time for siblings to work together, have your first graders older sibling assist them to also reinforce concepts.

Check out The Reading Buddies:

https://www.thereadingleague.org/reading-buddies/

Brains On Podcast:

https://www.brainson.org/

Math Games based on Standards: This can be used for students of all ages and math skills

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

How can I help my child succeed in reading if I do not speak English?

• Read to/with your child (20 minutes) minimum at home (even if in their home language).
• Borrow bilingual or English books from your local library.
• Purchase bilingual or English books at the Book Fair (information will be sent home when Park Street has a Book Fair!)

20 ways you can help your child succeed at school: (even if you do not speak English)

https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/twenty-ways-you-can-help-your-children-succeed-school

Parents: Click this button on the website to read this in Spanish:

Making Ten: Help your child understand the different ways to make ten. This is an important skill they will need from K to 12th grade. For example: 10 + 0 = 10, 9 + 1 = 10, 8 + 2 = 10, 7 + 3 = 10, 6 + 4 = 10, and 5 + 5 = 10. Watch this short video How Many More to Make 10.

Here are two videos to start practicing the Spanish alphabet and numbers at home!

Check out: Arbol ABC at arbolabc.com

8/28-9/1: MAP Testing Spanish Reading

9/4: Labor Day NO SCHOOL

9/11-9/15: Spanish MAP MATH

9/14: DLI Family Night 5:00pm

9/20: Fall Picture Day

9/25-9/29: FALL BREAK

All students are expected to be in uniform. Students may wear jeans or Marietta or Park Street gear any day. Please make sure that jeans do not have holes in them. Also please have your students bring a jacket to school if they get cold easily. While it is hot outside, it can get chilly inside the school building.

Reminder that all students should be wearing tennis shoes every day.