Welcome To First Grade!!

Hello!!! Welcome to First Grade! I hope you had an amazing summer! We are going to have an amazing school year! I look forward to meeting you and your students. We will grow both academically and socially. The students will expand their knowledge in many areas. Some of these areas include Math, Reading, Writing, Vocabulary, Science, Social Studies. Students will also have time to grow in their Social-Emotional Skills as well. We also have new robust classroom library where students will have access to grade appropriate texts for them to grow their amazing brains!!

We are hosting an Open House on August 15th from 4-6. This gives you an opportunity to see the classroom space and meet with the teachers. I look forward to seeing you then!!

My name is Mr. Massaglia (known as Mr. M). This is my 3rd year at Nance. It is now my second-year teaching 1st grade. I love working with this age because it is an important age to learn foundational skills which include phonics, handwriting, and number sense. In first grade we will begin adding and subtracting to 20, learn new and challenging high frequency words, identify main idea and details in a story, and also learn about the community.

A little bit of information about me. I am from Minnesota but have lived in St. Louis for over 12 years. I recently graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a Masters in Teaching and Learning. I am now enrolled to start another Masters program in the Fall. I enjoy running, doing yoga, cooking, and reading. My favorite animals are frogs and turtles. I love pizza and coffee! My favorite color is green. I love the Minnesota Vikings and the Minnesota Timberwolves. I have also started painting!

Our school has become a school of character. We have begun using the acronym H.E.A.R.T. as our core values. H is for Honesty. E is for Empathy. A is for Accountability. R is for Respect. T is for Tenacity. These are all threaded together to make HEART! We will be using this as a foundation for our students. Each value is a constant reminder of the character we are aiming to build in our school community. NANCE HAS HEART!!

We are going to be doing a lot of reading this year. We are going to try to get all of the students to read at least 100 books this year! We may even have fun prizes for students who read 100 books. Reading consistently with your child will help strengthen their fluency and comprehension. I will have reading logs sent home for the students to log their reading goals!

A great way to stay engaged and follow along with what is happening in our classroom is through Classdojo. It is a excellent way to communicate with the teachers and see what is coming up during the school year. I will post on our class story often to give you a glimpse of what learning activities we are going as well as fun events the school is putting on! Included is a link to the Class Dojo if you are not already joined on the site.

I can be connected through Class Dojo and at daniel.massaglia@slps.org

I look forward to having a great year!