First Grade Newsletter October 3rd – 7th 2016 Mrs. Frost Into good study habits! Mark Your Calendars October 10th – Reading Logs are due October 14th – No School for students. Teacher retreat. October 26th –Leaf Collections are due. Please review the guidelines for this project and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you! Blue Reading Folders Your child’s blue reading folder contains their weekly reading log and current seasonal poems. Please keep this folder at home all week. Folders should be returned on Mondays. I hope this will make storing your child’s reading materials more convenient. National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Art Project We have a special art project planned to celebrate Halloween. For this project, each student will need to bring in a glass jar (a spaghetti sauce jar is preferred). Please clean it thoroughly and remove the label. Put your child’s name on the bottom. Thank you! Jars are due on or before Monday, October 10th. In keeping with our school’s policy, I can only hand out birthday invitations to the entire class, all the boys, or all the girls. Thank you for understanding. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions. Batty Good! I am so proud of everyone’s hard work and positive attitude! HELP OUR SCHOOL Don’t forget to save your Boxtops for education. I have a collection box in our classroom. Let’s see what class will collect the most!!! October is national fire prevention month. Please check your smoke detectors and have a family meeting to discuss and practice your emergency exit process.

into a good book! Curriculum Notes Math: Our focus this week will continue to be on addition. I encourage you to continue to play addition math games at home to improve fact fluency. Please let me know if you have any questions pertaining to the dot addition math strategy. We are on a counting roll! Last week, we identified odd and evens numbers. Continue to review counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s. Also, practice counting backwards by 10s from 100 and by 1s from at least 20. Thank you! Reading: Our word focus will be on inflected endings. We will read our fourth whole group story, A Fox and A Kit. Our spelling words will be generated from our weekly story. Our spelling test will be on Friday. Spelling words were sent home on Friday. Practice the list of sight words that are attached. It is important to practice them frequently. When time allows, go back and review previous week’s sight words to ensure mastery. We will also focus on fall poems to improve reading fluency. Grammar and Writing: We will continue to focus on sentences. We will discuss types of sentences, the parts of a sentence, word order, and correct punctuation. We highly encourage you to have your child practice writing complete sentences at home. Keeping a journal at home or writing a letter to a friend or family member are great ways to make writing fun while also practicing handwriting!  Religion: We will complete Chapter Three, Jesus Grew Up in a Family. We will discuss how God chose Mary to be the Mother of Jesus. We will also discuss that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and lived in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph. Finally, we will discuss how the Holy Family obeyed the Father and prayed to him. We will begin Chapter Four, Jesus Works Among the People. In the chapter, we will discuss how John the Baptist helped people get ready for Jesus. We will also discuss how Jesus shared God’s love with all people and how Jesus helped all those in need. Social Studies : This week, we will begin to learn about Christopher Columbus. We will set sail on a special voyage to learn more about this time period in our history. Science: We will learn why leaves change color. Don’t forget…Leaf Collection Projects are due on Oct. 26th. Please let me know if you have any questions with this project. Please remember to check our school’s website for upcoming events and school news. For your convenience, my webpage contains an additional copy of the newsletter (which includes the weekly spelling and sight words), our reading strategies, and the first grade handbook.

Spelling Words sits hit win hits fits into a good book! Adding -s High-Frequency Words: nap wins naps fit sit sits hit win hits fits her too Challenge Words: packing mixing fishing looking --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Words to READ  These are the tested sight words on this week’s reading test. 1. this 2. her 3. too 4. eat into a good book!

picking kicking fishing packing mixing looking fixing knocking Sight Word Practice Please practice the words below. These are the tested sight words on this week’s reading test. 1. this 2. her 3. too 4. eat Adding –s naps sits wins fits hits bats skips packs knits jams picks cats kicks slips hats bricks chips bins Adding –ing picking kicking fishing packing mixing looking fixing knocking Please review previous word lists.

Letter and Number Formation Hands-On Learning Make reinforcing correct letter and number formation at home fun! Drop the pencil and have your child use their finger to practice writing letters and numbers in shaving cream or sand. Construct letters, numbers, and even sight words using play dough, clay, stamps, or magnetic letters. Go outside and practice writing using sidewalk chalk. Fluency practice Rereading poems and short stories helps to build fluency, expression, and confidence! Reading is sweet! Read every day! Family Game Ideas! Fast Facts with Dominoes – Turn a set of dominoes face down and take turns selecting a domino. Whoever says the sum first, wins the domino. Whoever has the most dominos at the end of the game, wins! Roll it, Say it and Score a Point – Roll two dice and add them together. The first person to say the sum aloud scores a point. The first person to score ten points, wins! Fast Facts with Cards – Use a set of playing cards, remove all face cards, and split the deck in half. Each player gets half of the deck. At the same time, each player will flip over a card to reveal the number. Whoever says the sum of the two cards first, wins the cards. Whoever has the most cards at the end of the game, wins! Beach Ball Fun! – Write addition facts on a beach ball, pass the ball and answer the addition fact your right hand lands on. This game could also be a great way to practice sight words!

Monitor your child’s reading comprehension Let’s Have A Book Talk! Monitor your child’s reading comprehension Story Connection: Please select one of these questions to discuss with your child each evening. Take a picture walk through the story. Look at the pictures before reading the story to predict what may happen. Setting - Where does the story take place? Who is/are the main character(s) of the book? What was the problem and/or solution of the story? Draw conclusions – How do you think the story may end? What was the main idea of the story? What was your favorite part? Why? Compare and contrast characters, other stories, etc. What type of genre? How do you know? Visualize – What mental pictures do you make as you are reading? Write down 2-3 words that were challenging to read and add these to your sight word list to practice each evening. Rate the book. Tell why you liked or disliked the story. Text–Self connection – this story reminds me of… A time when I… A person I know… A book I read… List the sequence of events. Summarize the story. B. Frost 2016