First Grade Newsletter October 12 th – 16 th 2015 Mrs. McCarthy and Mrs. Frost MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Oct. 16 th Glass jars are due Oct. 27 th Field trip to Cherry Crest Farm Oct. 29 th Leaf collection projects are due Oct. 29 th Halloween Parade and Party Oct. 30 th Book It reading logs are due Art Project Reminder We have a special art project planned to celebrate Halloween. For this project, each student will need to bring in a glass jar (spaghetti sauce or mayonnaise). Please clean it thoroughly and remove the label. Write your child’s name on the bottom of the jar. Please see the reverse side for important academic information. Friendly Reminder….October is national fire prevention month. Please check your smoke detectors and have a family meeting to discuss and practice your emergency exit process. 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!!! A good night’s sleep, hearty breakfast and healthy snack fuels the body for learning! Please make sure your child is getting ample sleep and is packing a nutritious (nut free) morning and afternoon snack. Thank you! Batty Good! We are so proud of everyone’s hard work and positive attitude! Happy Columbus Day! We have set sail and are on the right course in first grade! Let’s keep it up! Science Project Exploring the fall season It was a beautiful weekend to enjoy the outdoors. The leaves are turning vivid colors and are beginning to fall. The leaf collection project is due on Oct. 29 th. Be creative and have fun collecting, labeling, and organizing this project. Don’t forget to include the five senses poem! Please let me know if you need an additional copy of this project. Thank you! Happy Fall!!!

Curriculum Notes Math: Our focus this week will continue to be on addition. Please let us know if you have any questions pertaining to the touch/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. The spelling words below were sent home on Friday. Practice the list of sight words that are attached. It is important to practice them daily. 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 begin 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. Social Studies : This week is all about Christopher Columbus. We will set sail on a special voyage to learn more about this time period in our history. Science: Don’t forget…Leaf Collection Projects are due on Oct. 29th. Please let us know if you have any questions with this project. nap wins naps fit sit her sits hit win hits fits too Challenge Words: packing mixing fishing looking Spelling Words into a good book!

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. Family Game Ideas! 1.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! 2.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! 3.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! 4.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! Fluency practice Rereading poems and short stories helps to build fluency, expression, and confidence! Reading is sweet! Read Everyday!

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.