1. First Grade Weekly News! What’s new?! This week we will be working on forming opinions based on facts in a text and supplying reasons for our opinion, writing “opinion” pieces to tell how how feel about a topic and why we feel that way, decoding ch, th, and sh words, identifying who is telling a story (point of view), discussing weather, discussing life now and long ago and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and using what we know about number patterns to skip count to 120. January 19, 2016 Important Dates -Friday 1/29  College Day & Family Game Night. -THIS WEEK  No reading groups Homework Dreambox: 15 min Monday and Wednesday nights Math Facts in a Flash: Practicing math facts EACH night for 5 minutes Lexia: Tuesdays and Thursdays for 15 minutes EACH sitting. *Be sure to correctly log out to save your work! Reading: Reading for 15 minutes Monday through Thursday night (students can also use Starfall) **ALL accounts are working here at school, please let me know if you are experiencing issues. Homework Dreambox: 15 min Monday and Wednesday nights Math Facts in a Flash: Practicing math facts EACH night for 5 minutes Lexia: Tuesdays and Thursdays for 15 minutes EACH sitting. *Be sure to correctly log out to save your work! Reading: Reading for 15 minutes Monday through Thursday night (students can also use Starfall) **ALL accounts are working here at school, please let me know if you are experiencing issues. Notes from First Grade Teachers Bell schedule – School starts promptly at 8:55 and ends at 3:05. Remember that Tuesdays are “early out” days, and students are dismissed at 1:40. Please refer to the Simonds Daily Schedule for recess and lunch times. Please be sure to take your student to the restroom BEFORE school starts at 8:55am. Reading Group CHANGES There will be NO reading groups this week due to the MLK Holiday. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation! ( over ) In the upcoming weeks, you can review the details of our weekly classroom activities on page 2 of this weekly newsletter.

2. I hope you all had a great weekend with your families! Please feel free to see me before the morning bell or after school. However, it is best to send an email to set up an appointment… just in case! Thank you and have a wonderful week! Sincerely, Miss Rebecca Tucker rtucker@sjusd.org  Classroom Webpage  Remember, you can access my webpage through the Simonds Home Page online. This is also the best way to access the adaptive learning sites through “Student Links!” With the district driving us all toward equipping the students with 21 st century skills, we are implementing a new homework program this year in first grade. Your child will be using District Computer Applications in their weekly homework activities. Soon we will be adding a web- based program, Ticket To Read, funded by the PTA. These problem solving activities are a perfect way to address Common Core Standards and will prepare your children for the new wave of learning and testing they will face in their academic careers. Please remember that online homework is mandatory. District administrators, Mrs. Howell, as well as myself check these adaptive learning sites weekly for student progress. Thank you for your support and cooperation with this! Sight Word Testing : We have completed our sight word testing. Tests will be coming home to you asap. Students will be asked to read the words in the coming week or so. Please see your copy of this list for at home review/ practice. I am so impressed with the progress we have made so far this year! Star Student: Our Star Student this week will be Matthew! He will share his poster with us, lead our line, and take home a special handmade book from his classmates on Friday!