Week 3 with slideshow

Hello First Grade Families,

Check our our slideshow of the first 2 weeks of school...
We are getting into our classroom routines and learning all about what is expected in first grade.  Last week we focused on Attentive Listening and showing Mutual Respect to others.  First graders have also learned about how to fill other’s invisible buckets and in the process of filling other’s buckets that fills their own invisible buckets.  This is important for showing other’s mutual respect.  We also focused on identifying vowels and consonants and why vowels are so important for every word to have in them.  We continued learning and writing about our first grade friends and we found reading secrets in their names.  

Most students are doing well but some are having a hard time getting back into the school routine.  In first grade our expectations are high both academically and behaviorally because there are a lot of standards that need to be covered in a limited amount of time.  It is a big transition beginning school again after a long summer break.  We have been very firm in our behavior expectations as this is necessary so that we can begin meeting with small groups of students for optimal learning.  

This week we will

• Be learning about No Put Downs and reviewing Mutual Respect

• Learn more reading secrets by looking at our helper’s names.  One secret that the students are enjoying finding is “two vowels go walking the first one does the talking” such as ea, ai, oa.
• Continue Daily 5 choices and introduce read to someone and listen to reading.
• Practice stretching out sounds when writing in our journals.

Homework Binders:

Last week there was a shared reading placed in your child’s homework binder.  They will need to read the poem each night.  It may be too difficult to read for some so we ask that they highlight the small words that they know such as “to, an, is, be, etc” and practice reading those words nightly. Please put a tally mark or initial each night after they read it to you.  When they receive 10 tally marks or initials they will earn a sticker.

This is a common problem in first grade and not a huge worry but we are working on bringing attention to the subtle differences between these letters to students. Here is a resource you can refer to at home.B and D Reversals:

We are looking forward to another great week in first grade,

Katy Loop and Jami Rowlett