Weekly Updates September 12-16

Hello! It’s already been a week since we’ve been back in the swing of things!  I’ve enjoyed getting to know this class so far.  It’s going to be a fun year!  First graders are settling into their routines nicely. Thank you for sending healthy snacks each day. Students are rather hungry before lunch!

Agendas went home last night for the first time. Please continue to check and sign nightly.  This is a great spot for a quick note too.  Books will be coming home for the first time tonight.  They will be choosing one or two books at first to bring home.  As books become longer they may start to bring only one book home.  This is not meant to take a huge part of your child’s evening...only about 10-15 minutes of practice!  

Upcoming Events:

September 14: Picture Day

September 15: Dot Day (Wear Dots!)

September 16: Fitnesss wear Friday
September 16: Fox Cities Kids Fun Run

September 19-23:Safety Week
September 19: PSC Meeting

September 20: No SchoolSeptember 22: Family Night: Hot Dogs and How to Help 5:30-7:00

The NDLC online store is open until Sept 25. There are sample sizes in the office. They will be out during our family night as well. The code is NDLCSpirit and the link is: https://eaglegraphics.itemorder.com/

This is a quick link for you and your family to get registered for the Fox Cities Kids Fun Run this Friday evening. This is a fun, easy way for our school to earn up to $1000. Be sure to find NDLC from the list of school names as you are registering. Thanks!
https://secure.getmeregistered.com/get_information.php?event_id=122671

Reading: Our first units title is Building Good Reading Habits.  The first part of our unit focuses on establishing structures, expectations, and values during reading time.  We are working on developing good habits before (sneak peek), during (check your sneak peek), and after reading (retell or find your favorite part).  We are also focusing on reading more and setting goals.  Yesterday we made reading mats to help us keep track of our reading. Later this week we will focus on rereading to make our reading voices sound smoother and scooping up words in phrases so we don’t sound like robots when we read! :)

At Home Reading:

As children are learning to read, we reinforce their efforts throughout the day in different ways.  During the school day, reading instruction takes many forms.  The students participate in read-alouds, shared reading, word study, small group instruction, and independent reading workshop.  Another important component to this work is the at home reading students do.

Students will be bringing home a book bag with a book inside for your child to share with you.  This is a book that your child chose from his/her reading workshop book box.  The following are some things to keep in mind when reading the book:

• This is a book that your child chose.  You may find that the book is easy or a bit hard.  If the book is easy, compliment your child on the good job that he/she is doing.  I encourage the children to reread books; it is a great fluency-builder!  If the book is too hard, don’t hesitate to read the book to, or with, your child.  Talk to your child about what the author was teaching you about (non-fiction) or retelling and talk about what was happening in the story (fiction).
• This is part of your child’s homework in first grade.  Please return the book the following day and your child may choose a new book to share.  I will send home books Monday through Thursday.
• It should take between 5-15 minutes to read the book., depending on the length. You can stop after 15 minutes if the book is longer, and continue it another day.
• Enjoy this special time with your child!

If you have any questions about this process, please do not hesitate to ask!  First grade is a magical year and I know you will be amazed in your child’s growth!

Writing: We are jumping into our Small Moments: Writing with Focus, Detail and Dialogue. First graders are thinking of an idea (a thing they do, a thing that happened to them, a strong feeling, or any other way they can think of a story), planning it by telling it across the pages of their booklets, sketching it across their booklet pages, writing the story and then going back and revising to add more by thinking of who, where, how, when, what and adding that to their story. This week we will be using strategies to spell words, zooming in on the small moments-just telling one part of our day, not the whole day, and working with partners to add more to our stories.

Word Work:  We are beginning to review our kindergarten word wall words. We are also focusing on a  “Student of the Day.” Each day we learn about a new student by seeing what they brought in their bag and interviewing them to learn more. Then, we write a news article together about what we learned. We hang these articles in our room and read them regularly together! We also add the student’s name to the word wall.

Math: In math we have been busy learning our routines and becoming familiar with our math tools. Students have math toolkits where they keep their math journals and tools. Each day we focus on a number of the day and students show the number in a variety of way. We are also focusing on numbers up to ten. We have been noticing groups of 5 in numbers 5-10 and using 5 groups to help us visualize 5 without having to count. We have also spent time learning that mistakes help us grow, and mathematicians take their time when problem solving.

Content: We have established our hopes and dreams for first grade and displayed them in our classroom.  By the end of the week we will have our classroom rules established so that we can all accomplish our school work and hopes and dreams this school year.  

We will be moving on to our first science unit at the end of the week and it will be Organisms.  This life science unit teaches students the concept of Organisms and helps them develop an understanding of living things. In this unit, they will learn about:
-The interdependence between the environment and organisms
-How to create and maintain a woodland habitat that contains pine seedlings, moss, pill bugs and bess beetles
-How to set up and observe a freshwater habitat where they introduce aquatic plants, pond snails and guppies

As always if you have any questions, let me know!
Kathy Zobel