Homework for the week of July 23rd

Math	Complete attached Math Expressions page: 1-16 (Homework- front and Remembering- back) And complete the Journal prompt- Comparing Names in my Family sheet
Reading	Read for at least 10 minutes each night.  Write the titles and minutes on the Reading Log on the back of this assignment sheet.
Writing	Write three (3) sentences about activities you did over track out. Make sure to include details and have a capital at the beginning of the sentence and a period at the end of the complete thought. An example of a good sentence is: “I went to Wrightsville Beach with my family.”

Newsletter for the week of July 16th

Thank you to all of the parents who turned in the “Student Information sheet”. I enjoyed learning more about your child and will work very hard to ensure their first grade experience is a wonderful one!

This week in Social Studies, we worked on coming up with our class rules. And they are as followed: 1. Listen to the teacher. 2. Keep hands and feet to yourself. 3. Use your manners. 4. Say “I can do it!” and always try your best, 5.Be respectful when others are working. And 6. Be a good citizen. Together as a class we also came up with rewards and consequences and talked about how we can be good classroom citizens. That is someone who is a role model to others in our classroom and school.

In math, we have started our daily work with the money flip chart, the secret code cards, number flashes with our fingers, the number path, and number splash. Have your child tell you what we do with each of these items daily.

In Wilson’s Fundations, we have worked on learning the letters a, b, c, f, I, m, n, r, and t this week. I am already seeing improvement with handwriting!  After we have finished all of the lower case letters, we will begin emphasizing our names and writing those the best we can.  We spend so much time on handwriting at the beginning of the year so that the rest of the year they will know how to form their letters correctly.

In reading, we have been discussing how important it is to read as much as possible, because “the more we read, the better we read!”  This can be books, signs, video games, things on television, the comics, or anything else they can find.

In writing, we have been focusing on using correct spaces in our story and adding more to our story because “When we are done, we have just begun.” It’s important to go back and add more to our picture, more to our writing, and then starting another piece.

Important information:

- I would first like to thank all of the parents for bringing in so many wonderful supplies for the beginning of the year.

- We went to the library last week and had a chance to check out 2 library books each.  They are the very first students to check these books out, so please make sure to take care of the books.  I will allow students to go the library and check out new books in the morning before the bell rings and any free time throughout the day.

- Bus riders are required by Wake County to wear their bus tags for the first 20 days of school.  Please make sure your child returns their bus tag each day! We want to make sure they are getting off at the appropriate stop.

- Homework will always be due on Friday.  I will have students pull out their homework on Friday mornings, so it should stay in the folder till Friday.  I will not pull it out before then.

-Please keep the “Home-School Connection” in the homework folder.  I will collect those on Monday and keep for my records. Thanks for your understanding.

Homework for the week of July 16th

Math	Complete attached Math Expressions pages: 1-7 (Homework- front and Targeted Practice- back) 1-15 (Homework- front and Targeted Practice- back)
Writing	Writing workshop is a very important part of first grade.  We often ask our students to write about things that relate to them.  I would like for you to sit down with your child and make a collage.  The collage can consist of pictures that you have taken of family, friends, trips, sports/activities your child participates in, pets, etc…  It can also be pictures cut out of magazines that your child likes if pictures are not available to you.  When you glue the pictures on the cardstock for the collage, please use only one side and make sure the pictures fit on the cardstock.  We will use the other side for something else.  The students will be allowed to use this collage during writing workshop time to help with the writing/story telling process and refer back to it during the school year.
Reading	Read for at least 10 minutes each night.  Write the titles and minutes on the Reading Log on the back of this assignment sheet.

Reminder:  Please return your assignments, completed with name and number, in your Homework Folder on Friday morning!  J

Newsletter for the week of July 9th

Welcome to First Grade! We had a very successful first day of school!  We settled into the classroom and all the boys and girls were such great listeners as we discussed the many routines and procedures that will be a part of each school day.  This week will be coming up with our class rules and appropriate rewards and consequences for our actions.

Communication

-      Student homework for the week, will go home today, the 9^th.  There are two assignments, the first will be due Wednesday, which is their favorite book, and the second is a drawing of where in the house they will do their weekly reading homework. That will be due on Friday.  There is a pink sheet with more information pertaining to this week’s homework coming home in the homework folder today.

-      Each week there will be a new Home-School Connection that stays in the yellow Homework folders.  I will write any comments, praises, or concerns on that days box.  So make sure you check it daily and initial the box. Please leave that sheet in the folder.  I will take them out on the following Monday when the new sheet goes in.

Important information and clarifications:

-      We will have lunch from 11:25 to 11:55 for the entire school year. (Early Release lunch time will be 11:15 to 11:45.) Recess will be from 1:35 to 2:05.  Our specials for the year are as followed: Monday is Music, Tuesday is Art, Wednesday is PE, Thursday is PE, and Friday is Media.  Media will be on Fridays the 1^st and 3^rd quarter and Technology will be on Fridays the 2^nd and 4^th quarters.

-      Each day, students will have the opportunity to have a snack time. I will not provide snacks. If you so wish, please provide a healthy snack and drink for your child daily. We will not have snack time on Early Release days.

-      Volunteering- I will love to have volunteers come and help out in the classroom.  I just ask that you give us the first few weeks of school to get our procedures and routines learned and kinks worked out.  I will be sending sheets home about things you would be interested to volunteer to do in the classroom.  Be on the lookout for this sheet soon!

First and Second Homework Assignments

Learning to read and improving reading skills are some of the most important things your child will learn in first grade.  I’m sure you have already begun this journey by reading to your child at home.  Your child’s first homework assignment is to bring one of their favorite books to school tomorrow or by Wednesday at the latest.  Talk to your child about his/her memories of you reading to him/her.  Talk about books or magazines that cover a favorite topic your child is interested in.  Talk to your child about any books he/she reads, pretends to read or ones you have read to him/her.  Then have your child pick one book to bring to school to share with the class.  It is not necessary that your child is able to read the book on his/her own, but he/she should be familiar with the book.  I would like to keep these books for a week or two while we have discussions about our favorite books and how to cherish them.  I promise we will take good care of them while they are here.  Please put your child’s name on the book.  If it is a library book, put your child’s name on a post-it note inside the front cover.  Thank you so much for your participation!

Each week your child will have reading homework.  It is important for you and your child to consider where in your home is the best place to read.  Does your child need to read in a cozy spot or in an upright chair?   Do they need it to be in a quiet place or do they perform better with the “buzz” of family noise?  Have your child sketch a picture of the best place in their homes for them to read.  Then have your child label the picture.  Don’t forget to have your child put his/her name on his/her drawing.  This assignment is due on Friday. 

Newsletter for the week of April 2nd

-Reading- This week we read a lot of stories about spring.  Now that the weather is nice and we tracked back in, we hit the ground running.  We read about spring and the weather it brings, eggs, Easter, and of course April Fool’s Day!

-Science- We started a new unit on Organisms, and we will be learning about living things! We discussed things that living organisms have to have: sunlight, water, food, and space.  We then used our sense of smell, hearing, touch, and sight to observe four seeds.  We observed a pea seed, a kidney bean seed, a sunflower seed, and a pumpkin seed.  We also planted our seeds and will do daily observations to see how our seed changes.  Ask your child which seed they planted!

-Math- This week we began working on telling time. We really focused on being able to tell time to the hour, where the longer, minute hand is on the 12. We also worked on telling time to the half hour.  Since there are 60 minutes in an hour, we know that if it is 6:30, the hour hand needs to be half way between the 6 and the 7, since it is half way to 7:00. We have two songs that we sing every day to help us learn telling time.  Have your child share these two songs with you!  

-Wilson Fundations- We finished up our unit where we were learning about closed syllable words where we tap out 4 sounds. In order for a word to be closed syllable there are some rules: 1. There is only one vowel, 2. The vowel must be a short vowel, 3. The word is only 1 syllable, 4. There must be at least one consonant after the vowel. An example of a closed syllable word is: melt. To mark this word up, we would put the breve over the short e; put a swoop under a word, followed with a lowercase c. Have your child how to mark up the word melt.

Important Information:

-          Spring Pictures- We will be having pictures on April 10^th at 11:25.  If interested in purchasing a class picture those need to be bought ahead of time.  It is one class picture for $10.00.  Individual pictures do not need to be purchases now. But if you would like a specific pose for your child, please turn that information into me before April 10th.

Homework for the week of April 2nd

Math	Complete attached Math Expressions pages: 7-12 (Homework- front and Targeted Practice - back) 7-14 (Homework- front) DO NOT DO THE BACK!!!!   *Please have your child check back over their work. There are many students who are making careless mistakes.
Spelling	Sight Words this Week: many        before       called       every     follow Your child needs to choose 2 of the 6 activities listed.  In addition, they should also read the sight words to a parent each night. Please make sure you are using your neatest handwriting and using the lines correctly. Pick 2 of the choices below: *Write each sight word 3x each. *Use each sight word in a sentence. *Rainbow write your words in 2 colors for each word. *Write your sight words in ABC order. *Write each word neatly. Trace over all the vowels in each word with a blue crayon. *Write a story and use each of your sight words. Underline each word as you use it in the story.
Reading	Read for at least 10 minutes each night. Record the title of the book on the back of the sheet.
Wilson Fundations	Complete the Wilson Fundations sheet.  We have been working on “closed syllable words.” These are words that have only 1 short vowel and are followed by at least one consonant after the vowel. An example is: this. *Please make sure this sheet is turned in on Thursday with all of the other homework.

Reminder:  Please return your assignments completed, including name on all of the homework, in your Homework Folder on Thursday morning!  J