Dear Parents:

It was so good to see all of you at Back-to-School-Night! I know many of you needed to be in the classrooms of your older children but I so appreciate that you all came in for as much time as you could. If you have any questions, please email me and I will do my best to answer them!

It has been a soggy start to our week! Even though we had to have recess inside the classroom today, we had fun! Take a look at some of the activities we enjoyed working together on!

First grade is a busy place to be! Here is a look at some of the things happening in our classroom this week:

We have launched Writer's Workshop, worked on establishing the rules and routines, the process of choosing a topic, sketching it, and then writing about it. We are "stretching" our words and spelling the best we can.

In language arts, we will continue focusing on short vowel /a/ words. The children enjoyed their "practice" spelling test last Friday. This Friday will be for real! The new spelling words are in the baggie in your child's folder. I would suggest that you get a spiral notebook for your child to make a dictionary at home with. Each page can be labeled with a letter from A to Z. Then your child can add (glue or write) the spelling words on the appropriate page in the dictionary and keep it at home to use as a resource. So, he/she would write the word now on the N page. This week, we will also be working on word order so that our sentences make sense. During reading, we are talking about the comprehension strategies of making predictions and asking ourselves questions while we read. We also have begun to talk about genres. I am also working on individual reading assessments with the children so that we will be ready to find our "just right books" for reading!

In handwriting, we completed the capital letters - "Frog Jump Capitals", "Starting Corner Capitals", and "Center Starting Capitals" We have now begun working on lowercase letters. Please send in a clean sock for your child to use when working with the chalboard during handwriting practice.

In Math we will play a game called "Dice-Roll Tally" to investigate equally likely outcomes, work with weather and temperature routines, explore with pattern blocks, base-10 blocks, and geoboards, and practice telling and solving number stories. Don't forget that the math family letters that come home will also provide directions for many of the math games that we play so you can play them at home with your child.

Things to remember:

Word cards (on ring) will come home on Monday and need to be returned on Thursday.

Our Homework Calendar begins this week! Look for it in your child's folder today! As we discussed at BTSN, please have your child turn in only the homework that is due each day. All homework should be done in pencil only, no ink. Please be sure to always note the reminders on the right-hand side!

Parent Volunteer schedules will be coming home tomorrow. Please look for them in your child's take-home folder.

Picture Day is around the corner! September 13th will be Picture Day in the LD and ECC.

Calling for Summer Vacation Photos! The yearbook staff is collecting photos of the student's summer vacation experiences both in and out of the country. If you have a photo that you would like to share for the yearbook, please send or e-mail your photos to Tony Napodano at nap@shorecrest.org.

Have a great week!
Susan