Dear Parents:

Another soggy start to our week! While it may cause some cabin fever, I like to look at the positive side of things... we do need the rain! I hope you all enjoyed your Labor Day weekend. It was fun to listen to the children tell about their adventures. It sounds like many of you were busy having a lot of fun! Even though it is a short week of school, we will be busy having fun learning. Here are a few of the things we will be doing in our class this week.

This morning our class made their first visit to the Computer Lab as first graders. It was a rescheduled visit from last week. The children were introduced to making webs in Kidspiration. We will be practicing this skill on our classroom computers now.

Writing Workshop: When writing, it is common for many children to summarize the event on the first page and then, to make the story longer, they add-on other pages. The story is not focused, or in any kind of order, and often does not make sense. We will be working on planning and writing stories/books that span several pages, focusing on one event and thinking about what happened at the beginning, then..., and finally. We'll also widen our writing possibilities learning that writers write for lots of reasons and in lots of genres. Writers make lists, write agendas, write letters, make signs, etc. The real world possibilities are endless! Today we talked about writing stories about other people. In order to find out information about that person, the writer must "interview" them. We interviewed Reid and wrote stories about him. These will be made into a book for Reid and we will read the book at his birthday celebration on Friday!

In language arts, we will be focusing on short vowel /i/ words. This week it is your child's responsibility to make the word sort cards for the spelling word homework. This has been done in class the last couple of weeks so your child should know the routine! These are the spelling words that we have been keeping in the baggie in your child's folder. They no longer need the baggie attached to their folder and do not need to return the words to school. Your child can glue them into the spiral dictionary that I suggested you make last week. It makes a great resource for helping with spelling when writing at home! Also, don't forget that your child is responsible for knowing how to read and spell the sight words on the word ring as well. These should be worked on daily at home and returned to school on Thursday. This week's words are hold, soon, so, home, and get. In grammar, we will be learning about the naming parts of sentences. The naming part (who or what the sentence is about) is usually found at the beginning of a sentence. We will also be working on the comprehension strategies of categorizing (gathering together information that is the same or almost the same) and classifying (giving that information a name).

In Reader's Workshop we have been begun talking about "just right books" for reading. We have talked about finding books that not only interest us, but that are at a just right level for reading. Ask your child about the ways we find books that are right for us and about the "five finger rule". We will be forming partnerships for reading and learning how the jobs of those partners help us as readers. We continue to work on the comprehension strategies of making predictions, asking ourselves (and now our partners) questions while we read, and using picture clues to help us.

In handwriting this week, we are working on the lowercase letters a, c, d, and g which are all made by beginning with magic c. Ask your child what this means! Please send in a clean sock for your child to use if you have not done so.

In Math we took our first written assessment today on Unit 1. These will come home tomorrow. The children are learning how to take tests and "why" we take tests. The main reason we take tests is to let Mrs. Owen and you know what they need help with. We will begin Unit 2 tomorrow. The Math Family Letter for Unit 2 will come home in your child's take-home folder today. Please read it and keep it in a safe place so that you may refer to it if needed. It will give you lots of useful information on what we will cover in this unit, vocabulary used, several "Do-Anytime Activities" that are helpful, and directions for games that you can play at home with your child to help them with the skills we are working on in the unit. This week in class we will practice counting up and back on the number grid as well as working with complements of 10. The children will learn to play a game called "2 Fisted Penny Addition". Please play this at home as often as you can. Here are the directions: Place 10 pennies on a table. Ask your child to grab a handful of pennies with one hand and pick up the rest with the other hand. Have your child provide information using this format: "I have 3 pennies in one hand and 7 pennies in the other hand." Using such language reinforces the idea that each number is a count of objects. Take it further by having them say "3 plus 7 = 10". This is great practice for addition facts! Your child's Math Journal will be coming home on Thursday for homework. PLEASE complete page 8 together with your child and return it to school on Friday!

Social Studies: We continue our character education unit through our author study of Kevin Henkes' books. We will begin our study of the Human Body next week. The children will love this unit! I am looking for doctors, nurses, EMTs, or others that work in the health care field that would like to volunteer to come in to share during this unit. If you are interested, please let me know!

Things to remember:

Word cards (on ring) 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!

Picture Day for the Lower Division is next Tuesday, September 13th.

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Kimberly Burke (12:00)
• Wednesday - Math Game - Mai Nguyen (1:00)
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Eva D'Agostino and Kimberly Burke
  
• Friday - Parent Reader - Mary or Charley Harris (2:15)
  

It's going to be a great week!
Susan