We've been so busy in first grade! We had an amazing day for the field trip - the sun was shining and the kids were smiling all day. They had the opportunity to learn about how farms work and how apples grow and are harvested. Not only that, but they took a hay ride, picked apples in the orchard, played on the playground equipment, and saw some of the farm animals. Rogers Spring Hill Farm puts together a fantastic experience!
Here are a few of the highlights from the past couple of weeks:
- As part of the phonics curriculum, the students learned about the sounds that /am/ and /an/ make in words. Examples include: band and ham. Ask your first grader why we call those the "fussy a" sounds. They also learned about the /all/ sound in words like fall and small. They have been practicing how to read and spell words with those letter combinations.
- I also introduced the concept of digraphs. That is when two letters come together to make one sound. We practiced reading and writing words with ch, sh, th, and wh. Example words include chip, shock, that, and when.
- I also introduced new "trick words" over the last two weeks. Trick words are words that the students should learn by sight because they are high frequency words and/or words that do not follow the spelling rules that we have learned up until this point. We follow the list of words in the Fundations curriculum. The trick words that have been introduced in class are: a, and, the, is, his, as, has, to, into
- In math, we have continued to work with addition. The students learned the math vocabulary words: addend, sum, equal sign, and related facts. The students are also learning about the commutative property (you can add the numbers together in any order and get the same sum. 4+2=6 and 2+4=6).
- In the Wit and Wisdom curriculum, the students have been been delving into the ways that books can change lives. Most recently, we read a book titled My Librarian is a Camel that talks about how children in remote areas of the world get books. The first graders have also been learning to spot the difference between fiction and nonfiction books. Ask them about what they know. :)
- Since the field trip, we have been reading about how pumpkins grow so that we can get ready to be pumpkin scientists on Pumpkin Day.
- As a class, we completed both the DIBELs early literacy assessment and the MAP assessment (which covers both reading and math). The DIBELs assessment results were sent home in your child's take home folder on Friday and the MAP assessment results will be sent home in a couple of weeks. Both of these assessments help to inform my instruction and are administered at the beginning, middle, and end of the year.
Thank You!
Thank you to everyone who has come in to be a Mystery Reader. The kids love it! If you haven't had a chance to sign up and would like to visit our class, here is the Mystery Reader Sign Up.
Caregiver-Teacher Conferences
Just about every family has signed up for a meeting slot. Thank you so much! I am looking forward to talking to all of you about your fantastic kids! Caregiver-Teacher Conference
Upcoming Dates
- Wednesday, October 23: Early release at 1:45 (teacher professional development)
- Wednesday, October 30: Pumpkin Day in 1A (Kids can wear orange if they would like)
- Tuesday, November 5: No school for students - Election Day/Caregiver-Teacher Conferences
- Monday, November 11: No school - Veterans Day
- Wednesday, November 20: Early release at 1:45 (teacher professional development)
- Wednesday, November 27: First Grade Thankful Show (families invited - details coming soon); half day (11:50am release)
- Thursday and Friday, November 27/28: No school - Thanksgiving break
Thanks for all that you do to support your child's learning at home. Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns.
Katie Barnett
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