Dear Parents,                    September 2, 2014

I hope that you enjoyed the wonderful Labor Day weekend!

This week in language arts we kick off our first theme! We will work on the consonants m, s, c, t, and the short sound of /a/.  We will also begin reading in our reading series and start our sight words.  In your child’s red folder you should find a tan envelope with this week’s sight words.  This week there are only three.  Practice the words with your child each night.  The words need to be read correctly within three seconds (without sounding out).  Please sign the paper indicating that you practiced with your child and return the envelope to school in the red folder.  Your child will be tested once a week starting next Tuesday.  If they know all the words, they will receive a new packet of words, if they don’t recognize the words, then they will keep the packet and continue practicing.

Our reading strategy this week is “predict and infer”.  Our comprehension skill that will help with “predict and infer” is sequencing.  Paying attention to the beginning, middle, and end of the story will help us determine the next logical step.  Our phonics focus this week is blending letter sounds together and our grammar focus is on upper and lowercase letters.

In math, we will be wrapping up our first unit in Everyday Math. We will be taking our test and reviewing the games we have learned thus far! From here on, IXL.com will be part of our homework.  I am asking for a homework requirement of IXL.com to be ten minutes spent on the specified skill. If the skill is completed and mastered in less than ten minutes, that is fine and no extra work is needed! However, once completed, work may continue if a challenge is desired! In addition, please make sure to use the username and password provided over summer when logging on and to use the First Grade Standards section now!!

In social studies we are continuing to learn about schools and working hard in our social studies journals.

In science we continue to learn about plants but focusing on the plant parts.

In religion, we begin our first lesson from our Family Life Series, titled “What Families Do”.

Announcements:

• We will visit the school library Tuesday and will check out a book.  As a reminder, the children can bring their books home but they MUST be returned to school the following Tuesday in order for them to check out a new book.
• Remember PE uniforms tomorrow! It is a Tuesday!
• Friday is Grandparents Day and a noon-dismissal day as the teachers have a staff meeting.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns.  Have a wonderful week!

Ms. Manning