Dear Parents,      September 15, 2014

Here is what we are learning in First Grade this week!!

• Language Arts: We are beginning our final week in Theme 1! Woo-hoo! Our reading strategy this week is evaluation and our comprehension skill that will help with evaluating a story is cause and effect.  Paying attention to what causes something to happen can help us understand the story and evaluate whether we enjoyed the story or not, and why.  Please practice this comprehension skill when reading nightly with your child.  Ask why certain events happened in the story.  Ask if they enjoyed the story and why.  It is fine if they did not enjoy the story as long as they can tell you why.  Let them explain their favorite part or the funniest part and ask them to tell you why they feel that way.  Our phonics focus is the sounds of the consonants b, h, r, and g and the short sound of /i/.  Our grammar focus is on using an end mark at the end of a sentence.
• Spelling: Our new spelling words are from unit 5. You may practice them on Spellingcity.com.
• Math: We will lay the groundwork for understanding time and we will be exploring lengths and straightedges.
• Social Studies: We will learn about schools long ago and how we help each other while we are at school.
• Science: we will be continuing our study of plants. We will be speaking of the importance of leaves this week!
• Religion: We will focus on understanding that God Our Father is Holy. We have been working on a poem titled: The Days of Creation. We will be performing it at our assembly this week. Please see the school calendar for details.

Homework for the week:

• Monday: Rainbow Write 2X and Math Worksheet
• Tuesday: Spelling pgs. 57 & 59 and Math Worksheet
• Wednesday: Spelling pgs. 60-61 and Math Worksheet
• Thursday: Spelling p. 62 and IXL.com Skill A.2
• Friday: Read 2 Times!

Reminders for the week:

• As a reminder, if your child would like a snack during recess, please remember to pack just 1 healthy snack. Recess is only 15 minutes and goes by in a flash!
• Please remind your child to bring their library book to school Tuesday so that they may check out a new one.
• PE is on Tuesday and Thursday. Please make sure that your child is following the dress code for PE days!
• Wednesday is $1 Free Dress!
• Friday is a half-day and is Primary Centers!

If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.  Have a wonderful week!

Ms. Manning