Class Info

Dear Parents,
         The season of Advent arrived this past Sunday.  As adults we can look upon this season as a time to remember how long people had to await the coming of the Messiah. We can also use these four weeks of Advent to spiritually prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  For children, it is also a time of waiting for Christmas and all that it brings.  The theme that I will try to develop in our class is that Jesus was God’s gift to the world and our life is our gift to God.  The children will learn about the best gifts to God.  These gifts will contain acts of kindness, patience, obedience, sharing, and sacrifice.  To visibly show our progress during Advent, each child will receive red, white, and green strips of paper to have at home.  When you observe your child showing an extra act of goodness write the act on a strip and return it to school.  We will add it to our Christmas Kindness Chain that decorates the classroom. 

     December will bring many exciting events to the first graders. As we approach the end of the first semester of first grade it’s time to recall some of the things that we have already learned.  We have already learned many things with many more to come.  Here is short summary of some of the things that we have learned.

   Reading –We have begun our third reader.  The Harcourt basal reader does a fine job of correlating phonics and sight words with the instructional story each week.  The children are also excited about AR reading.  They are busy earning AR points to spend at the AR store as well as reading other books. 

     Phonics-This year the school began to use a phonics program that I really think will improve your child’s ability to read as well as spell.  So far we’ve been learning about the letter sounds, consonant and vowel digraphs, suffixes, and when to end a word with k or ck.   They seem to enjoy it.

      Handwriting- We are finished learning all the lower case D’Nelian cursive letters.  We will begin a review and then begin to join the letters together.

      Math- In math the children have been learning strategies to add and a subtract numbers to twelve.  Some of the strategies include counting on, fact families, related facts, doubles and doubles plus ones.  We are completing a chapter on graphing.  This has been an enjoyable topic because it gives the children a way to express their opinions about foods, games, and other topics in a graph form.  The graphs also give the children opportunities to problem solve as they analyze the information.  Please point out any graphs that you may find in print.  That will demonstrate the importance and usefulness of this topic.

     Religion-So far we have learned some of the Old Testament stories including the creation, Adam and Eve, Noah, and Moses.  In October the focus was on the part Mary played in salvation history.  Saints were the topic around All Saints Day.  We learned the life stories of several saints and wrote about some of the things that will help us to also become saints.  The fourth grade buddies prepared and invited us to a wonderful Saints Festival on Nov. 1st.  Thank you fourth graders!  Prayer was the topic during November.  The children learned that prayer is talking to God as well as listening to Him.   During each religion class we practice formal prayers like the Hail Mary along with informal prayers of petition and thanksgiving.  In December we will concentrate on the celebration of the birth of Jesus and all the events surrounding this great holy day.

     Writing-The children are given many opportunities to write.  I’m very pleased with how the class is applying punctuation, capitalization and good sentence structure to the writings.  Most recently they have learned to try to self edit and improve the sentences by adding more details. 

     Science-Most the topics have concentrated on the human body, its five senses, the internal organs, and a brief introduction to the concept of cells. We are now learning about the water cycle and weather.  The next topic will be about animals and their needs.

Social Studies- The children have completed our unit about our United States government. Now, we are beginning a unit that discusses our world, maps, and geography. Thank you for your help and encouragement with the Geography Reports! Each state is unique and wonderfully made! I'm excited to put our USA puzzle together and hang outside the first grade classrooms for all to see!!

   Thank you for all the support that you give to your child’s education.  Your influence will benefit your child for his/her entire life and is a valuable way to spend your time.

Great Expectations handout Link

AR Guidleine and Instructiions