September 19th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

During our literacy block we continue to learn new centers.  Our class has made this their time to shine!  They've been consistently focused, hard working and respectful of others during this time of our day.  It is so important that we carefully teach the routines and behaviors that are necessary during centers so that it is a successful time for students, allowing teachers to meet with small groups of students.  As we focus on doing our best work, using quiet voices, and taking care of materials, our students are becoming increasingly more responsible and independent.  Even in these few short weeks it has been exciting to see such growth!

We are also learning a lot in our shared reading and interactive or community writing time.  You'll learn more about this time at Curriculum Night (tonight), but in short we focus on the process of reading and process of writing, together in the whole group.  We have been noticing how sentences start with a capital letter and end with punctuation (periods, question marks and exclamation marks).  We have even discussed commas and quotation marks!  We will continue to review these concepts throughout the year.  This week we will also be examining the author's choice of words and how they make us feel because analyzing text should even happen in first grade!  

In math this week, we will be working on problem solving skills, writing tally marks to show a number, and looking at weather and temperature routines.  Look for the first homework sheets to come home this week - Home Links 1.12, 1.13, and a tally mark practice sheet.

This week we will continue working on our school and safety social studies unit.  We will also learn about the American Flag and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Friendly Reminders

• Please remember to send back the field trip permission slip if you haven't done so already.
• Scholastic book orders are due today!  Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub Class Activation Code: JBVLX