May and June
Teacher Talk
The beautiful spring weather seems to finally be here! There’s a lot of talk
of baseball, lacrosse, and bike rides! Over the next two months there will be
many springtime activities taking place around the school. The Art Show is on
May 1. Our class trip to Stony Brook will take place on May 14th. It only
gets busier once June arrives with Flag Day, Field day, and transition day!
Our class will be hosting an open house immediately following the Flag Day
performances. Please look for a formal invitation to come in the next few
weeks.
This time of year also starts to bring along the excitement (and nerves)
associated with the transition to 2nd grade. If you or your child has any
questions or concerns about the process, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
The one thing I can ensure you is that every child in this class has worked
incredibly hard and all are ready for the move!
Language Arts (Reading)
In May we will be working on the concept of a diphthong. Diphthongs are vowel
combinations that have a “special” sound. We will practice the sounds of oo
(boo/book), oi and oy (joy, point), and ow and ou (brown/loud).
We will also learn about the concepts of contractions and compound words. By
the end of the year, most children are expected to be able to read and spell
100 high frequency words automatically. Soon I will be sending home a
personal list of high frequency words that your child has not yet mastered.
Please help them to practice these words until they are automatic. Fluency
with these words aids in both reading and writing.
Language Arts (Writing)
We are currently publishing our “All About” books and moving on to “Authors
as Mentors.” Children are learning to emulate the craft of a chosen author:
Angela Johnson. They are noticing elements of good writing in our mentor
books as well through other authors. They are enthusiastically discussing and
imitating writing styles of various favorite authors. By the end of this unit
children will be able to do the following: learn and demonstrate craft
techniques, recognize qualities of good text, revise their work with more
independence, and continue to increase the length of their texts. As always
children will continue to work on writing conventions including legibility,
punctuation, and capitalization.
Our next unit of study will be “Poetry.” Children will learn to recognize and
recreate the various elements of poetry including imagination, rhythm, and
feeling. By the end of the unit, students will be able to do the following:
appreciate poetry, see the world through poets’ eyes, choose “big feeling”
topics, and choose words to make their poems interesting and beautiful.
Math
We are currently working on unit 9: 3-D Geometry, where children will be
working on the following skills and concepts: developing vocabulary to
describe 3-D shapes and their attributes, identifying the characteristics of
3-D objects by touch, and recognizing shapes in our world.
Our upcoming units will cover fractions, efficient addition and subtraction
strategies, double digit addition, and measurement. These units will provide
wonderful opportunities for exploration and problem solving, but mastery is
not expected at the end of first grade.
Science/Social Studies
In social studies we are going to be learning all about the American Symbols.
Children will learn about American symbols including: the Statue of Liberty,
the Liberty Bell, the American eagle, the American Flag and the White House
through a technology integrated research project called the Big 6 and various
read alouds. They will be able to describe the importance of these symbols to
our country as well as what each symbol represents.
The next social studies unit covered is map skills. In this unit children
will take time to learn about maps, from a map of their bedroom to a map of
the world. They will notice key symbols on a map, locate continents and
oceans, and record their global address.