Newsletter

November 2, 2008

Dear Families,

It is now Sunday afternoon and the excitement of Halloween

has come and gone. I would like to thank our room parents Mrs. Farrell, Mrs. Musto and Mrs. Nealon for organizing and running our class party. Thank you also to Mrs. Baacke for filling in where help was needed. The children had a great time and loved showing off their costumes in the parade and in the classroom.

Starting tomorrow we will be having parent volunteers in the classroom every afternoon. I thank all of you in advance for your help. I am currently assessing children one on one so your help is greatly appreciated. These assessments will be shared with you during Parent/Teacher Conferences which will be held on November 20^th and December 2^nd. I look forward to meeting with all of you to discuss your child's adjustment to first grade and answer any questions or concerns you may have.

During the month of October your children were very busy in math finishing up Unit 1and moving into Unit 2. In Unit 2 the children worked on describing, identifying and comparing 2-D shapes as well as composing and decomposing 2-D shapes. They also worked with a partner to make a shape poster and worked on describing triangles and quadrilaterals. Starting this week they will work on designing a quilt square and creating a quilt pattern.

In Language Arts we worked on short vowel i and short vowel o. We worked with word families in, it, ig, ip, ack, ick ock and op. We continue to work on our sight words and at the ABC center the children learned how to do Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check and just learned how to do Buddy Check. Ask your child about these language arts activities. The children continue to work in their journals weekly and also did a few writings on fall which are hanging up in the hallway on the bulletin board.

As you know we had an Author's Celebration for the fine work that the children did with Writer's Workshop in Unit 1. We are now focusing on writing about “Small Moments” which is when we set children up to write very focused vignettes from their lives. This past week children were given a partner to work with during Writer's Workshop. They will use their partner to bounce ideas off of and for suggestions (like real authors do!).

This past week we just began the unit of study of Solids and Liquids. During this science unit the children will observe and describe the properties of solids and liquids as well as investigate, sort and compare similarities and differences among solids and liquids. We hope this unit will help the children recognize the importance of organizing information and results on charts and develop an interest in investigating the physical world around them.

In Social Studies this past month we used our Weekly Reader to discuss the upcoming Presidential election and to talk about Christopher Columbus.

As you can see October was a busy month in first grade. I would like to remind you that Booktime books come home on Mondays and need to be back by the following Friday. Please return the books in the zip lock bags that they come home in. The bag has your child's name on it and their class number. Having the books in the bags makes it easier for us to know who is returning the books. Poetry Binders go home on Fridays and should be returned on Mondays. Thank you.

That's it for this months newsletter. I hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving Holiday.

Paula Grace