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Reminders

* Scholastic Book Orders are due Thursday.
* Picture Day is Friday! Order forms were sent home today.
* Don't forget to order your yearbook this week.  This is the last week they will be offered at the $25.00 price.  Effective October 1st the Price goes up to $30.00!!  You can download a Yearbook order form from the PTSA website. 

Great job with completing and turning in homework. Keep up the good work!
 

 

Classroom News

Language Arts:
- sentence structure and introduction to word parts (nouns, verbs)
- capitalization and punctuation
- predicting, characters, setting, and main idea of stories (When your child reads to you or you read to your child, be sure to discuss the characters, setting, events/details in sequence in the book.) 
- handwriting: printing legibly with correct spacing between words and forming letters correctly
- writing process: developing beginning, middle, and ending of a story
- how to decide on a writing topic

Math:
- addition and subtraction facts to 10
- word problems to 10: learning about key words such as altogether, combining sets, and how many are left. 
- place value to 30
- math vocabulary words: ones, tens, fewer than, greater than, more, less, equal to,
- math journals

Science:
- learning about tools used to measure temperature (thermometer), wind (wind vane), rain (rain gauge)
- Weather tools will be used to observe and record weather data in their science journal. 

Social Studies:
- Ben Franklin and his many contributions - more information will be coming home soon regarding an at-home project
- identify and locate city, county, state, nation, continent on a map or globe (this is a difficult skill- practice at home!)

General Information:
- Sept 26: PTSA Reflections entries are due
- Sept 30: Fall Pictures
- Oct 5-7: CogAT testing
- Oct 7: Fall Festival from 5:30- 8:30. Come and support Frey!
- Oct 24- 28: Conference Week and Early Dismissal two hours early
- Please send in signed Performing Arts permission slips if you haven't done so already

In addition to the homework and nightly reading, please review your child's work that is sent home. You'll notice that I write which activities we did together as a class or in a small group at the top. The activities that do not have this note are ones your child did independently. On his/her independent work, please review problems your child missed and create similar problems for your child to complete as extra practice. His/Her daily work is a wonderful way for you to monitor and support your child's progress. :)  

Computer Lab

Today was our first visit to the computer lab! I had the children practice logging on to Study Island and typing in their username/password by themselves. Please help them with this at home as well!! I'm working toward them doing each step independently so we can maximize our computer lab time. Overall, they did a great job for the first day!

Please note that the date for Fall Pictures has been changed to September 30th.

Classroom News

We're off to a great start in First Grade! The children have been learning our classroom rules, expectations, and routines. Below you'll find some current academic areas of focus as well as what I'll be focusing on in the next couple of weeks...

Language Arts:
- sentence structure and introduction to word parts (nouns, verbs)
- capitalization and punctuation
- characters, setting, and main idea of stories
- writing process: developing beginning, middle, and ending of a story
- how to decide on a writing topic

Math:
- place value to 30
- math vocabulary words: ones, tens

Science:
- What is weather?
- how the weather changes with each season
- tools used to measure temperature (thermometer), wind (wind vane), rain (rain gauge)

Our daily classroom weather reporters have been wonderful! I look forward to hearing the upcoming weather reports!

Social Studies:
- Labor Day
- identify and locate city, county, state, nation, continent on a map or globe (this is a difficult skill- practice at home!)

Please keep in mind that the above-mentioned language arts and math skills are an ongoing area of focus to build a solid foundation of the writing process, reading comprehension, and number sense.

General Information:
- If you haven't send in the September snack, please do so. (Individually wrapped please!)
- Ident-a-kid pictures are tomorrow!
- If you purchased a 9/11 t-shirt for your child, please remember to have him/her wear it on Friday. The shirts have not arrived yet but I will send them home when they do. If you did not purchase a
t-shirt, have your child wear a red shirt if he/she has one.
- Fall Pictures will be Sept. 23rd

In addition to using the computers in my classroom. I'd love to share a few other ways technology is being integrated throughout our day.
Smartboard: The children are able to interact with our Smartboard by writing on it using special markers or touching it to move objects around to answer questions. I'm able to download various games and activities that are directly related to what your child is learning. What a fun way to reinforce the first grade curriculum!
Docucam: I've also been using the Docucam to project workbooks, papers, or activities for everyone to see. This really helps when doing a whole group lesson or activity.
Video-Streaming: Video-streaming is another fun way to integrate technology. I'm able to type in a specific topic (weather, for example) and several short, age-appropriate, educational, and fun videos are available for me to choose from.
I just wanted to share some exciting ways your child is experiencing technology in the classroom!