Update September 5th

Hello!  I hope everyone had an enjoyable Labor Day Weekend with family and friends!  I had such a great time meeting and getting to know the class last week.  What a great group!  We practiced many classroom routines and will continue to practice everyday routines in the coming weeks.  Students will continue to build independent skills with morning, lunch and afternoon routines.  One of our goals in first grade is to foster independence with everyday tasks both at school and at home.

**If you have not returned any important forms to school, please do so this week.  Getting the office updated on important student information is essential.  Forms that need to be returned are: Living Lab Permission Slip, Robifulli Trail Permission Slip, Allergy Information, Student Handbook Info, Dismissal Form and Email Address Sign Up.  Thank you

**Each Sunday or Monday I will update the blog with important information about our week.  Please sign up to get an email when I update my blog by entering your email in the "Follow By Email" box in the upper right corner of this page.

**We will begin our Science unit "Plant and Animal Parts" this week.  This is a new Science unit this school year as we're continuing to work to follow Common Core requirements.  This week we will focus on how plants and animals are like others of the same kind.  For example, what makes a dog a dog and a tulip a tulip?

***We will begin Unit 1 of our Everyday Mathematics 4.  This unit will build upon skills already learned in Kindergarten or Pre-1st.  We will play familiar games like Monster Squeeze and Bunny Hop. In addition, we will continue to learn about the math tools that will help us throughout the year.  Students will practice basic counting, skip counting and counting on the number line.

**We will begin to establish the routines of Daily Five.  Please visit the Reading & Daily 5 page on my blog to learn more.  This week we will begin exploring "Read to Self" and the 3 ways to read:

1. Read the words

2. Read the pictures (make up your own story)

3. Retell the story (retell a story you have listened to before)

**Students will practice reading and writing the 25 Kindergarten Spelling Words over the next three weeks.

Looking Ahead:

Monday, September 19th 7-7:45pm First Grade Curriculum Night, parents/guardians only please