Update September 6th

**Last week, we began our routine of doing "Weekend News Writing." Each Monday, students will write about something they did over the weekend.  Often times, students forget what they did over the weekend.  Please recap your weekend with your child on Sunday night or before school on Monday.  If it's helpful for your child, write a sticky note with a couple of ideas to bring to school.

*Homework will begin this week.  We will send home math homework on Tuesday and Thursday only.  Please return the next day.

**We will continue to introduce the components of Daily 5.  Last week students worked on building their Read to Self reading stamina.  This week, we will introduce Work on Writing and finding I-Pick Books.  I-Pick Books are books that students feel they can read on their own and are of interest to them.

**We will continue our Science Unit- Plants and Animal Parts.  This week, we will find similarities between offspring and their parents.  

**In Math, we will focus on 1-more, 1-Less Number Stories, Comparing and Ordering Numbers and Introducing Tally Marks.  We will also learn the rules of some important math games.

**Our classroom tends to get warm throughout the day.  We take frequent water breaks to fuel our bodies.  Please consider sending your child to school each day with a refillable water bottle.

*As a class, we created a long list of rules that will keep us safe at school and allow us to learn best.  We introduced the new elementary core values, SPIRIT to the students.  Later in the week, we put the rules into the core value categories.  We will review these rules this week.

*On Friday, we will celebrate Dot Day.  Students will listen to Peter Reynolds books throughout the week and we will some fun Dot art activities.

Looking Ahead

**Grade One Back to School Night is Monday, September 16th from 7:00-7:45pm. 

These sessions will be for parents and guardians only. This will allow much needed time for teachers to focus on curriculum topics and for parents to ask questions. I hope to greet many of you as I discuss the first grade curriculum.
Please take a minute to fill out this short questionnaire about Back to School Night: https://forms.gle/dGeMSM8r4kPxkp6d7