This week in first! (October 7-10)

This week's agenda and reminders 9/30

My apologies to everyone for the slack postings, but I will do my best to update weekly and keep you abreast to the things going on in first grade.

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ELA/Reading

We are reading The Farmer in the Hat.  Grammar will continue dealing with nouns (naming words).  Writing will continue to focus on forming complete sentences and writing narratives.
*You can review these concepts with your child by:
-having your child write or say words that name things.
-having your child cut out pictures from magazines that name things.
-having your child find words that name things while driving or shopping (noun hunt).
-making flashcards to read and repeat(spelling words, sight words, amazing words).

-having your child journal several times a week even if it's just about their day and discussing punctuation and capitalization.

Phonics

This week in phonics, we will review the sounds that have been learned the past seven weeks. 
*Starfall.com

Math
We will continue to focus on place value with higher numbers.  This includes using rods and units (and flats), organizing numbers by hundreds, tens and ones, and writing numbers in expanded form.

*You can review these concepts with your child by:
-using a deck of cards to form two and three digit numbers and allowing them to write them in expanded form (ie 49=40+9) or draw rods and units.
-using food (cereal, macaroni noodles, spaghetti noodles, etc.) to have them make groups of ten to count and make numbers.


Social Studies

We are beginning our "Where we live" portion of this Social Studies unit.  We will be working with your child's knowledge of their city, county, state, country, and continent.  Please make sure to discuss with your children where they live in the world!
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Important Dates
10/4-10/10 - No Place for Hate week

10/11 and 10/14 - No School (Fall Break)

10/18 - Report Cards
10/22 - Picture Day

10/25 - Factory Shoals Fall Festival

*We will also be having a canned food drive (FalCan) for the month of October.  There is an opportunity for great prizes to the class that collects the most cans!

Our First Grade Character Winners!!!

Factory Shoals has begun it's student recognition board. This board can be found hanging right outside of the cafeteria for all to see. The purpose of this board is to highlight, encourage, and motivate our students for their success in our classrooms both academically and morally.

 

The criteria for the first month was CHARACTER! Each teacher was to identify a student in their class that can always be caught doing the right thing. This is not just the quietest person in the class. The winners for this month were:

 

Teacher	Student	ONE Sentence:
Barbe	Nahkya Nation	Nahkya is a great example of good classroom behavior
Billingsley	Kendall Reed	Kendall is a leader among her classmates because of her positive attitude.
Hamilton	Cartier Donnell	Cartier always sets an example of respect for other students.
Lindeman	Neidy Garcia	Neidy always has a positive attitude and promotes good choices throughout the day.
Pike	Ariana Tjeada	Ariana is a hard worker and is always willing to help other classmates.
Summers	Jeorgia Allen	Jeorgia always set wonderful examples of good behavior, respect for others,  and a love of learning and school.

This week in First! September 29-October 4

This week's agenda and reminders 9/30

My apologies to everyone for the slack postings, but I will do my best to update weekly and keep you abreast to the things going on in first grade.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

ELA/Reading

We are reading A Big Fish for Max.  Grammar will deal with nouns (naming words).  Writing will continue to focus on forming complete sentences and writing narratives.
*You can review these concepts with your child by:
-having your child write or say words that name things.
-having your child cut out pictures from magazines that name things.
-having your child find words that name things while driving or shopping (noun hunt).
-making flashcards to read and repeat(spelling words, sight words, amazing words).

-having your child journal several times a week even if it's just about their day and discussing punctuation and capitalization.

Phonics

The focus for the week is on suffixes -ed and -ing, the "ee" sound and, th- digraph.  Please utilize the phonics sheet sent home with most first grade teachers to practice spelling words with these sounds.  If your child's teacher does not send the sheet home, you can make your own phonics tiles or use old magazines or newspapers to hunt words.  There are also many apps and internet games that will allow your child to practice with these sound more.
*Starfall.com

Math
We will be focusing on place value with higher numbers.  This includes using rods and units (and flats), organizing numbers by hundreds, tens and ones, and writing numbers in expanded form.

*You can review these concepts with your child by:
-using a deck of cards to form two and three digit numbers and allowing them to write them in expanded form (ie 49=40+9) or draw rods and units.
-using food (cereal, macaroni noodles, spaghetti noodles, etc.) to have them make groups of ten to count and make numbers.


Social Studies

Our time with Folktales (Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, John Henry, Annie Oakley, and Davy Crockett) is coming to and end and we will continue social studies with "Where we live".  We will be working with your child's knowledge of their city, county, state, country, and continent.
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Important Dates

10/11 and 10/14 - No School (Fall Break)

10/18 - Report Cards

10/25 - Factory Shoals Fall Festival

*We will also be having a canned food drive (FalCan) for the month of October.  There is an opportunity for great prizes to the class that collects the most cans!

This week in first (9/3-9/6)

Agenda and reminders for the week of September 3, 2013

In ELA/Reading we are reading The Big Blue Ox. This story is about a hard working ox.  The grammar for this story deals with sentences (naming and asking part, word order).

*Review grammar concepts with your child by:

-having your child orally form sentences CORRECTLY at all times

-having your child write complete sentences with proper capitals and punctuation.  Make sure they understand a sentence needs a "who" and "what" to be complete.
-cutting pre-made sentences for your child to arrange correctly
Video
~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdUXxdmhIsw

Our Saxon Phonics for the week deals with the letters s and d, suffix -s and blends (ex: st, pl, cr, dr).  We will not have a spelling test this week, but please review these letter sounds and basic CVC(consonant-vowel-consonant)words that include these letters with your child.
Review phonics concepts with your child by:
-having spelling practice with S and D words and sounds (ideas-writing on a white board, writing on a mirror(dry erase markers also work on mirrors!), spelling words in/with play-do, shaving cream, pasta, on your back, orally etc.)  Make sure to include all of the sounds we have studied thus far.
-finding S and D words, words with blends, and words with -s suffixes in magazines, newspapers, billboards, etc.
-making flashcards to read and repeat(spelling words)
-make a chart of words using these letters (real and nonsense words) 

Videos

~Havefunteaching on YouTube has loads of sound practice and sight word practice that you can utilize at home

*feel free to look up more on your own games/review geared toward this weeks concepts: 
~ google The Big Blue Ox activities and games
~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1orYZAoGgoQ (s sound)
~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqntSJGu1t0 (d sound)

Other games and activities online:
- http://www.quia.com/jg/1722122.html (The Big Blue Ox games)
-use  Odyssey

-use Starfall (Starfall)
*Can your child read the story outside of the book? Try it! http://www.soundcityreading.com/rsstoriesunit1.pdf (This link contains all unit 1 stories, you can print each one or read them as we do, online)

**Please look out for phonics geared books/small group books that may come home with your child.  These may not be on your child's homework  list, but it is still important that they have the opportunity to read as much as they can, as often as they can.

**Repetition is key!!

In Math, we will be working on greater than, less than and equal to.  We will also continue to practice number order (greatest to least and least to greatest)

*You can review these concepts with your child by:
-using a deck of cards where your child chooses a number and tells you what comes before or after (you can use 2 cards to make double digit numbers or more for higher numbers)
-using number cards, have your child put them in order from least to greatest and greatest to least.
-sorting numbers by tens and putting them in order (ex: sorting all of the 20s and then arranging them in order)
-giving random numbers to put in order
Odyssey which has teacher created assignments/games

-utilizing xtramath.org (for continued addition and subtraction help)

-utilizing Starfall (which now has a math component)
-utilizing http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-1

In Science, we are focusing magnets.  We will discuss how magnets work, what they can and can not attract, and how the repel. 

*Science Vocabulary:   
attract, repel, poles, energy

Important Dates

9/5 - Progress Reports

This week in First (8/19-8/23)

Agenda and reminders for the week of August 19, 2013

In ELA/Reading we are reading Sam, Come Back!. This story is about a mischevious (good word to look up in the dictionary!) cat named Sam who loves to play.  The grammar for this story deals with forming sentences.

*Review grammar concepts with your child by:

-having your child orally form sentences CORRECTLY at all times

-having your child write complete sentences with proper capitals and punctuation.  Make sure they understand a sentence needs a "who" and "what" to be complete.
-cutting pre-made sentences for your child to arrange correctly
Video
~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdUXxdmhIsw

Our Saxon Phonics for the week deals with the letters N, O, T, and P.  We will not have a spelling test this week, but please review these letter sounds and basic CVC(consonant-vowel-consonant)words that include these letters with your child.
Review phonics concepts with your child by:
-having spelling practice with N, O, T, P words and sounds (ideas-writing on a white board, writing on a mirror(dry erase markers also work on mirrors!), spelling words in/with play-do, shaving cream, pasta, on your back, orally etc.)
-finding N, T, O, P words in magazines, newspapers, billboards, etc.
-making flashcards to read and repeat(spelling words)
-make a chart of words using these letters (real and nonsense words) 

Videos

~Havefunteaching on YouTube has loads of sound practice and sight word practice that you can utilize at home

*feel free to look up more on your own games/review geared toward this weeks concepts: 
~ http://www.spellingcity.com/view-spelling-list.html?listId=2954750 (amazing words)
~ http://www.spellingcity.com/view-spelling-list.html?listId=3168775 (high frequency sight words)

Other games and activities online:
- http://www.quia.com/jg/1086590.html (Sam, Come Back! games)
-use  Odyssey

-use Starfall (Starfall)
*Can your child read the story outside of the book? Try it! http://www.soundcityreading.com/rsstoriesunit1.pdf (This link contains all unit 1 stories, you can print each one or read them as we do, online)

**Please look out for phonics geared books/small group books that may come home with your child.  These may not be on your child's homework  list, but it is still important that they have the opportunity to read as much as they can, as often as they can.

**Repetition is key!!

In Math, we will be working on number order and before, after and in between numbers. 

*You can review these concepts with your child by:
-using a deck of cards where your child chooses a number and tells you what comes before or after (you can use 2 cards to make double digit numbers or more for higher numbers)
-simply calling out numbers for your child to tell you what comes before, after or in between
-giving random numbers to put in order
Odyssey which has teacher created assignments/games

-utilizing xtramath.org (for continued addition and subtraction help)

-utilizing Starfall (which now has a math component)
-utilizing http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-1

In Science, we are focusing magnets.  We will discuss how magnets work, what they can and can not attract, and how the repel. 

*Science Vocabulary:   
attract, repel, poles, energy

Important Dates
8/23 - Boogie in the Bus Lane 

9/2 - No School, Labor Day
9/5 - Progress Reports