Welcome to First Grade! (2nd Semester)

Welcome back!  We have 2 more days of adjusted schedule for the PSSAs.  While we do not have to take the standardized tests in first grade, our schedule will be affected on PSSA days to accommodate the older students.  We will also have our Field Day on Friday.  Please remember to send your child to school with sunscreen already applied and with a water bottle so they can stay hydrated.

In phonics we will be working on words that have the prefix un. We will also look at the doubling rule for single syllable words. Here are the words for our spelling test: unpack, untie, unroll, sitting, shopping, clapped. For writing, we will begin our unit on realistic fiction. 

In math, we will continue to add and subtract large numbers.  We will continue with landforms and bodies of water for science.

Welcome to PSSA week!  While we do not have to take the standardized tests in first grade, our schedule will be affected on PSSA days to accommodate the older students. 

In phonics we will be working on words that have the suffixes er, est, and ly.  Here are the words for our spelling test: louder, newer, fastest, sadly, quickly, widely. For writing, we will finish up informational writing this week. 

In math, we will continue to add and subtract large numbers.  We will continue with landforms and bodies of water for science.

Welcome back!  Our goal in phonics will be for students to learn about words with silent letters (kn, wr, and mb). We will also look at adding -s and -es to nouns.  Here are the words for Friday's test: knee, write, thumb, sounds, grows, reaches

Congratulations to Zoe for being the winner for our class writing contest.  Her writing will be added with others to be chosen to represent our school! 

For math, we will look at adding and subtracting numbers that got up to 120.  This will be a review while students get additional practice adding and subtracting large numbers. 

Finally, for science, we will be looking at maps. We will be learning about  various landforms and different bodies of water. 

Additional Notes: I am in need of one more volunteer for our event in May.  Please let me know if you are available to help! 

We have an in-house field trip scheduled for Tuesday, May 7th. I will need 3 parent volunteers to help in the classroom between 10:10 - 11:20.  Please check your schedules and email me/message me on Seesaw if you are interested in volunteering.  Please note that you will need to submit clearances to the front office before coming into the classroom. 

For phonics, we will study diphthongs.  They are words that have an /oi/ sound or an /ow/ sound.  Here are the words we will use for our spelling test on Friday: soil, point, boy, out, south, down. For writing, we will take a break from informational writing to participate in our district-wide writing contest.  We will work on it this week and choose a class winner on Friday.

Finally, for math, we will look at numbers up to 120.  We will take a test on Friday covering multiple digit subtraction and numbers up to 120.

Additional Notes: *Due to a scheduling conflict, we will have P.E. on Wednesday (Day 4) instead of Thursday (Day 5).  Also, we have an in-house field trip scheduled for Tuesday, May 7th. I will need 3 parent volunteers to help in the classroom between 10:10 - 11:20.  Please check your schedules and email me/message me on Seesaw if you are interested in volunteering.  Please note that you will need to submit clearances to the front office before coming into the classroom.

For science, we will study rabbits this week. We will focus on their diet and habitats. We will also have visitors from the Byrnes Center to talk about character education. 

Finally, please make sure to sign your child’s reading log so that they can turn it in for a prize.  Thank you so much for encouraging your child to read at home!

For math, we will begin double digit subtraction.  We will start off easy by subtracting down the column without regrouping. 

Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful spring break!

In math, we will work on adding 3 single digit numbers together before taking our test on Friday.

Please note that there will be a 2 hour delay on Tuesday, March 19th and that we will be going to the Appell center to see a play on Thursday.

The last day to purchase a school year book is Wednesday, March 20th. If you are interested in purchasing one, please check your email or use the link below.

https://yearbook-orders-73740.cheddarup.com/

In math, we will begin adding by regrouping the numbers in the ones place and carrying it over to the tens place. This will be a very guided process that we practice over many days. 

We will also have a couple assemblies this week. If we have time, we will talk about rainbows and leprechauns as we continue learning in March. 

In math, we will continue adding double digit numbers without regrouping. After some conversation with the other first grade teachers, we have decided to give extra practice on this concept before moving onto double digit addition with regrouping. 

We will also be participating in Read Across America Week.  We will D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) for 15 minutes everyday this week in addition to other activities that encourage reading, Please see the email sent out earlier for spirit days running all week. 

Welcome back to another great week! In spelling, we will review r-controlled words.  These words with a vowel + r make the vowels change their sound. We will also learn long vowel sounds starting with the words that have ai and ay combinations.  Here are the spelling words for this week:

shark, third, number, day, play, rain

In math, we will begin adding double digit numbers together.  We will start with adding without regrouping and then use our knowledge of base 10 blocks to add by regrouping later in the week. 

Mrs. Smith will be coming in on Wednesday for her last Lego Science lesson this week. We will also talk about leap years, fables, and the central message for those stories.

We will continue to write a variety of opinions this week as well as finishing up our math unit on ordering and comparing numbers to 40.

We will have a guest teacher come in to talk about our teeth and dental health on Tuesday. Mrs. Smith is not able to do another Lego Science lesson this week but I hope to cover a little bit about President’s Day when we have time.

For math, we will learn about numbers that go up to 40.  We will practice comparing and ordering these numbers before we get to double digit addition and subtraction later this month. 

Valentines Day - February 14th: If your child is interested in celebrating Valentines day, they may bring valentines to school to exchange with each other.  Please note that candy or any other types of food should not be brought to school to share with others.  If you would like to add names to the valentines, here is our class list: Sofia, Gavin, Emberlee, Juan, Madden, Zoe, Alexa, Adisynn, Charlotte, Lowen, Lyric, Ny’Sira, Landon. We do have one more student in our class but his family does not celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Hope you have a wonderful week!

I hope everyone was able to have a wonderful long weekend and that the students enjoyed their snow day! Since we have a very short week, we will study words that have -ild, -ind, -old, -olt, and -ost sounds but we will not have a spelling test on Friday. 

We will continue with 2D and 3D shapes in math and explore push and pull concepts in science.

Our students have done a great job transitioning back to school last week after our winter break. We will continue with our learning routine by learning about the -tch /ch/ sound and the -dge /j/ sound in phonics.

Spelling Test:  itch, patch, fetch, edge, judge, lodge

For math, we will begin learning about shapes.  We will start with the properties of 2D shapes and move on to 3D shapes next week. Our first grade students at Locust Grove will also pilot a science and engineering program through LEGO Education. On Wednesday, we will explore push and pull properties by building with Legos. 

Please note that the school will be closed on Friday, January 12th.