November News!

An exciting month has ended with the celebration of Halloween! The children enjoyed the parade, assembly, and class party.Thank you to Mrs. Cherpak, Mr. Meyerowitz and Mrs. Shivak for organizing and running the party.  

PARENT VOLUNTEERS
Thank you to all the parents who signed up at Curriculum Night to help in the classroom and in the computer lab. I am putting together the schedule and trying my best to accommodate the majority of parents who signed up.  

READING
The children are working hard on improving their reading skills. I am sure you are seeing wonderful growth in their skills and fluency. Completing the weekly reading logs and reading each night continues to be an important part of developing your child's reading abilities. Along with listening to your child read to YOU, continue reading to HIM/HER each night. Your child needs to hear you model good reading and share good literature. I also encourage you to help your child use RAZ kids on the computer at home. Sign in instructions and passwords were sent home a few weeks ago. This is another great way to help your child increase his/her reading fluency. 

We continue to work on word families and how to use them to decode new words. We have worked on short a words, short e words, short i words, short o words and the digraph /th/. The children practice spelling many words using these vowel sounds and changing the first and/or last consonant sounds.  

MATH
We are continuing to work on addition. Some of the skills we are focusing on are using a number line, "counting on" by starting with the bigger number in the addition problem, creating number sentences and solving and creating story problems. We are also continuing to learn new Fact Fixers.  

SCIENCE AND SOCIAL STUDIES
In October, we read books and wrote about bats. This month we will start to learn about the Earth and what it is made of. In Social Studies, the children learned about Christopher Columbus. This month, we will be discussing Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims, their journey to America and how the Native Americans helped them to survive. We will begin our study of families this month. The students will learn about their family traditions and what makes them the same and different.  

SHOW AND TELL
Don't forget the last Friday of each month is Show and Tell. Mark your calendar!

EXTRA CLOTHES
The weather is getting colder! Make sure your child comes to school dressed appropriately. Also, please send an extra pair of clothes for your child to keep in  his/her locker in case of accidents, spills or weather related incidents!

I look forward to talking with all of you during our upcoming conferences. There will be class-made books outside the classroom for you to look through. I hope you take the time to look through some of the wonderful things that the children have already done this year!

October News

Reading and Writing:
We have started working with our Harcourt Storytown series. Some of the skills we are working on include sequencing, summarizing a story, making predictions, story elements and phonics. The students are doing a great job with their Reading Logs. Thank you for your daily help. The more they read, the more confidence they will have in themselves as readers. Their sight word vocabulary will increase, as well as their fluency.

The students are also doing a wonderful job learning the different components of Daily Five. Ask them about building their "stamina" up to 20 minutes for Read to Self. They are currently practicing strategies to use when they Read to Someone. They have also learned different Word Work activities (playing word games, writing words on Dry-Erase Boards and using magnetic letters to create sight words). The first graders are also learning new ways to "Listen to Reading." They are using RAZ kids and the Listening Center to listen to new stories.

Please remember to help your child complete the weekly Tic Tac Toe Literacy assignments. The students receive this assignment on Monday and are expected to bring it back on Friday. This assignment is a great way to help your child learn high frequency words and phonics skills.

Math:
We are practicing building numbers out of tens and ones. For example, students are expected to know that the number 51 is made of 5 tens and 1 one. We are also learning how to count up to 120.

The students are doing a wonderful job learning their "fixers!" So far, they have learned these 6 fixers:

• 7, 4, 11
• 8, 8, 16
• 9, 5, 14
• 5, 2, 7
• 8, 4, 12
• 3, 3, 6

Please continue to return the math homework to school. If you find the homework is too long and frustrating, please note this on the assignment and return it to school.  

Science and Social Studies:

Our study of bees has given us many wonderful opportunities to discuss life cycles and living/nonliving things. These will be ongoing topics of study in first grade. We had a fantastic time seeing the bees at Heller Nature Center. Thank you very much to Mr. Meyerowitz and Mrs. Taitler for coming on the field trip with us.

We will begin learning about Christopher Columbus in Social Studies. 

Buddies:

Has your first grader told you about his/her 3rd grade buddy? We are buddies with Mrs. Lorenz's 3rd grade class. We will meet together to do projects, read and have educational fun!

Traveling Teddy:

Be prepared for Traveling Teddy to visit your house. Traveling Teddy goes home each Friday and needs to come back on Monday. Traveling Teddy will circulate through the entire class so please be patient.  

Book Order:

I will be sending home a Scholastic Book Order this week. This is an optional activity; however, it is a great way to build a library at your home. If you order online, our class earns materials for the classroom!