Mrs. Nagy's 1st Grade Class
First Grade is One in a Minion!
HELLO 2018! It has been quite the crazy start to our new year! I am very excited for the new year and all the learning it will bring. Hopefully we can get back into our regular "groove" and ramp up our learning during these cold and dreary winter months!
Holiday Celebrations Around the World - The First Grade had a fabulous time spending the weeks before Christmas traveling around the world to learn about many countries and the many traditions each country partakes in to celebrate a holiday important to their culture. Since we encountered a snow day right before break, it backlogged our travel. The children enjoyed this so much I did not want to "skip" that country I had planned for and with the extra snow days after break we have just wrapped up our travel as of Friday. This was such a wonder learning unit and I wanted to be sure we maximized our learning by reviewing and discussing each country. As a final task, the children were to pick their favorite place we visited and explain their choice. I look forward to reviewing these as well as sending home their travel folder for you to explore, too! (*pictures included below)
- Spelling Lists - We will begin our spelling lists starting this week. Please be on the look out!
- Book order -A book order will be coming home in your child's folder! Please feel free to use the link below to place an order or return the order to school by 26th.
Book it – January Book It should have come in your child's folder on Friday. This month I have decided to do something a little different. Your child is only responsible for reading one book, BUT...they are required to fill out a story map of the book. We have talked a lot about story elements, so this should not be difficult for your child. Please encourage them to do their BEST! This is why I am assigning only one, so your child can focus on quality and not quantity!
Family Projects - WELL DONE! I am so proud of the students for doing such a wonderful job with their family projects! SO many different traditions and ideas! The students did a wonderful job presenting! I hope you enjoyed participating in this activity with them, too!
Interim Reports - Interims will be coming home with your child on Tuesday. This report will be a brief update of your child's progress. Conference night will be on Thursday, February 8th to discuss your child's continuing progress and address any concerns.
AR - Keep those books coming! We have lots of time to keep on plugging away at taking tests. Remember the AR goal for this year is 40 points! That is 80 books by May. ARP is a great way to help your child read for comprehension as well as learn to site text to help them find answers if they are unsure. These are skills all readers need to master to becoming literate. I will guide your child should they be weary and help them as necessary. My goal is to help them find confidence in reading and feel successful with their abilities!
MAP testing - Starting now through the 26th SVDP will be conducting MAP testing. The first grade will test in the areas of reading and math. I am waiting to administer the tests until the week of the 26th. I feel that it is best for us to get back into the swing of things so our brains our kick started back into full gear. With all these interruptions, I feel like a little extra time may benefit us all. Any questions, please contact me.
Catholic Schools Week - Catholic Schools week starts January 28th. This is a fun week filled with activities and themed days to celebrate our Catholic School! More details to come soon!!!! The Primary classrooms are responsible for planning Monday, January 29th focused on community. Our area of focus is our immediate community outside our school. We would like you to start collecting new/used hats, gloves, scarfs, and socks. We are going to ziploc them and hang them on our surrounding fence for anyone in need of warmth this horribly cold winter. We feel this is a great way for the primary children to directly effect the lives of others and show compassion like Jesus. The children will help sort and bag the items. Weather permitting they will be able to help keep the fence well stocked and hang the items. I know they will take great pride in this and it will hopefully make a lasting impression on them. Again, please contact me if you need more information.
FLASHLIGHT FRIDAYS - Winter can sometimes feel so long and dark. To "brighten" up our dark and long winter afternoons, I like to plan for "FLASHLIGHT FRIDAYS". Each child needs to bring in a flashlight in working condition to school labeled with their name. On Friday afternoons, we will use our flashlights to play games, complete work, or just find a quiet spot and read a book with a friend. Please feel free to send in starting this week. We will keep these at school until Easter.
- LAST BUT NOT LEAST...I know that these snow days and long weekends can be a struggle to keep your child busy and off electronics. Here are a couple of ideas to have ready for the next BIG ONE! The students love to paint with water colors. You can buy this in the school supply section of any store and the kids LOVE IT! Buy a pack of paper and you will have a house full of masterpieces. Another fun activity we do in winter is coffee filter snowflakes. You can get a 100 pack of coffee filters for 2 dollars and your child can experiment with folding and cutting to create an indoor snowstorm:)
I hope this brings us up-to-date with our classroom events. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions! Keep warm!
Mrs. Nagy
Holiday Traditions Around the World
Our daily Package from Globe Trot Scott
Inside we would find a letter, a book, souvenirs to make and sometimes even a yummy treat!
An anchor chart wall of all the facts we learned about each stop!
Tomtens from Sweden
Gingerbread Men from Germany
Sandmen from Australia
Happy Diwali from Grayson and Miles!
Yule log cake by Roman Alexander.
Amelia decorating her Bûche de Noël cake!
First Grade Love!
Special schedules - Our special schedule is a ongoing rotation of A, B, C, with Friday being FLEX Friday (where our specials vary depending on availability).
B Music and Technology
C Gym and Spanish
MATH
We are continuing our strategy building using addition and subtraction. Children must have a solid foundation of their math facts in order to find success in future grades. We will continue to learn about the many ways we can find an answer, including using manipulatives, using a hundreds chart, drawing a picture, mental math, using a number line, making a tens frame, even using our fingers. Not every strategy will work best for your child, but we learn the many different ways so your child can experience and discover the best way for them to be a STEM problem solver.
We will also continue to work on graphing, number sequence, skip counting and shapes (3-D and 2-D) throughout other areas of instruction, TOO:)