First Grade May News
"May" We Have Your Attention?
May has finally made its way to first grade. The school year is blowing by us so quickly! With all the busy schedules, thank you for still encouraging your child to read at home and to keep up with other school responsibilities!
Please take the time to check out our Landis Valley Video and our NEW STEM Video.
Click on the dropbox links below.
Mothers are special to us because…..
- They clean and make us dinner and breakfast.
- They help us if you don’t know what to do with your homework.
- They cook us yummy food.
- They teach us new words.
- They give us hugs and kisses.
- They love us.
- They help us with something when we struggle with it.
- They give us what we want and the things they give us are really special.
- If there were no moms, all I would be eating is take out and pizza, and always watching football.
- They drive us places we need to get to.
- They pack our lunch.
- They come in as mystery readers and read books with great fluency.
- They give us life when we are born.
Thank you to all our wonderful moms!
By: Miss Higgins’ Class
Important Dates to Remember
- No School on Monday, May 25th
- 1st through 5th Grade Musical is on Thursday, May 28th @ 6:30pm @ CAT Pickering. More information to follow...
- 1st Grade Author’s Tea is Monday, June 8th @ 1:00pm: Please come and let your child show you some of the wonderful writing pieces they have composed this year! You will hear students read aloud their favorite original writing pieces. The readings will be followed by the serving of tea and cookies by our students. Invitation to follow...
Check out what's happening in the month of MAY below...
Reading
We are so excited about the growth all the students have made in reading! They are awesome readers and we hope that you have seen this at home too. This is all the more reason to be sure your child is reading over the summer by listening to a story read by a parent, reading to someone, going to the library or reading group, or just reading on their own. We want students to continue to practice the strategies and skills they have learned, so they can continue their growth in second grade!
Over the next few weeks children will learn about how a great idea can make a difference.
Key Questions this month:
- How do we solve mysteries?
- How can a great idea make our lives easier?
- How can a great idea change the way we live?
- What can happen when someone has a new idea?
We will be working with the following comprehension skills:
- Compare and Contrast: Compare means telling how things are the same. Contrast means telling how things are not the same. Good readers pay attention to how things are alike and different. This can help them understand what they are reading.
- Main idea and Details: The main idea is what a story or article is mostly about. Details are small pieces of information that tell about the main idea.
- Sequencing: Events in a story happen in a certain order or sequence. Good readers pay attention to the sequence in which things happen because it helps them understand the story.
- Theme: Every story has one “big idea” or “meaning.” Good readers use things that have happened to them in their own lives to help them understand the big idea or story.
We will be working with the following comprehension strategies:
- Monitor and Clarify: If something seems confusing or does not make sense, good readers reread part of the story or use the pictures to help clarify the meaning.
- Summarize: When readers want to understand or remember what they read, they think about the most important parts. They think about how to retell what happens in a short way.
- Text Structure: Good readers use all the information in a selection and how the text is organized to help them understand what they read.
- Inferring: Good readers think about what they already know. They use that knowledge to come up with new ideas about what they read.
Phonics
The phonics skills we will be working on this month are the vowel sounds of oo, suffixes, and prefixes. Knowing these phonics patterns will help students decode words as they are reading.
For the remainder of the school year all spelling for Miss Higgins' reading class will be done in school. Please be sure to check your child's spelling journal at the end of the week to review the activities completed throughout the week.
Writing
We have written so many great stories this year! Have your child continue to experience the fun of writing by keeping a writing journal over the summer where they can exercise their abilities as an author. Some ideas for writing include: personal narratives (true stories from your child’s life), how-to books, all about books (nonfiction writing about one topic), poems, or anything they feel like writing!
This month in writing, we will work on staying on topic and writing research reports, letters, autobiographies, and poems with a logical sequence. We continue to look for mastery of conventions (capitalization and punctuation). First graders should be writing with many details and developing focused and interesting stories.
Math
Students have started a new unit on Two- Digit Addition and Subtraction. Throughout this unit students will be able to:
- Add tens
- Count On Tens and Ones
- Add Tens and Ones with Regrouping
- Subtract Tens
- Count Back by 10s
Check out what happened in the month of April below...
Before Reading Questions
During Reading Questions
After Reading Questions
10 More Game
STEM
House of Cards
STEM
STEM
The Domino Effect
STEM
As always, please let us know if you have first grade questions or concerns!
Miss Higgins' First Grade
Email: Shannon.higgins@nlcinc.com
Website: http://oaks.chesterbrookacademy.com/
Location: 711 Hollow Road, Phoenixville, PA, United States
Phone: (610) 935-4400
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChesterbrookAcademyElementaryOaks
Twitter: @cbaoaks