First Grade News
What's up in First Grade?
Valentine's day, Conferences and a break, Oh My!
Hello! it is hard to believe that is not only almost spring, but that it is that time of year where we prepare for Easter- Lent is starting on Wednesday February 10th. We will have an Ash Wednesday service/Mass at 9:00 on Wednesday to celebrate this important feast in our Catholic Church as well as having our usual Mass on Thursday at 9:00. Lent is a time for prayer and reflection and we have been talking with our students about Lenten goals. Sometimes it is common to give something up for lent but we have also talked about taking something on- doing more bedtime prayers, reading more bible stories or learning some new facts about our Faith. We are still working on this for the next week or so but please engage with your child about their Lenten journey and what they plan to do to get their hearts ready for Easter and the Rising of Christ. We will have more information about special Lenten events and Easter events as it continues.
There is NO school or extended care offered on Friday, February 12th for conferences. We will also not have school on Monday or Tuesday. A five day weekend can be a fun time to celebrate and have time with family so please take some time to relax. However, since we sent out a homework packet this week and it will be due a day early, feel free to turn in the homework packet AFTER the break if that would be less stressful (but don't if it would be more :) ).
Registration:
Registration for current families is from February 1st- February 26th. It will open up to everyone on February 29th. If you do not complete the online enrollment and pay the registration fee by February 26th, your spot can potentially be given away. Your account must be in good standing to be able to register. Please talk to the main office if you have any questions. We will be having Tuition Contract meetings in the main office on the 25th and 26th for anyone who needs any financial assistance for the upcoming school year.
Conferences- We have already started to have some families sign up for conferences. The sign-up is outside of Mrs. Holguin's room. If you have not yet signed up for a conference and intend so, please do so by Tuesday. We will send home a reminder with your conference time in the yellow envelopes on Wednesday. A reminder that if you have not been requested to conference you do not need to but may still sign up for one if you so choose. It is also not a problem if we have requested to have a conference with you- it is to talk about your child's growth and make a plan for continued support for the rest of the year. Please come to the conference ready with any questions or concerns at right now or looking forward so that we can help address them. Hope to see you at conferences on Friday, February 12th!
Last but not least- Valentines Day! As we approach Valentines day, we wanted to talk about our plans. First of all, all students are invited to make their own valentines day box in any way that they like- please be as creative as possible. Please keep it within the size of a shoe or cereal box, but please be as creative as possible! The box does not have to be valentine's day themed, please let your child chose to create anything of interest to them (that is school appropriate :) ). We will have a party on Thursday, February 11th as we do not have school on Friday. The party will be in the afternoon and have valentine's games and treats. All students are invited to bring a valentine for every student in the class. Please have each student bring the same valentine for all students. If your student would like to bring a special valentine for a friend, they can give it straight to them in the morning or purchase a special valentines gram from the student store. I have just put up a sign up sheet and please sign up for something on the list OR come and talk to us if you had something specific in mind that you would like to make! We are very excited as are the students... !
Getting ready to sing!!
Which is Mrs. Holguin?
Spirit day- love the orange!
Curriculum Corner
Math- We have just finished up with our shapes unit. We are getting ready to look at order and direction words in spanish (1st, 2nd, 3rd, behind, under, over, right, left) and counting and adding by numbers beyond 10 in English.
Reading- In english we are introducing silent e and long vowel sounds with words such as cane, vine, mule and hope. We have also just introduce AI(says long a) and EA (says long E). Practicing recognizing these words in your child's reading will help a lot. We also continue to practice sight words and syllables in both spanish and english. We are also introducing the concept of verbs, adjectives and nouns in both spanish and English.
In spanish we are starting to learn the differences between ce, ci, que, qui, ge, gi, gue, gui. Always sounding out the sounds E and I. We are also introducing blends in Spanish. Our blends consist of initial two-consonant letters. For example, bra- brazo (arm).
Fri- frijol (bean) Cre- crema (cream). Children will be learning how to blend these two consonant syllables without sounding them out anymore. Every time you read, you can look for these words and have them say the complete blend, it will make a big difference. Click on the link to have a better understanding and get an idea of how to pronounce these syllables!
Grammar- We are also just introducing plurals in both Spanish and English.
The rule for making a word plural or showing more than one in English is that if the word ends in an x, s, ss, sh or ch then the ending is es. Lunch becomes lunches. Any other ending ends in just s. Bat becomes bats.
In spanish the rule is that if the word ends in a vowel than just an s is added- casa becomes casas. If it ends in a consonant then it will end in es- papel becomes papeles. If it ends in a z then it changes to a ces- pez becomes peces.
Religion- We are learning about Lent and the starting the journey towards Easter as well as the significance of Ash Wednesday. Throughout Lent we are going to look at the life of Jesus culminating in his death and resurrection on the cross.