Happy New Year! Hello 2017!
I hope you had a great holiday with your family and friends.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I am so thankful for each and everyone of you! Your kindness means so much to me. :) Thank you.
What's our New Year's Resolution in first grade?
What will we be learning this month?
Your child will continue to come home with guided reading books in their "Book Buddy Bag" to read at home for continued practice. The books in this bag are familiar reads, meaning that the students have had experience reading the book with me and are continuing to read it at home to practice reading smoothly and with expression. These books are also perfect to use to ask your child questions about what they read in order to increase their reading comprehension. If the book is a nonfiction text, you can ask them to tell you the main idea of the text, some facts they learned, questions they still have, or if there were any nonfiction text features. If the text is fiction, you can ask them to retell what happened in the text with details including the characters and the setting, problem and solution.
In Spelling, we will be continuing to have 5 weekly spelling words to learn each week. We are practicing how to read and spell these words each day in class. I encourage the students to practice the words at home each evening to reinforce our in school practice. The students are working hard at making sure they spell the spelling words correctly in their writing.
In Math, we are continuing to focus on our speed and accuracy of addition and subtraction facts. We are practicing our facts at school and I encourage the students to practice their facts each night at home as a part of their nightly homework routine. The students are practicing their facts daily in the classroom with flash cards, independent/partner games, and BigBrainz. We will moving into Unit 5 in math where we will be solving unknown partner addition and subtraction story problems, two digit addition, and addition with three addends.
In Writing, we are continuing to write Persuasive/Opinion pieces to convince the reader to think like we think, feel how we feel, or believe what we believe. The students completed their persuasive letter to you right before Christmas break, so sometime this week you will be able to listen to the students reading you their letter on Seesaw. We worked hard on having two strong reasons and examples for each reason to give more details and tell more about their reasons why they feel the way they do. If you can please talk to your child about the parts of their letter that were convincing to you and if you have any ideas how they could have added more to their reasons or examples please tell them. This authentic conversation will reinforce what your child has been learning in the classroom and create meaning.
In addition to persuasive writing, your child is still writing weekly letters to their pen pal in Miss DeLuzio's first grade classroom at Middlesex Elementary School. The students are doing a great job writing questions to learn more about their new friends and writing about themselves. I've noticed the students spending time making sure their writing is neat so their pen pal can read it. We are taking each letter through the writing process allowing the students more opportunities to practice revising and editing.
In Science, we are venturing into studying soil and what soil is made of. The students will be participating in hands on activities to discover what soil is made up of and will be recording their findings in their Scientific Notebook.
Miss Loffredo's Contact Information
Email: aloffredo@cvschools.org
Website: www.cvschools.org/webpages/aloffredo
Phone: 717-258-6208