January 4, 2016
Dear Parent(s),
Welcome to the New Year! We hope that the Christmas break was an
enjoyable time for you and your family. Looking ahead, January appears to be a
busy month for the first graders. Everyday we are truly amazed at how much the
children have learned since the beginning of the year-you can be very proud!
Religion
During this month we will be focusing on the following themes: We Belong
to a Parish, We Celebrate the Sacraments, The Church Welcomes New
Members and We Are Followers of Jesus. You are invited to join us for the
following liturgies in church at 8:50: January 6th, January 13th, January 20th, and
January 27th.
Reading
We will soon finish Theme 4 and your child is excited to bring their book
home to share the stories they have been working on. Please return the book by
January 22nd. As we start Theme 5 we will continue to work on phonemic
awareness and the following phonics skills: the digraphs sh, th, wh, ch, tch, long
vowel sounds of a and i, final sounds nd, ng and nk and contractions. We will
also work on these comprehension strategies: compare and contrast,
questioning, summarizing, cause and effect, making generalizations and thinking
about whether they understand what they are reading (monitor/clarify). As we
practice summarizing it would be a good idea to have your child retell a story
after they have read it for you. Look to see if they are able to include the
characters, the setting and important events in proper sequence. We will
continue to send home the books in a bag. As some of the stories become longer
you may want to keep them home a few days. Students also continue to work on
reaching their AR goals. They have until January 15th to reach their goal. It is our
classroom goal that every student will reach the goal that they set for
themselves. New goals will be made for the 3rd quarter.
Spelling/Writing
We continue to work on lists of spelling words during the school week. The
children will continue to do some writing with their spelling words. They have
learned that sentences need a naming part and an action part to be a complete
sentence. They are working especially hard at using upper case letters when
correctly, using correct ending marks and leaving spaces between words.
Math
The children have been working in Chapter 5 working on addition and subtraction
relationships. Now that they are solving addition and subtraction problems it will
be especially important for them to take note of the + or – signs. We work on
accuracy with math facts as well as speed. We encourage you to use Ten Marks
as part of your homework routine.
Social Studies
After Christmas break we will spend some time talking about the life of Martin
Luther King Jr. We will also work on a unit entitled “Where We Live”. In this unit
Students will recognize that people live, work and play in all different types of
communities, use pictures and maps to locate places
(citystatecountrycontinentworld), identify and describe the physical
characteristics of landforms and bodies of water and learn how to use a map key.
Other
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Show and Tell will be on Friday, January 29th.
Thank you for bundling up your little ones for the winter weather. Please
make sure they have boots and snow pants (when there is snow on the
ground), mittens or gloves and some type of covering for their head. You
may want to tuck an extra pair of socks in their book bags in case their
socks get wet during recess.
Look for upcoming activities scheduled for Catholic Schools Week,
beginning January 31st.
This may be a good time to ask your child how their supplies are holding
up, pencils, erasers and crayons may need to be replaced.
In closing, we hope the New Year brings happiness, good health and many
blessings to you and your family.
Mrs. Burke and Mrs. Weig