THE FIRST
Daves Creek
Elementary
GRADE NEWS
Fri day, Octo b er 7, 2011
This Week’s Highlights
Reading Workshop:
SMART: Ask your students about the consonant
party!
-poppers (These sounds make your mouth pop.
These are in voiced and unvoiced pairs.)
p/b, t/d, ch/j, k/g
-leakers (These sounds that made when air leaks
out of your mouth. These are in voiced and
unvoiced pairs.)
f/v, s/z, sh/zh, th/th
-neighbors (nosey, huffy and liars)
m,n,ng/h,w,wh/l,r
-vowel valley:
/ee/
/i/
/e/
/a/
Criminal words: a, I, the, do, to, as, has, his,
is, be, he, she, we, me
Upcoming Events
Thursday, October 13
Bingo Night!
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
October 19, 20, 21
Early Release; Fall conferences
Monday, October 24 – Friday October 28
Nurses Supply drive
Wednesday, October 26
Field Trip to Hill Crest Orchards
Monday, October 31
No school for students: Professional
Development
Grammar: We are learning about nouns: singular
and plural forms. We are also learning that
antonyms are opposites.
SMART Spelling
for next week….
Reading Strategy:
We are learning to create mental images. We know
that stories have an order, elements and a
beginning/middle/end.
We have landed in the Vowel Valley!
Sound of the Week
Writing Workshop:
We are learning the conventions in writing:
capitals, periods. We know that every sentence
has a who and a what. We are working on adding
details into our writing and writing a response to
literature.
example words…
Math:
We are learning about the relationship between
addition and subtraction problems (fact families).
Theme/Social Studies/Science:
Americans at Work. In this unit we discuss the
economic ideas of needs and want; goods and
services; and producers and consumers. The big
idea is that everyone, even six year olds, make
economic decisions, thus need to understand how
to make reasonable spending choices.
These words make your mouth smile, but
your jaw has dropped down since /ee/,/i/
and /e/ try it! 
criminal words:
Children should be writing with appropriate
letter formation and spacing. Dictated
sentences should have correct punctuation
and capitalization (no capitals in the middle
of the word).
"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all."
Oscar Wilde
First Grade Newsletter Page 2
Family Matters
Reminders!
Don’t forgot to send in the homework
calendar each Friday so that your teacher can
sign off on weekly homework.
Daves Creek Things To Know
Attendance:
Please send written notes about absences in
your child’s daily folder or email them to me
and the school office at
[email protected].
You must have a note sent in before
5 days after the absence to be
excused.
Lunch and Outside Food:
During lunch, all visiting parents will have to
sit at the overflow tables or in the
courtyards with your child. Seating is very
limited this year at the class table.
Please remember that no outside
food (fast food) is allowed in our
lunchroom.
All food that is sent in for parties or
cooking projects must be store
bought and have the ingredient label
affixed in order to keep all our
children safe.
Dropping Off/Picking Up:
No drop off before 7:50 am. The car rider
line ends at 3:15 pm.
Students that are left will be sent to
Learning Bridge and parents will be
charged a fee.
All walkers should have a walker
sign/pass.
Understanding vs. Memorizing
What is the difference between understanding
something and memorizing it? When first learning
something new, like sight words or spelling words,
students tend to memorize the words. Effective
teachers use phonics programs and phonemic
awareness strategies to teach the rules of the
language being taught.
Phonics includes the sounds and letter
combinations that appear in the language and it also
teaches the spelling patterns. Spelling patterns
typically begin at a very easy and basic level. It is
better to start just below a child's comfort level to
build their confidence. Most phonics programs spiral
and continue to add on to the student's knowledge of
spelling. Most students do well on simple things like
spelling tests, because they can memorize the words.
The true test of depth of knowledge with
spelling patterns can be seen in dictation sentences or
written work samples. Dictation is a combination of
previously taught spelling words used in a combination
to form a complete sentence. Students are truly able
to demonstrate their spelling ability in writing down
sentences and applying what they have learned.
The next step is for the student to be able to use the
learned spelling patterns in their written stories and
work independently. Look at your child's work
samples and see if they truly understand the words
and patterns they have learned. You can challenge &
enrich your child at home with practice dictation
sentences, reviewing their work with them or writing
things with him.
Another great strategy is to let your child build
words using word families or learned spelling patterns.
An example is: what can you spell using “-ame”? “Can
you change the beginning letters to make different
words like same, name, tame?” Can you add blends
and chunks to it like, blame, frame, or shame?” Try
spellingcity.com tonight and make some new extended
learning opportunities for your child to work with the
spelling patterns tonight! This will help them in the
next few weeks and the phonics lessons and spelling
patterns increase in difficulty. Have fun learning and
forget the memorizing!
Wish List
Clorox Wipes
Band-Aids
Any recess toys!
Travel size wet wipes
Rubber balls Chalk
Treasure box items