Newsletter

AUGUST NEWSLETTER:

Hello First Grade Families!

It will be a fun and busy first few weeks of school as we dive into the year together learning and trusting God to help us navigate learning and teaching during this crazy time! I have planned for what the beginning of the year will look like for us in first grade, but changes may come as we have adapted to take each day at a time. I plan to live each day to the fullest and keep calm and trust God with what the future may hold.

Below I have outlined the learning that will take place the first few weeks of school. However, my primary focus, (every year- not just this one), is to first focus on building a strong classroom community where we learn the rules, expectations, and above all- learn about each other in a fun, engaging way before diving too deep in our curriculum!

I'd like to provide an overview of Math, Literacy, and Science/Social Studies as we begin 1st grade:

MATH:

We will start with Chapter 1: Numbers, Number Words, and Ordinals in our Math curriculum which will focus on the following target areas:

1. Counting, reading, and writing whole numbers to 12.

2. Comparing and ordering whole numbers to 12.

3. Reading and writing ordinal numbers to 10th.

4. Solve problems by acting them out.

LITERACY:

Literacy is a broad category for First Grade learning. It is one of my favorite parts of first grade as well! I will be teaching students reading using a blend of Superkids and Daily 5 instruction. Superkids will help guide phonics and spelling as well as some of our writing. Daily 5 will guide my instruction as I work with students at their reading level and teach them the skills and strategies it takes to become a fluent reader. The following are the focus target areas for the first few weeks of school:

*Review Skills:

-letter sounds

-writing lower and uppercase letters

-blending sounds to decode words

-encoding letters for sounds to spell words

-Reading and writing Memory Words (nondecodable sight words): a, I, the of, no, for, put, to, like, said, you, and was

-Reading and comprehending stories

-Basic grammar, mechanics, and usage (end marks, dialogue, punctuation, plurals with -s, singular possessives)

Science/Social Studies:

I plan to teach Science and Social Studies on a rotating schedule. This means that half of the quarter we will focus on Social Studies and the other half of the quarter will focus on Science. We will begin with Social Studies. Unit 1 focuses on School and Family. This will be a great way to learn about each other!