September News

We have had a wonderful start to our first grade year! Your children are already doing a fantastic job learning our classroom routines and the Class Promises we created together. 

Here is a glance of what we have been working on this month in 1st grade:

Language Arts:   We have been working hard to learn how to complete our Literacy Centers independently! Our first graders are learning how to make choices, follow routines, and build their stamina as readers and writers.

We have talked about the 3 Ways to Read a Book and why reading is so important. One of our biggest goals right now is building our stamina during our Independent Reading center. Students are working toward reading and enjoying books independently for 20 minutes! 

We are also learning how to successfully participate in our other Literacy Centers, including:

📚 Partner Reading
🔤 Word Learning
✏️ Writing
🎧 Listening to Reading

At the end of each week, students reflect on their Literacy Center goals and celebrate their learning. You may notice these reflections and completed work stapled together in your child’s Wednesday Folder. These are our Literacy Learning Packets!

I also take time each week to reflect on your child’s learning, growth, and progress during Literacy Centers. It is wonderful to see our first graders becoming more independent and confident as learners! 

Writing:  We have begun learning about the three genres of writing: Opinion, Narrative, and Informative Writing. This month, we are focusing on making our sentences stronger by adding details that explain why, how, and when.

We will be learning all about apples and using what we discover to write an Informative piece about the structures of an apple and the purpose of each part. Students will also have the opportunity to share their opinions by writing about their favorite kind of apple. 

Along the way, we are continuing to work on important writing skills such as capitalization, punctuation, spacing, and sounding out words. We are encouraging students to use the sounds they know to get their ideas onto paper rather than getting stuck trying to spell every word perfectly.

For our first graders, this is a BIG step! We want them to discover that their ideas are important and that they can keep writing, even when they don't know how to spell a word yet. We are celebrating their growing confidence as writers! 

Math:  We have begun our daily Number Talks and are using math manipulatives to help us explore and solve math problems. Our focus is not only on finding an answer, but also on being able to explain and notate our mathematical thinking.

Students are practicing how to verbalize their strategies and listen carefully to the different strategies their classmates use. We are learning that there can be many different ways to solve a problem, and each strategy can help us become stronger mathematicians! 

We are also learning a variety of math games that give students opportunities to practice our Number Sense Standard in a fun and engaging way. Many of these games will eventually be sent home as part of our homework so that students can continue practicing their math skills while playing with their families.

Social Studies:  We are excited to begin our Map Unit! During this unit, students will discover how maps help us understand and explore the world around us. We will learn about important map features, including symbols, map keys, and compass roses, and explore how these tools help us find our way.

Our first graders will have opportunities to create both 2D and 3D maps as they put their learning into action. They will also explore where they are in the world by learning about the location of their community, city, state, country, and continent.

This will be a fun, hands-on unit filled with opportunities to explore different types of maps and think like mapmakers! 

If you happen to visit places such as the San Diego zoo, LEGOLAND, or SeaWorld, take a moment to show your child the map. See if they can identify some of the map features we are learning about—and perhaps even help direct you around! 

Morning Meeting and Second Step: During Morning Meeting, we are taking time to get to know our classmates and build our classroom community. We have been talking about our daily “Glows and Grows.” A Glow is something we did really well, while a Grow is something we would like to continue working on the next day.

It is so exciting to hear the thoughtful goals our first graders are setting for themselves and to celebrate all the wonderful things they are doing each day! 

We have also begun our Second Step lessons, which are focusing on important Skills for Learning. We are learning that listening helps our brains work harder and grow stronger. Students are learning four important rules for being a good listener:

👀 Eyes watching
👂 Ears listening
🤫 Voice quiet
🧍 Body still

We will also be practicing how to focus our attention while ignoring distractions. This is an important skill for learning because it helps students listen and participate during classroom learning, as well as pay attention to their friends while playing.

Portrait of a Learner: Our class is beginning an exciting journey as Disney Imagineers in Training! Throughout the year, we will be exploring different Portrait of a Learner competencies and discovering what each one looks and sounds like in our first grade classroom.

Our Imagineers will be given special missions and challenges that allow them to put these competencies into action. These experiences encourage students to think creatively, solve problems, work together, persevere, and reflect on themselves as learners.

So far, we have been focusing on becoming Global Citizens. Our class worked together to create and name this part of our Learning Kingdom Wonder World!

We will continue exploring what it means to be a Global Citizen and how our actions can make a positive difference in our classroom, school, community, and world.

We have also begun exploring a Learner’s Mindset—understanding that we can grow our brains through effort, practice, strategies, feedback, and perseverance. 

If your child comes home with a sticker celebrating Global Citizen and/or Learner’s Mindset, ask them:

“What did you do to earn your Imagineer sticker?”

 Thank you to everyone that has donated to our class.  I so appreciate the wipes, Clorox, and hand sanitizer.  Amazon Wish List. Feel free to check out this  Amazon Wish List if you are interested in donating any of these supplies to our classroom. 

*This is an optional list of donation items that enrich our classroom learning. 

Upcoming PTA and School Events:

Shake Shake Fundraiser- September 16th

First Beach Meet up Torrey Pines Beach- September 26th @10:30

Johnny Appleseed's Birthday- September 26th

Halloween Festival at Del Mar Pumpkin Patch- October 16th @ 6:00

Halloween Parade- October 30th @ 8:15

Halloween Party- October 30th @ 9:00