Weekly News

Reminders for This Week:  October 5-October 8 🎃

Monday:   Return Friday Folder! Day 4-Spanish

Tuesday: Day 5-Library

Wednesday:  Day 6-STREAM

Thursday: Return Homework Folders!  Day 1-Music

Friday: No School! 

What Are We Learning in Room 1B?

Chapter 7: We Pray to God Our Father
Main idea:
Your child is learning that God is our loving Father and that we can always talk to Him through prayer. We can pray to God anytime and anywhere.
What your first grader is learning

• • God loves us and cares for us.

  • We can talk and listen to God when we pray.

  • Jesus taught us how to pray, especially through the Our Father.

  • We can pray when we are happy, sad, thankful, worried, or asking for help.

  • We can pray alone or with others.

  • The Church gives us prayers that help us know and love God.

• Key prayer: The Our Father
  Your child may be learning or reviewing:
  Our Father, who art in heaven,
  hallowed be thy name;
  thy kingdom come,
  thy will be done
  on earth as it is in heaven.
  Give us this day our daily bread,
  and forgive us our trespasses,
  as we forgive those who trespass against us;
  and lead us not into temptation,
  but deliver us from evil.
  Amen.
  Easy questions to ask at home

  • Who can we talk to when we pray? — God, our Father.

  • Does God hear our prayers? — Yes.

  • When can we pray? — Anytime and anywhere.

  • Who taught us the Our Father? — Jesus.

  • What can we thank God for today?

• Simple family activity
  At bedtime, have each person say one thing they are thankful for and one person they want to pray for. Finish by praying the Our Father together.
  Big takeaway for your child:
  ❤️ God loves me. I can always talk to God, and God hears my prayers

CKLA Skills – Unit 1: Welcome to First Grade!

Welcome to first grade! In our CKLA (Core Knowledge Language Arts) Skills lessons, students will build on the reading and writing skills they learned in kindergarten. Unit 1 reviews important phonics skills while helping students become more confident and independent readers. Students will practice reading decodable stories, spelling words, writing complete sentences, and learning new Tricky Words (words that cannot always be sounded out) and Tricky Spellings (spellings that can make more than one sound).

What We Are Learning

• Letter-sound relationships and phonics

• Blending sounds to read words

• Reading decodable stories with fluency

• Spelling and handwriting

• Tricky Words and Tricky Spellings

• Writing complete sentences

• Building confidence as readers and writers

How You Can Help at Home

• Read together for 15–20 minutes each day.

•  Practice letter sounds and blend simple words.

•  Review Tricky Words using flashcards or sticky notes.

• Encourage your child to write sentences, notes, or a journal.

•  Play word games such as rhyming, changing beginning sounds (cat → hat), or finding words that start with the same sound.

• Praise your child's effort and encourage them to "stretch out" unfamiliar words.

CKLA Knowledge – Unit 2 The Human Body

What your child is learning?

In this unit, your child is building basic knowledge about how the human body works.

Your child will learn about:

• 👀 The five senses — sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch

• 🧠 The brain — helps us think, learn, remember, and control our bodies

• ❤️ The heart — pumps blood through the body

• 🫁 The lungs — help us breathe

• 🍎 Digestion — what happens to food after we eat it

• 🦴 Bones and the skeleton — give our bodies support and structure

• 💪 Muscles — help us move

• 🫀 Organs — important parts inside our bodies that perform different jobs

• 🧼 Healthy habits — ways we can take care of our bodies

Words your child should become familiar with

Try using these words in everyday conversations:

brain • heart • lungs • stomach • muscles • bones • skeleton • senses • sight • hearing • smell • taste • touch • organs • healthy

Don't worry if your child can't define every word perfectly. The goal is to become familiar with the vocabulary and understand the basic ideas.

How can you help at home?

1. Ask your child to teach YOU

Try saying:

“Tell me something you learned about the human body today.”

Then ask:

“How do you know?”
“Can you explain that another way?”

Children learn a lot by explaining what they know.

2. Explore the five senses

During dinner or outside, ask:

“What do you see?”
“What can you hear?”
“What smells do you notice?”
“How does that feel?”
“What flavors can you taste?”

Then ask:

“Which body part helps you do that?”

3. Check your heartbeat

Have your child put a hand over their chest.

Ask:

“Can you feel your heart beating?”

Have them move around for about 30 seconds and check again.

Talk about how the heart beats faster when the body is active.

4. Move like a scientist

Try jumping, walking, bending, stretching, or balancing.

Ask:

“What bones and muscles do you think are helping you move?”

5. Talk about the brain

Connect the brain to things your child already does:

“Your brain helped you remember that!”

“Your brain is helping you solve this problem.”

“Your brain tells your body how to move.”

6. Talk about food

At a meal, ask:

“What happens to food after we swallow it?”

Help your child remember:

mouth → stomach → intestines → nutrients the body can use

Keep it simple. They are learning the basic idea, not advanced anatomy.

Bridges in Mathematics Grade 1 — Unit 2: Overview

Unit 2 focuses on building strong addition and subtraction strategies within 20. Students work with numbers in different ways and explain how they know their answers.

What your child will learn

• Addition and subtraction within 20

  • Solve addition and subtraction problems.

  • Use strategies rather than simply memorizing facts.

  • Understand the relationship between addition and subtraction.

• Making a ten

  • Recognize that numbers can be composed and decomposed to make 10.

  • For example: 8 + 5 can be thought of as 8 + 2 + 3 = 13.

• Using known facts

  • Use facts they already know to solve harder problems.

  • Example: If your child knows 5 + 5 = 10, they can use that to think about 5 + 6 = 11.

• Number relationships

  • Compare numbers and think about how numbers are related.

  • Break numbers apart and put them back together in different ways.

• Explaining mathematical thinking

  • Students are encouraged to show or explain how they solved a problem, not just give the answer.

  • Drawings, equations, objects, and words can all be used.

Helpful vocabulary

Your child may hear these terms at school:

• Addend — a number being added, such as 7 and 3 in 7 + 3.

• Sum — the answer to an addition problem.

• Difference — the answer to a subtraction problem.

• Equation — a mathematical statement with an equal sign.

• Strategy — a way to solve a problem.

• Compose — put numbers together.

• Decompose — break a number apart.

How you can help at home

Keep practice short and playful. Try asking:

• “How did you figure that out?”

• “Can you solve it a different way?”

• “What number would you add to 7 to make 10?”

• “If you know 6 + 4 = 10, what is 6 + 5?”

• “Can you make 12 in two different ways?”

You can also practice while playing board games, counting objects, comparing quantities, or solving everyday problems such as “We have 8 apples and need 12. How many more do we need?”

The biggest goal: Help your child become comfortable thinking about numbers flexibly. In Bridges, the strategy and reasoning are often just as important as getting the correct answer.

Health/Growth Mindset:   

In first grade, we believe that learning is about more than reading, writing, and math. We also focus on helping students develop healthy habits, strong character, and a positive mindset. Throughout the year, we will learn how to care for our bodies, build friendships, manage emotions, and develop the confidence to take on new challenges.

What We Are Learning

Students will:

• Practice healthy habits such as proper handwashing, nutrition, exercise, and getting enough sleep.

• Learn ways to identify and manage their emotions.

• Build positive friendships through kindness, respect, and teamwork.

• Develop self-confidence and independence.

• Set goals and celebrate progress.

• Learn that mistakes help us grow and that effort leads to success.

Our Growth Mindset Goals

We encourage students to:

• Believe that their brains grow stronger when they learn new things.

•  Keep trying, even when something feels challenging.

•  Set personal goals and work toward achieving them.

•  Learn from mistakes and use them as opportunities to grow.

•  Encourage classmates and celebrate each other's successes.

• Use positive self-talk, such as "I can do hard things" and "I can't do it...yet!"

How Families Can Help at Home

• Talk about your child's day and celebrate their effort, not just the outcome.

• Encourage your child to try new things and remind them that mistakes are part of learning.

• Model healthy habits by eating nutritious foods, staying active, and getting enough rest.

• Practice calming strategies together, such as taking deep breaths or counting to ten when feeling frustrated.

• Read books about perseverance, kindness, and friendship.

• Praise persistence with comments like, "I'm proud of how hard you worked," rather than focusing only on getting the right answer.

Conversation Starters

Ask your child:

• What challenged you today?

• What mistake helped you learn something new?

• How did you show kindness today?

• What goal are you working on this week?

• What are you proud of today?