Welcome to class 1A web page!

Welcome to the 2nd semester of 1st grade!!!!  Your child is progressing in leaps and bounds by now!!!  Your continued support through nightly homework and communication with me will be helpful to keeping this development going.

In our Religion studies we will finish some of the Old Testament stories and delve into the life and works of Jesus to support us in the values and morals we would like to instill in the children.  The basis of most of these is the "Golden Rule"...treat others as you would like to be treated.  Sitting down with your child and reviewing their 'book' that they bring home will help to reinforce what we have discussed in class.

In Reading, now that most of us have mastered our decoding (sounding out) skills we will be moving on to improving our fluency (the rate and accuracy of reading) and our comprehension (the understanding of what we read).  We will continue to work on many skills and activities that will foster these concepts.  Reading AR books and our weekly stories aloud will help your child.  Also, asking questions about the book as you read will assist them in improving.

In Math we will move on to the concept of subtraction, which means subtraction flash cards will come home soon!!!  This sometimes is a harder concept for children than the addition.  We will spend time practicing several ways to find the difference to a subtraction sentence and relating it to its 'partners' in the addition family.

To continue with the review of our decoding skills we will spend some time going over our long vowel sounds in Phonics.  We will do various activities both individually and as a whole group to make sure these are sounds that we can say we have mastered.  After we have done all 5 vowels we will then move on to the blends and digraphs that we see in so many words.  We will talk more about 'chunking' our  words as we try to sound them out.  I.E.  playing  Cover up the ing  take off 'pl', what are you left with?  Add each part back until you have sounded out the whole word.  

We will also be starting centers and projects on topics like planets, life cycles, and the various historical holidays that will come about during the 2nd semester.

I hope that the 2nd semester can be as productive and enjoyable as the 1st has been.  Please remember that I am available if you have any questions.  I would rather you ask than try to 2nd guess  my ideas, sometimes my processes are hard to decipher!!!    

 Mrs. Vahle          

      (For more exciting reading check out the 1B web page for more first grade news!)

 

Greetings from class 1B.

Welcome to First Grade for the 2007-2008 school year.

 

We are back for the second semester!  I hope the students are as excited as I am to be back!  Vacation was wonderful, but now it is time to get back to work.

As first graders, we will become much more "independent" this semester.  Students are very familiar with the daily routine and will be expected to perform their daily work with very little help from the teacher.  It will be important to listen while new instruction is being given and to ask questions during this time.  More and more depends upon our ability to read and follow instructions.  It is extremely important to keep practicing the 300 word list each night, read A/R books nightly, and review addition and subtraction flash cards.  

In Religion we will finish up on the Old Testament stories then begin studying the Life of Jesus, his parables and his miracles.  We will also prepare ourselves during Lent for the greatest event of all - Easter.  During Lent our class will work on "sacrifices" which will involve both giving up something as well as doing something.  Students will keep a chart and are asked to explain what they did to fill in their chart for the day.  

Our reading will focus heavily on fluency (reading speed) and comprehension.  It is important that your child read a little at home every night to improve upon both.  Asking questions about what your child reads aloud to you will do a lot to improve comprehension.  Phonics skills will follow with our book and will also expand our long vowel sounds and rules.  Our Daily Oral Language sentences continue to help us learn to write the English language correctly.  We will also be learning the different types or "genres" of books and focus heavily upon story elements.    

In math we will be studying graphing, geometry, telling time, counting money, and expanding our memorization of addition and subtraction facts to 18.  Several children have their facts memorized to 10, some to 12.  It will become very important to have them all memorized to 12 before we add the facts to 18.  If your child cannot "instantly" answer the addition and subtraction flash cards, keep working a few extra minutes each night.

I was extremely proud of the success we had with learning our Solar System.  We will review what we learned the first week back and will test all the information we learned.  Next, we will begin a unit on "Penguins and Polar Bears."  Your child will learn many fun and important facts about these cold region animals.

Catholic Schools Week begins the last week of January.  Keep watching the web for information about events happening this fun and exciting week.

As always, should you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me via my e-mail address.

                                         Thank you, from Mrs. Perdun.

(For more exciting reading check out the 1A web page for more first grade news!)