9/28 Virtual learning update

 Hello families, 

Please be regularly checking emails. Again there is a lot of information coming soon, please have patience. Below is the PDF of outlined activities for this week. I am still receiving updates from administrations but this will be our plan through this week. I will try and schedule a virtual meeting soon for students. I know today may be a wash because you still need to pick up materials or find child care. I went ahead and made plans for those who need something for their child. 

Materials I sent home: 

-several workbooks (If we are out longer than this week we will utilize them later)

-Notebook (If you do not have paper readily available please use this)

-Chromebook/charger/headphones (QR code is attached, use this to login)

-Pencil Box ( I did not have time to check to see if everyone had what they needed so you may need to provide pencils or scissors)

-Red Folder ( this is for storing anything school related)

-Worksheets ( I have provided the worksheets listed for this week's plans... I tried to put them in order)

-Reading Street Textbook and Blast Passages ( Please use these as reading materials for extra practice)

Attendance expectations: I am still waiting on information about how attendance will work this week. For now if your student can login (starting Tuesday) and complete 1 assignment on Google Classroom I will consider them present. This may change.

This week's plans:* Again I know today is crazy so don't stress over today.

Please know I am trying to create a plan that helps your student keep a sense of normality and meets the needs of your student. Expectations will change as updates come in but I will honor my pledge to communicate as effectively as I can. Keep checking emails and blogs.

9/25

 Can you believe next week starts October?!

Apex: I have been sending daily emails from our Apex leaders. Please review them! Apex has helped us fund some incredible things in the past and it would be awesome to continue that. We earned our first reward! We will be doing Crazy Sock day next Friday.

Masks: Students have been doing great with their masks this week but I am going to continue to encourage you to review expectations and cleanliness at home with your student.

Weather: Cooler weather is on the horizon. Please label any and all clothes and gear you send with your student. Also review how to wear these items properly. If they make their jacket/gloves/scarf/etc. a toy in class, I have to take it. 

Next week in First Grade:

Phonics: We will review short and long o sounds and will learn about digraph th. A digraph is two letters that come together to make one sound. Students already know about sh and will continue to explore words with sh in them.

Comprehension: We will start looking at a collection of books with interesting settings. Setting is when and where a story takes place. Settings often change or evolve through a story. To prepare your student, look at the illustrations through a story. Ask what do they notice about the background. Point out words that give clues to when or where the story takes place. 

Writing: We will be review parts of a sentence. Capitalized letter at the beginning of sentences, finger spaces, punctuation, and spelling!  

Math: I will continue to administer the Math Numeracy test this next week and we will also be reviewing some missed kindergarten skills.

Social studies: Students will continue to explore what makes their family unique and different.

9/18

 Can you believe we just finished our 5th week of school? Where has time gone?

Earlier this week you received an individualized email about your student and where they could use additional supports. Attached to that email were some resources you could print to use at home. If you do not have access to a printer you can email me back with the number of copies you would like from each document. I will work on getting what you need printed next week.

Thank you to the families that donated hand sanitizer this week! I would love some more if you could donate some.

Next week in First Grade:

Comprehension: We will be learning about wondering and how asking questions as we read could help us understand the at a deeper level. Students will continue to develop their skills in retelling and visualizing. To support your student home you can model asking question while you read. "I wonder why Goldilocks had to sit in all the chairs?" or "Why did Goldilocks start with that chair?" Your question does not always need an answer... this will lead us to inferencing in the coming weeks!

Phonics: Students will continue to review all the short and long vowel sounds. This week we will have a focus on short and long u through our reading centers. I will be sending a new Rapid Word Chart of the previous heart words. Remember this stays home for continued practice and reference. 

 Unit 5 Heart Words: he, was, his, on, are

Math: We wrapped up Unit 1 this week and will be moving into a heavy review of missed Kindergarten standards and skills. This is a supplemental unit. During this time I will also be administering the Math Numeracy Assessment. This one on one test will give me a better picture of where your student is mathematically. 

Science/ Social Studies: Our sound unit has come to a close and we will be moving to Social Studies. Our Social Studies curriculum is new and I am very excited to dive right into it. This unit will be exploring families and communities. This unit of study will actually take us into quarter two and close to Thanksgiving break. To prepare your student, your family can discuss who makes up your family and what values your family stands for.

Progress Reports: To access your student's grades or reports you can login to the Parent Portal. I would suggest checking every 2-3 weeks. Please do not wait to ask questions until Report Cards come out. 

Tutoring: Several teachers are offering after school tutoring! If you feel that your student needs the extra support I would love to get you connected to those teachers. 

9/11 Updated Blog

 Hello families!

A few notes before I get to next weeks plans. Please review masks expectations at home this weekend! It has been a month and students are now getting comfortable in class, which is great because they feel at home but not great when we still need to wear masks. My number of reminders for proper wear of masks has increased drastically the last few days. I have also noticed that some mask ear loops are now getting stretched out and it makes it harder to securely fit over the mouth AND NOSE. Please be inspecting your student's mask frequently and make sure they are clean. The front office would also like to continue to encourage families to pack an extra in student's backpack. 

If your student is going to be absent or tardy please call the front office AND EMAIL ME. This way I am not guessing as to where your student is or when they will return. 

Purple Folders: When you see that your student has their purple folders please remove all papers. Look through them, I try to provide individualized feedback on some assignments. The purple folder will need to be returned.

Homework: This year I will not be sending home any physical homework that needs to be returned. I ask that families read 20 minutes a day. This can be a mixture of student reading independently, bedtime stories, etc. The purpose of this is to get your student exposed to a variety of text. I will be sending home the Rapid Word Chart with our heart words. This is to help with continued practice. This page should not be returned. You can have your student read through the chart, copy the words, find the words in stories, use them in a sentence, copy them on notes cards and hide them in the house, etc. Students will continue to learn new heart words so the repetitive practice at home will help ensure that these important words stick!

Next week in First Grade:

Moral Focus: Students will continue to explore and implement wisdom. Wisdom is knowing right from wrong. I have encouraged students to show wisdom throughout the day. We often stop and talk about make the wisest choice.

Phonics: Next week in Phonics we will be continue to review our short vowel sounds. Students will also start to learn about digraphs, two letters that make one sound. We will be looking closely at words with sh or the /sh/ sound.

New heart words: in, is, for, that, it

Comprehension: Students will be working on retelling a story next week. We will be focusing on three major events, beginning, middle, and end. This is important because we want students to be able to recall major events in order. You can support our learning by asking students to recap a story after story time at home. If your student is having a hard time retelling after a long story, pause frequently throughout the reading and asked what has happened so far. Your student could also draw out the events.

Writing: We will be looking at the different parts of sentences. Capital letters, finger spaces, punctuation, and spelling (phonetic spelling is ok!) If your student is writing at home be sure to check for these things! 

Math: Students will continue to work on simple addition and subtraction. Students are still exploring different strategies to solve these problems. We will also be working on estimating appropriately. This will encourage good number sense. Students are not expected to estimate accurately but to be in the general neighborhood of a realistic number. Please continue to work on identifying numbers at home.

Science: We will wrap up our sound unit next week. Below is the sign up genius for some materials for upcoming experiments. Please sign up if you can. I will need these supplies by Monday.  

Science sign up

I hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend. 

9/4

 Hello Families!

DO NOT FORGET THAT LABOR DAY IS MONDAY. THAT MEANS NO SCHOOL. Please be safe over the long weekend! This blog is long but is packed with info!

Next week in First Grade:

Comprehension: Students will explore visualizing while reading or listening to stories. This means we will practice listening for details, big and small and make a mental movie in our head while reading. This helps students understand the story better. I will have student describe or draw out what is happening in their head while we read. This will show me what information students are in taking during reading. A fun activity you could do at home is listen to music and have the student "visualize" or describe what images come to mind, you can also get some cool art work from it!

Phonics: Students will review a variety of letter sounds and continue our heavy review of short vowel sounds. Have your student point out vowels as you read for an extra challenge! We will also start Heart words this week. These are also referred to as sight words or red words because they usually cannot be sounded out or are so common we should know them by 'heart'! We will spend this week identifying, practicing, and familiarizing ourselves with them. Next Friday, after our introduction to them in school I will send home a Rapid Word Chart with the Heart words listed on them. This chart can help you continue to practice at home. I will also send home a list of helpful activities as well.

Upcoming Heart Words: the, of, you, and, to

Writing: Students will discover the world of verbs! Verbs are action words. This week is super fun and allows us to play several fun movement games while learning. A great way  to support this learning at home would be play Simon says with verbs!

Math: In math our class will practice subitizing, this is recognizing common images, such as faces on a dice, and associating them with numbers quickly. Below is a great video to help support your student at home. Students will continue to strengthen their addition skills within 20. *Quick note. I have really noticed that our class as a whole struggle with counting and identifying numbers after 30. If you could please practice this at home that would be fantastic! Students could count noodles, cars, coins, etc. Also practicing writing the numbers would be amazing as well!

Subitizing video

Science: We wrapped up our engineering unit this week and will be moving to our sound unit. Students will explore vibrations and different items that create different sounds and vibrations. I will need a few things to help make this unit fun and engaging, below is a link for a Signup Genius for some items we will need. If you are able please sign up and donate what you can. 

Science Sign up

Upcoming weather: In our future forecast we have some colder weather. I would like to remind you to LABEL all items your student brings. This includes scarfs, gloves, mittens, ear muffs, snow boats, coats, jackets, sweaters, etc. Students will keep smaller items in their backpacks while in class and their heavier coats/jackets will be on their hook. Your student will be responsible for tracking these items. However, lost items do occur and if they have their name on them we can usually find and return them faster. Please review expectations and how certain items are suppose to be worn, not played with. 

Have a fabulous long weekend!