8/27

 Hello Families!

We made it through our first full week! It was a blast! 

Curriculum night: I have recorded a video with some information HERE and the informational slides are here. Please email me with any questions or concerns you might have.

Purple Folders: These are coming home every Friday. Please empty them and review work and flyers with your student. Put the folders back in your student's backpack so they can return them to school.

Computers: Remember to be charging your computers at home and bringing your computer to school EVERYDAY.

Homework: I am sending home the September homework packet and the Bridges Home Connection workbook. Students will work on the assigned work on the appropriate date. Some assignments are attached to the packet, some are in the workbook. Please tear out the math pages and attach to the packet. The packet is due back completed on Sept. 30.

Snack/Water bottles: Please pack enough snacks for two snack times and a water bottle with your student's name on it. 

Academics:

Moral Focus: Students are going to explore the virtue of wisdom. Wisdom is understanding the difference between right and wrong. We will explore several stories and situations and discuss what wise choices look like.

Leader In Me: For the month of September we will be looking at Habit 1, Be Proactive. This is a great habit that focuses on student's ability's to lead themselves to do the right thing.

Phonics: We will be focusing on short and long a review along with continued review of our consonant sounds. We start heart words, which is a combination of high frequency words and words that cannot be decoded easily. These are important to know and to practice. 

Heart words: the, of, you, and, to

Phonics Resources: This website has some great resources to use at home! PHONICS WEBSITE

Writing: We completed an All About Room 7 book, next we will be creating an All About Landmark Academy book filled with facts about our school.

Comprehension: Students will focus on visualizing while listening or read a story. I will often refer to this as a mental movie. This is important for students to master because this helps assist them in understanding the setting and characters.

Math: We will be continuing adding and subtracting strategies along with skip counting by 2s next week. We will be utilizing a variety of materials to assist us this next week.

Social Studies: We will dive into our citizenship unit. This unit will focus on our school and classroom community and how we can take an active role in supporting each other. This topic will also lend itself to talking about being a good citizen at home and our neighborhoods.

8/20

 Happy Friday! 

Wow, what a week. It started with a flood and then a tornado! It's been crazy and everyone deserves a restful weekend! I am so proud of how our students handled all the chaos this week! 

We have had some new families join our classroom community this week! We are now at 28 students in our wonderful class! If you are new or just haven't filled out the survey please click HERE !

8/26/21: PICTURE DAY! Students are allowed to have a free dress day. Please be sure this is a school appropriate outfit! You can purchase school pictures online or from the order form sent home last Friday. If you plan on sending the physical form in please send it to school in your child's hand so they can hand it directly to me when they walk in. 

Computers: Student Chromebooks need to be charged EVERYNIGHT. We do use them throughout the week and it becomes difficult when students do not charge them.

Academics:

Moral Focus: We will be starting our Moral Focus Curriculum in September and we will be starting with the virtue of Wisdom. This means knowing the difference between right and wrong. If you want to start discussing this at home I am sure that would be helpful.

Leader In Me: We have been discussing how we want our classroom to operate. Students will get to create our classroom mission statement next week. This mission statement will be apart of our classroom culture and will reflect what we want to accomplish in First Grade.

Phonics: Students will continue to review short vowel sounds. This skill is very important to master before moving on to other skills. 

Reading Comprehension: Students will learn and review the parts of a book. Title, author, illustrator, spine, front and back, and page numbers. We will also start working on predictions. Predictions are smart guesses about what is going to happen next in the story.

Writing: As a class we will start working on an All About Our Classroom book. This will work on handwriting and sentence structure. 

Math: We are continuing to review some Kinder skills of counting 1-20 and adding and subtracting within 10. These are foundational skills that are important to the mathematical development of your student.

Social Studies: Students will explore what an exceptional Landmark student looks like, sounds like, and how they act. 

Homework: Read with your student for 20 minutes a day.

8/13

WOW! It has been a great three days! The whole class has learned a lot! 

Picture Day: Picture day is August 26. Student will be coming home with order forms, you can also order online.

Purple Folders: Folders should be coming home today with some work from this week and some flyers. Please empty this and return the purple folder on Monday.

Few reminders:

Water bottles: Students need a full water bottle every day. This also needs to be labeled with their name.

Snacks: I have two snack times so please provide two snacks per day.

Computers: Charge and bring everyday. 

Behavior: Please review basic expectations like raising your hand, taking turns, sharing, kind hands and feet. 

Dismissal: Please discuss in depth on how your student is getting home each day with your kid. If you follow a schedule please email me.

Academics: 

We will be launching into curriculum next week!

Leader In Me: Students have been discussing what leaders do to help themselves and others around our classroom and the school. We will be creating a classroom mission statement together next week. 

Reading Comprehension: We will be exploring different read aloud and discussing our favorite parts of the story. We will be working on expressing this in complete sentences verbally. We will work on the writing in whole sentences at a different point in the year.

Phonics: This the mechanics of reading. We will be looking at our vowels in depth. Every English word has to have a vowel in order to be a real word. It is extremely important that we know our vowel sounds by heart.

Writing: We will be reviewing letter shapes and how to create clear letters while writing. If your student struggles in this area, you may want to work on this at home.

Math: We will be reviewing our numbers and reviewing strategies on adding and subtracting within ten.

Social studies: Students will review our Landmark Creed and discuss the meaning. 

Homework: Student do NOT have homework at this time. We will be starting homework in September. Please read with your student and continue to charge Chromebooks at night.

First Grade Specifics!

Hello wonderful families!

This post is going to be LONG but very important so please read it all. 

I have made a quick survey for you to fill out about your student. Please only fill this out once for your student. It will only take 2 minutes! Please click Survey! 

Things to consider:

• If your student takes nap during the day start  decreasing the time and gradually fade them out of your weekday routine.  This will help your student stay alert and focused through out the whole school day.
• Slowly get into a school schedule. It does take practice and time to get this one down. Don't wait till the first day to wake your student up early. It will not go well for anyone! Doors open at 7:45 am at school and then students are expected to be in their classrooms not later than 8:10.
• Start reviewing some academics! This will help limit summer knowledge loss. Get your student counting, adding, subtracting. Get them writing about their favorite parts of summer and READ! 
• Just talk about First Grade. See if your student has questions, or concerns. 
• Start gathering school supplies! My last post had the list attached. You can scroll back and find it. Please try and make it to the supply drop off! I want to meet everyone but also have the supplies to organize for your student!  * There are no scissors listed on the supply list. I have a class set!
• If you want to go the extra mile you could start teaching your student how to tie shoes! This helps not only your child but me! With 29 coming into our class it tends to be a lot of shoes that need to be tied. My back thanks you! 😜

The following are some things specific to our daily routine in First Grade:

Water bottles: I ask that you send your student with a full water bottle each school day. Make sure it is a water bottle that your student can drink from easily. Pop tops are the preferred water bottle. Please avoid tumblers and wide mouthed bottles, when tilted it can spilled easily.

Lunch: Students have the option of "hot lunch" which is from the school's lunch line and "cold lunch" which is a packed lunch from home. If you plan on sending a packed lunch please make sure your student can easily open all their items. Our lunch crew will be there to assist students but they will often have to wait for help. 

Snacks: I do provide two times during the day for snacks. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. I suggest that you pack HEALTHY snacks ( NO CANDY) . Students should bring SMALL snacks to be able to fit in the SMALL snack times. I suggest putting them in a separate pocket of their backpack than their lunch box if you plan on packing their lunch so they know the difference. If you feel the need you can label the snack with their name as well. Some  families pack a day's worth of snacks and some will pack enough for the week. Not sure what will work for your family!  **Students are PROHIBITED to share any food. This is a safety issue. 

Arrival: Students will arrive at the North doors between 7:45 and 8:10. Please talk to your student about this, as this is different from Kindergarten.

Dismissal: Discuss how your student will get home several times leading up to the first day of school. This is a major source of anxiety for a lot of students in the first few weeks. If your student's pick up varies be sure to remind students daily. I have had parents in the past even make a keychain system. The blue key chain means Driveline, green means Walker. I'm not sure if this will work for your family but just an idea for those who have frequent changes. Last minute changes to pick can be called into the front office or emailed to me.

Chromebooks: Students should bring their Chromebooks on the First day of school in the  protective case that was provided to them in Kindergarten. If you are new or did not check out your student's Chromebook for the summer I will try and locate those for you.

Masks: TBD, as soon as I know I will send out another communication.