Happy September

September 4, 2015

Dear Families,

       Thank you for returning the Friday Folders! I received 100% of them! Wow! I hope it helps to have all the notes and papers for the week coming home at one time. I have found that it is the best way for papers to make it home. I have told the children that when they return the folder, they will get a sticker on it. It can be a wonderful learning tool to have your child responsible for putting the folder back in their backpack after you have looked through the contents together.

Next, I want to address homework. Our first sheet of math homework went home on Wednesday. In our classroom, homework consists of 3 subject areas. First, we have home reading which will be explained in depth on another paper entitled Home Reading which will start on the 14^th. It runs Monday through Thursday. Second, I will be sending the home links from the Everyday Math 4 program. They serve the purpose of connecting what we learned in school to the home. Third, I will send home spelling words on Monday, the 14^th (or the first day of the week on any week that has at least 4 days). This page is due on Friday.

Of course, if your child needs to finish something from the day’s work, it will be in their backpack that day. Additionally, I want to encourage you to read to/with your child for 20 minutes, 4 times a week. Feel free to add more reading time or other homework. However, I strongly caution you to avoid overloading your young child. Research shows that 10 minutes of homework (+ 20 minutes of being read to) is sufficient for a first grader. Please remember that this is your child’s first real experience with homework. If they are resistant, back off a little. Reading, writing, exploring numbers and learning to spell should be a pleasant experience. Incentives are in place for those who do their homework, so hopefully, this will help. 

For reading this week, we broke up into groups and began getting used to rotating through centers. We will complete the reading and writing tests, along with MAPs (which is a computer-based test in literacy and math), by next Friday. I am now in the process of making sure I am meeting everyone’s needs. We began a poem this week to read, talk about and use to learn skills such as rhyming words, letters, letter combinations and grammar.

           For Writers’ Workshop this week, we learned about building our stamina for writing.

Now that we have learned how to make books, many stories are being written. We also began learning and writing our own meaning for the LARKS rules. With our Positive Behavior System in place, everyone works together for a more supportive learning environment. I am trying to use Class Dojo right along with my teaching so you can get a little window into our world.

In math, we have been working on tally marks, correct number formations and learning new games to help our understanding of number concepts. We will take the MAPs test in math next week. Our morning work has been addressing review of kindergarten math skills. It will evolve as we learn new first grade skills.

In Social Studies, we have been comparing schools of long ago and now. As we progress, we will also cover timelines and calendars. Using words like past, present and future, we will get a sense of time.

Thank you for your continued support. If I can be of assistance in any way, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Susan Stark