First Grade January Newsletter

PDF of newsletter

 

Setting Up for Success

To help your child’s teacher to be able to support him/her better, please make sure that your child has his or her materials readily available throughout the day. 

Your child will need a whiteboard and marker each day throughout the day since we are not using printed paper or copies.

Reading

This month, we will complete our nonfiction reading unit. We have been reading nonfiction texts and using the text features to help identify important and interesting facts.

Consider reading a nonfiction book with your child. Can your child point out important text features such as: title, table of contents, headings, photographs, captions, bold words?

Can your child tell you what he or she knows about the topic before reading? Can your child look over the table of contents and predict what he or she may learn while reading? Can your child identify an important fact that he or she learned after reading?

We will begin our Poetry Unit later this month. We will read different poems and discuss what poems are really about. We will also focus on how poems make us feel.

Consider reading poems at home with your child to practice his or her reading fluency. Model reading a line from the poem and have your child read it back so that it sounds smooth as it does when we are speaking.

FUNdations (Phonics)

Your first grader will be completing Unit 4 this month!

If you want to review taught skills with your child, you can access the Home Support Packet for Unit 4 by clicking here.

Unit 4

In this unit, we  learned about the Bonus Letter Spelling rule for: ll, ss, ff and sometimes zz.

We also learned about the glued sound -all.

Math

This month in math, we are working on counting and numbers. 

We have started this unit by identifying and representing two digit numbers using place value blocks. 

Consider asking your child to represent a number by drawing place value blocks:

Example:

Can you draw place value blocks to represent the number 46?

“How many tens are in the number? How many ones are in the number? What is the value of the digit in the tens place?”

We will also work on comparing numbers to decide which is greater or less. 

Finally, we will practice counting by 2s. 

Consider having your child count by 2s while completing an activity or chore at home. Can they do this beginning at any number?

Social Studies

During the month of January, we will learn about Jamestown and the history of the Powhatan Tribe that lived there.

Science

We have learned about matter: solids, liquids and gases. We also observed some science experiments that modeled solutions and mixtures.

Upcoming Dates

January 18- MLK Jr. Day- No School

January 20-Inauguration Day- No School

January 22-2 Hour Early Release

January 25- Teacher Work Day (No School for Students)