The End Is Near!

I can't believe it, but we are already zooming into the last quarter of this school year! Where has the time gone? We still have much to learn before our fabulous first graders become super second graders though! This nine weeks is going to be busy, busy, busy in first grade. Some things that we will be working on this quarter-

*READING- As most of you know at this point, first graders should be reading independently on a level "I" before they go to second grade. In order for us to get there, we will be working very hard at the end of this year on fluency. Beginning at a level "H", your child is timed as they read stories. They are also expected to read heeding punctuation and using character voices. When we talk about this in class, we say that we should read like a person is talking, and not like a robot, or very monotone.

*WRITING- This year, a new genre of writing was added to the first grade curriculum. Persuasive writing is a genre of writing in which the author states an opinion and tries to persuade the reader to agree, or to side with their thoughts. After we finish this genre, we will go back to some of the other genres we have worked on this year as a final review.

*MATH- We are working in the math investigations book entitled Number Games and Story Problems. In this book, we explore numbers and how they relate to each other through addition and subtraction problems. We will also dig into some measurement in the book Bigger, Taller, Heavier, Smaller by the end of the year. We will explore objects around us using balances, containers, scales, rulers, and other objects to measure things.

*SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES- We are learning about living and nonliving things in Science, and will be exploring plants as well as growing some of our own. In social studies, we will continue learning about our community and begin learning about some bigger events in our country's history.

*SKILLS- In skills block, we will continue working on more complex spelling patterns/sounds. We will learn about contractions, synonyms and antonyms, homophones, compound words, adjectives and many other parts of the English language!

****Some ways that you can help your child this quarter****

-Continue to read with your child and ask them comprehension questions nightly!

-Encourage them to read like they are speaking.

-Time your child to see how many words they can read in a minute. Have them play against

themselves and see if they can beat their own time each tome they read the passage.

-Practice the "First Grade Need To Know" sentences that were sent home in the homework

folder.

-Play the game "Page Finder" and have your child see how quickly they can find a number page

in a book. (For example- page 142, etc...). This helps develop number sense.

-Let them tell you the time from a clock.

-Let them help you count money that they earn, or that they find, at home. Or help them count

out money at the store and pay the cashier.

-Practice addition and subtraction with flashcards.