January is here and it is time to start a new year and continue through the second half of the school year! Now that we have the first half of the year behind us, the expectations will be a little higher for our fabulous first graders!
This month we will be working on…
Reading/Language Arts- We are doing a quick review of inferring, one of our comprehension strategies! Ask your first grader what it means to infer! You will be amazed with their response! They have become quite the word detectives! We will begin a unit on non-fiction books and text features. We will learn about the table of contents, glossary, and index and read a variety of non-fiction books. We will also be looking at the difference between facts and opinions and we will discuss homophones.
Writing-As in reading, we are changing our focus to nonfiction! We will be focusing on informational writing! We will start out with using our writing to teach others. We have spent some time discussing how everyone is an expert on a certain topic and they become teachers when they share their information with others through non-fiction writing. We are going to begin our non-fiction writing unit with how to books. We began our first “how to story” in a SUPER fun way! We all chewed bubble gum and wrote how we would teach someone to blow a bubble! This is another way to enforce using transition words (first, next, last, then) to sequence our writing.
Phonics-We will be reviewing long vowel spelling patterns focusing on silent e this week. After we have reviewed all the long vowel patterns we will start talking about bossy r.
Math-We started a unit today on creating and interpreting graphs and tables. We will look at tally, bar, and picture graphs and talk about collecting data to create graphs. We will also analyze graphs. Later this month we will study time. We will learn how to tell time to the hour and half hour and talk about elapsed time.
Social Studies-We will study the life and contributions of Harriet Tubman. We will compare and contrast everyday life then and now and discuss her part in the Underground Railroad. The following website has some further information on Harriet Tubman as well as a virtual journey that takes you through the Underground Railroad: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/underground_railroad/index.htm
You can also look up some information on PebbleGo!
Science-We will learn about light and shadows!
Important Dates
Tuesday, January 10-Domino's Pizza Night
Friday, January 13-Report cards come home. Please sign the signature card and return it in the yellow envelope the following Tuesday. **Do not seal the envelope! We will reuse it again this year! :o)
Monday, January 16-MLK holiday, No school
Tuesday, January 17-Chick-fil-A Night
Friday, January 20-Bingo Night! There will be a general PTA meeting beginning at 6:00 followed by a fun night of family bingo!
Here is an electronic version of the January homework if you need it. Download JanuaryHomework
Reminders
*Most of the letter reversals in our room have straightened themselves out, but if you see your child is STILL reversing letters, please correct them each time and talk about it. I am doing the same thing in class while at the same time trying to help form the habit of looking at the alphabet on his/her nametag and/or the wall to DOUBLE CHECK.
* Please be sure that you are checking your child's take home folder DAILY!
* As we are entering the second half of the year, I am beginning to encourage the students to become more and more independent and self-sufficient with their class work and keeping track of their things. If you could please help us out at home by encouraging them to do the same, especially with their homework, we would very much appreciate it. We're getting prepared to be second graders next year! :)
Thank you all for such a wonderful first half of the year and for such a fun holiday party in December! I know the students had a great time! I really appreciate all that you do to support our classroom and your child. You all are a terrific group of parents and students to work with! Happy New Year!
