Happy Fall!

Happy (almost)Fall! Students are already becoming more independent and rising the higher academic demands of first grade. I am, however, so grateful that we have the ability to have two recess breaks in our schedule. It is clear that students benefit from mental and physical breaks throughout their day. Speaking of which, this week, Ms. Baver (school psychologist) and Tobby Bobbit (guidance) visited our room to launch mindfulness for the year. Ms. Baver will be coming in throughout the fall to hell with lessons and students will respond in the Mindful School Journal. Ask your child to teach you what they are practicing in school and what a mindful body looks like. It is a great way to refocus, be “in the moment” and calm your body and mind. I look forward to learning more next week. We have also continued to work on our Second Step learning, which is our social and emotional learning. This ties into our mindfulness as students learn how to listen and follow directions.

In math this week students wrapped up their unit on counting and sequencing numbers. Students looked at “least to greatest” ordering and comparing numbers as well as counting on and skip counting on a number line. We practiced counting forward and backward. On Wednesday we took our unit 1 assessment and students did an excellent job, showing that they have a strong knowledge of basic numeracy and counting. We have started our new unit on numbers within 10, where students will learn about “10 friends” and be able to decompose numbers fluently. Students will also work on subitizing and continue to build on their addition and subtraction skills. I look forward to our bowling field trip on the 2nd of October. If you haven’t gotten your permission slip in, please do ASAP.

In ELA, reading and writing, students continue to review their Kindergarten skills, including letters and letter sounds, CVC words, memory words, writing sentences with a capital letter, finger spaces, and ending with punctuation. We looked at when we use a period, question mark and exclamation point at the end of a sentence and practiced with a movement activity. Students reviewed adding a “s” to make a word plural and an “apostrophe +s” to make it possessive. In writing students have done the majority of their writing for their first small moment story about the farm. Their next story will be one that they pull from their individual experiences rather than a shared one. They are doing a great job!

Reminders:

Permission slips must be in no later than Monday (25^th). PLEASE turn them in.

Remember to send a note if you child’s dismissal plans change.

Please send a snack with your child daily unless you have donated to the classroom.

Picture Day is on September 28^th.

Wish List:

Gallon size ziplock bags

Sandwich size ziplock bags

Chlorox table wipes