Families

As I am in the midst of family conferences, I am writing this, and I just wanted to let you know how nice it has been, between both Open House and conferences, to start to get to know the families. All students have things they are working on, but they also have so many strengths, both academically and socially. It is clear that they are well cared for and supported by their families! Thank you! I can't wait for our Family Potluck on November 8th. Please rsvp if you haven't already.

Here's a quick look at our first grade learning: 

In reading we have started centers, where students do partner/group reading, guided teacher reading, independent reading, games and folder work. These centers are all differentiated and Ms. Bartolini, who does intervention also pushes in during this time to work with a small group. Students are working on digraphs: th, wh, sh, tch, and ch. Students are also practicing memory words like she, he, me, her, his, I and the question "w" words: who, what, where, when, why. These can be tricky. Watch for the pattern and memory word lists to come home as we start new units and you can practice with your child if you wish. Keep reading at home and let me know if the books your child is bringing home don't feel right (too easy or too hard).

In math we are working on decomposing numbers. Students are practicing structuring numbers and looking at the part/part/total model, where students are solving for the total and fr the missing part (or addend). Students are solving story problems and working with raw numbers. We have been playing Treasure Hunt at teacher time, to work on skip counting, both forward and backward.

Students have started their 3rd small moment story. This story will be done with less scaffolding than the two previous ones. The first one we wrote as a shared writing project about our farm field trip, the second was individual but all students followed a very specific writing process and it was paced. For this story, students are working more freely at their own pace. At the end of the unit we will share our stories and look for growth from start to finish through this writing unit. We will be wrapping this up next week. We will also be starting our family unit the week of the 30th. 

Your child may mention to you tomorrow when they come home from school that we will be having a teacher visit from the Netherlands. Yes, this is correct. A teacher from the Netherlands is visiting to learn more about schools in the United States. She will teach us about what her day looks like, observe and help in the room. I am sure we will learn a lot from her as well!