Mrs. Klan's First Grade

Hello Families! Here are this week’s spelling words:

Spelling Words
1. back
2. duck
3. neck
4. sock
5. sick
6. check
7. use
8. fast
9. pull
10. found

It was so great to see some of you at Book Bingo tonight. I know this is a bit late, but here are this week’s spelling words 🙂

five, drive, mice, dime, time, slice, mine, work, does, goes

Of course, I hope all of your children are studying their words.  Frequent writing and reading of sight words will increase their core of known words.  One way to insure growth in and develop a love for reading and writing is to actually read and write.  My goal is to teach all of  your children how to read for information, comprehension, and enjoyment.  Please help me accomplish this by reading and listening to your child read often, daily.  This year is the foundation for many of their reading and writing strategies and is such a critical time to engage and support them.  I am going to load their reading bags with new books for the break.  I also encourage them to write in their journals, as this will keep their skills fresh and most of them really enjoy this.  Additionally, I am sending home a note with directions for online NWEA test practice. I STRONGLY encourage you to help your child practice before our test in a few weeks.  Most of the students showed tremendous growth on their Winter NWEA test and I am looking forward to huge gains for all of them on the Spring test.

Thank You for your Support!!

Hello Families! Please remember today is a Late Start Wednesday.  I know it is beginning to feel like Spring, but please make sure your child wears a coat to school.  We will definitely go outside as long as it doesn’t rain 🙂

Here are this week’s spelling words:

say

2. tray

3. away

4. gray

5. may

6. day

7. play

8. would

9. around

10. their

Math: We are beginning to look at geometric and 3 dimensional shapes.  We will look at sides, corners, and similarities among shapes.

Reading and Writing: As always, please continue to read each night with your child, as this will definitely help him/her grow and develop a love for reading.  They are publishing their Opinion Writing about a special friend, and I was really impressed with their ideas!

Science: As many of you know, we are continuing to look at properties of matter and today we hope to have time for our Sink or Float experiment.

Social Studies:  We are studying Human and Physical features of our environment (Human: buildings, streets, railroad tracks, houses…Physical: forests, deserts, oceans, hills, mountains).

Have a wonderful week!

Happy March!

I hope everyone is staying warm and looking forward to Spring! Here is our spelling list for the week: where, what, when, why, which, white, wheel, very, your, its.

Please continue to read and write with your child every night. The students have been borrowing my books, which means they are definitely developing a love for reading. I encourage you to listen as your child reads and also read to him/her.

We are learning how to tell time to the quarter hour (5:15, 3:45 etc.) This is difficult for most first graders, so try to find time to practice this.

Have a wonderful week!

I hope you are all enjoying your time at home and hopefully, you were able to get outside and build something amazing in the snow!

Here are our spelling words for this week:

blue, black, blank, blow, glow, glad, glue, think, going, walk

Math: Please work with your child on counting money and telling time to the hour and half hour.  We study these concepts in school, but these are always tricky skills for first graders.  Extra practice always helps and accelerates their learning.

Writing: We will be working on Informational Writing for the next few weeks.  Students will have opportunities to write about topics that they know a lot about (examples: soccer, weather, dogs) and they will also begin to research new topics.  We will be exploring nonfiction books, recording facts and information, and then writing about a particular topic.

Reading: As your child reads from his/her bag of books, please ask him/her questions about the characters (How do you think she is feeling? How do you know? What is the problem in this story? How did they solve it? “What do you think the author is trying to tell you?). This will help them understand their stories in a deeper, more meaningful way and will hopefully get them more excited about their books.

Stay Warm 🙂

Hello Families,

I cannot believe we are ready to say goodbye to January! We had a busy week, so here are some quick updates.

We completed our Math NWEA testing. The students worked hard and were very patient.  We will take the Reading test on Wednesday, February 4th.

We will have our spelling test on Friday, using the same list as last week (since it was such a short week).

We will have our PBIS reward celebration tomorrow. Students who earned the reward (those who did not flip their card more than four times during the month of January) are able to wear pajamas and bring in a game (non-electronic) from home.

Report cards will come home tomorrow. Please sign the report card and have your child return it to me on Monday. I will make sure it is signed and then it is yours to keep.

Please continue to read with your child each evening. This will help them grow tremendously and is an enjoyable activity that you can do together.

Stay Warm!

Hello Families!

I hope you have all had a great beginning to your new year.  We are continuing to work hard in first grade, so please make sure your child is completing his/her homework and reading LOTS of books. After reading with your child, please spend some time talking about what is happening in the story. Discuss the characters, problem, and solution, as this will help him/her understand the story.  Here are some updates on our learning:

Math: We are learning to be problem solvers with more complex addition and subtraction story problems. Help your child solve problems in a variety of different ways.

Social Studies: We are finishing our Unit on Needs and Wants

Science:  We are completing our Unit on Weather. I am sure you will be impressed with how much they have learned about weather conditions and severe weather.

Writing: We are publishing our Opinion Writing. Wait until you see the letters they are writing about a pet of their choice 😉

I will be sending Writing Notebooks home that children must write in each evening. They can write about pretty much anything they wish, but it would really benefit your child if he/she writes about a book he/she is reading or has read. Each entry must have a date, topic, and at least four sentences. Please make sure that each sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation mark.  I do NOT expect spelling to be perfect. We are working on saying words slowly and recording the sounds we hear.

Here are our spelling words for this week and next (it is a short week, so I will not have a test until next Friday.

fly, flat, flash, flower, place, plug, old, by, after

Hello Families! I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgiving breaks with your friends and families. We still have two weeks before our Winter break, so I am encouraging the children to work hard and stay focused ;-).

Here are our spelling words for the week:

1. for

2. form

3. thorn

4. corn

5. shore

6. more

7. store

8. under

9. of

10. some

Reading: Please continue to have your child read EVERY night. This really helps him/her practice necessary strategies and builds their fluency, independence, and confidence.

Science: We are learning about weather, especially severe weather. It might be fun for you and your child to research topics such as hurricanes, thunderstorms, blizzards, floods, and tornadoes on the internet or at the library. They really seem interested in this unit and it always helps to reinforce and encourage their learning by looking for additional material.

Math: We are learning about fact families: 5+4=9, 4+5=9,  9-5=4, 9-4=5, tally marks, tens and ones, and are continuing to look for patterns on the number grid.  One concept that seems to be giving a lot of them some trouble is telling time to the half hour.  Our math series calls 3:30 half- past 3 o’clock and this confuses many of them.  Also, they must need to know how to draw the hands on a clock to represent the time.  This might be something you can practice with your child at home.

Social Studies: We are learning about economics: goods, services, producers, and being consumers.

Have a great week!

It was so great to meet with you at Parent – Teacher Conferences.  I really appreciate all of your support and know that we can continue to work together to help your children learn and progress.

Next week is a short one, so we will not  have any spelling words. Instead, we will work on word families during word-work.  I am going to allow the children to bring lots of books home over the Thanksgiving break because I don’t want them to lose their momentum 🙂

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families. Stay Warm!

Hello Families!

I cannot believe it is November! We are working and learning each day, so please continue to read with your child every evening.  The books in their book bag should are at their level, so they should not need very much support from you. We are learning to use STRATEGIES when we get ” stuck “ on a word. They should always check the picture for clues, say the sounds slowly, and think about what would make sense in the story. It is also wonderful to have conversations about the books they are reading. This helps with comprehension.

The children are very excited because they filled their “Gumball Jar.” This means they have had fantastic behavior and we voted to celebrate by having Game/Toy Day. They may bring a toy or game from home on Tuesday.  Please do not send anything electronic with your child. Thank You!!

Parent teacher conferences begin this week. I will send a reminder home with your child. If you were unable to sign up for a conference, I will send an appointment card home. If this time doesn’t work for you, please contact me so that we can meet.

Until Soon…Mrs. Klan