1MC WEEKLY NEWS ~ SEPTEMBER 20, 2012

It has really been a great third week of school! The class has been engaged in so many new activities. We have continued to strengthen our community connections, and practiced the routines we will use all year. We successfully began Literacy Centers and have enjoyed the first grade privilege of checking out books from the library. There are so many more great things to come!

CLASSROOM ROUTINES

We have done lots of practicing of our routines. These include:

1.      Morning meeting (greeting our classmates, reading the message and schedule, and playing a game).

2.  Quiet Signals (the chimes).

3.  Clean-up routines

4.   Lining up (push in chairs and make a calm, quiet line).

5.   Following our class rules (1. Be kind to everyone. 2. Be safe and Respectful. 3. Focus on your work. 4. Have Fun.)

COMMUNICATION I check email regularly (Katrina_McNamara@brookline.k12.ma.us) and will reply as quickly as possible. You may also leave a message on the classroom phone (617.879.4430) or with the Devotion School office (617.879.4400). 

If you would like to be “invited” to the blog please let me know. If you prefer the paper copy, I will put it in your family mailbox each Thursday.

ILLNESS

Please carefully read the document “When to keep your child home from school.” Thank you in advance for following these guidelines to speed your child’s recovery and keep germs and illnesses from spreading in our class. If you have any questions regarding these guidelines, please direct them to our school nurse.

If your child will be absent due to illness or a doctor or dentist appointment, please let us know via email or note. You may also call or email the school office. Thank you.

LIBRARY

We had our first Library Program visit this Wednesday. Ms. McDonnell read us 3 interesting and funny books about the beginning of school. We will listen to stories in the Library every 3 weeks on Wednesdays.

On Friday we will visit the Library for Book Exchange. We will learn how to use our library card, how to put a book back in the right spot, and what to do once we’ve chosen a book.  There are so many books to choose from, and everyone will be able to find a book of interest. The books will stay in the classroom in the library area. We are looking forward to returning our books and picking out new ones each Friday morning.

Students can visit the school library after school with a parent, babysitter, grandparent, etc. The library is open until 3 pm. At this time, students do not need their library card, are able to check out more than 1 book, and may take those books home.

READING BUDDIES

We will meet our third grade Reading Buddies from 3D on Friday afternoon. Each Friday afternoon, we will get together to read books, or do projects and activities throughout the year.

HOMEWORK

Homework will come home every Friday. Homework will be due back the following Thursday. In first grade, homework is a parent and child experience. Please help your child succeed with these tasks and let me know if an assignment is particularly challenging for your child. In first grade, we want homework to be a positive experience and a chance for students to further connect with the classroom material and topics.

LITERACY & MATH

We are working closely with the Literacy and Math Specialists to assess students’ current knowledge and comfort level in both areas. In the coming weeks, we will use this information to create small reading groups, math lessons, games and centers. We are continuing to build our classroom community and explicitly practice our daily routines, so that we are ready to add in the academic pieces soon.

LITERACY CENTERS    

We began Literacy Centers this week. Literacy Centers is the bock of time in which small group reading instruction (Guided Reading) will occur. While teachers are working with small groups, the rest of the class will be engaged in independent work and games.  This week, we are practicing choosing centers and moving among the centers. We have learned some Word Games such as Rhyming, and Letter/ Sound Bingo. Other centers currently include: Word Search, Making Books, Word Study, Read the Room, and Independent Reading. As we become comfortable with these Centers, I will add more choices.

WORD STUDY

This week, we continued our study of the names in our class. We played a “memory” game, matching classmates’ pictures with their names. We also started to identify color words. We made a list of colors, and talked about the beginning sounds of each color.

We placed our first words on our Word Wall (names and color words). The Word Wall is a resource where we will place sight words. Throughout the year, Weekly Word Wall Words will be words that are not necessarily easy to sound out or spell. They will also include the most frequently used first grade sight words. We will try to commit these words to memory, but the Word Wall will serve as a permanent place to look for spelling clues.

COMMUNITY

We are finishing up our Friend Questions. We practiced communicating about our commonalities. Following Friend Questions, we opened the discussion for students to share things they have in common with classmates. We used the specific language, “I have something in common with _________. We both ______________________.” This helps students to identify ways they are similar and opens the door for future communication and connections.

Next week, we will use the answers to our Friend Questions to create individual pages for our first class book: Meet 1MC. We have each illustrated our page with things we like and attached a photograph. The book will be displayed in the classroom library for all to read! We will also use Venn Diagrams to compare and contract our interests with another peer in the class.

SNACK

We will have a morning snack every day. Please pack a nutritious, filling, low-sugar snack for your child each day. We eat lunch at 12:40pm everyday, so our snack is very important to keep us energized during our long morning. Please encourage your child to eat his or her entire snack so they do not get too hungry before lunch.

FIRST GRADE WISH LIST

We welcome donations of the following items for our classroom:

·      Legos, old ones that your family is no longer using.

REMINDERS

Please wear sneakers in PE days: Mondays and Wednesdays. It is a great idea to wear sneakers everyday in first grade.

Please dress for the weather. We will go outside for recess every day (unless it is raining). As the weather shifts from day to day, or throughout the day, please send your child with jackets, sweatshirts, etc. If it is raining and stops by recess time, we will still go outside, so rain jackets and rain boots are helpful on rainy days.

ASK YOUR CHILD…

These questions can be conversation starters to discuss the week in school.

·      Which Literacy Centers did you try this week?

·      What is did you draw using Drawing Cards during projects?

·      What new game did you play this week?

·      What did we work on in Art class with Ms. Allain?

·      What is something you had in common with one of the friends in our class?