Weekly News

Important Dates:

Tuesday, October 16^th: School Picture Day. Individual and class pictures will be taken. Order forms were placed in family mailboxes today.

Update:

I have made a change to Luke’s mother Laura’s email address. It is lauraaferrer@gmail.com . I have also added the family contact list to our class blog. If you need an invite to the blog, or are having trouble viewing the blog, please let me know.

LITERACY CENTERS    

We will continue Literacy Centers this week. We continue to practice choosing centers and moving among the centers. We will add Poetry and Making Words Centers this week.

WORD WALL WORDS:           at           had          has

Last week, we learned about vowels. Vowels (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y) are the glue that hold words together. Every word in English must have at least 1 vowel.

This week, we are beginning our exploration of short vowel sounds, starting with short a. (This is the sound we hear in at, had, has, cat, etc.)

We will be including Word Wall words in the newsletter every week. Word Wall Words are high frequency sight words. They usually cannot be sounded out like some of the other words we will study in first grade. Please help your child to learn these sight words. Some ideas for practicing and learning these words are:

1.  Make flash cards.

2.   Post the words on your refrigerator or other location for daily practice.

3.   Ask your child to find these words in books, magazines, or newspapers.

MATH

We continue to learn new math games to play and practice our math skills and strategies. We have added the games, “What the Hex?” and “Bump” to out repertoire of Math Games. This week we are reviewing the names and  attributes of basic shapes (Circle, Triangle, Square, Rectangele, Diamond or Rhombus, Trapezoid, and Hexagon).

COMMUNITY

On Thursday, we welcomed to representatives from Dana Farber, along with their 2 puppets. We were a great audience as they taught us about cancer and cancer treatment. We learned about some side effects of chemotherapy, such as getting dizzy or tired, and losing hair. They brought in 2 different jars filled with M&Ms to demonstrate average blood and blood with cancer cells in it. We were able to ask additional questions and we now have a greater understanding of what our friend Elias is going through. The Dana Farber representatives kept the conversations positive and informative. If you have further questions about the presentation, please let us know.

SCIENCE

Last week, we discussed the jobs that scientists do. Some students shared things that family members do for work or things they know about scientists from reading books or visiting museums. We made a list of all of the different areas that scientists study. We then discussed how kids can also be scientists. Many students recalled activities from kindergarten in which they observed or conducted scientific experiments. This week, we discussed and practiced the importance of doing a careful scientific drawing. Next week, we will explore some tools that scientists might use to look more closely at objects.

FIRST GRADE WISH LIST

We welcome donations of the following items for our classroom:

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

ASK YOUR CHILD…

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

·      How did Mrs. McNamara draw the coconut the first time? How did she draw the coconut the second time? Why is it important for scientists to do careful drawings?

·      How do you play “What the Hex”?

·      What did you draw in art this week?

·      How do you play Sparkle?

·      What activities did you do during Literacy Centers?