Dear Families,

Happy 2018! It is great to be back! Thank you again for all of my amazing gifts!  I hope everyone had a wonderfully relaxing vacation.

Field Trip: We will be going to Jacob's Heart on January 22. I sent a note home today as a reminder and another field trip permission slip if I did not receive it.

Classroom Needs: gel pens, colored pencils, crayons

Language Arts: Our strategy focus is predicting and inferring in a story.

Grammar: We will focus on finding nouns in sentences.

Phonics: We will work on the long vowels sounds that the letters U and E make such as  CUTE
and PETE.

Phonograms: We have begun our learning about phonograms, two or three letters that when written together make one or more sounds. We have learned sh, th, ee, er, ch, ck, wh, ea, ai, ay, ar, ed, ow, ou, oo, or, oe. oa, igh, eight,  ir, ur, and ear so far.

Writer's Workshop: We are starting our unit on Informational Writing. We will start by making our how How To books. The students will learn to do this by telling what steps are needed, number the steps and they will illustrate each step. I am looking forward to this new unit and they completed books.

Word Wall Words: Your children will learn 5 new word wall words each week and together we will put them on our Word Wall. Listed below are the word wall words on our wall so far and the 5 new ones. It is my hope that you will make a word wall at home or make flashcards to practice daily with your child. This will help your child with reading, writing, and spelling.

as a are and am at an all be because by big but can come did down do every each  friend first from find for favorite girl get go he has him had his her have here house in I it if is just know like look little long my me make more many made may no not nice of on one once other over old out play people please put really see said some school she so saw the this their to them than there then too time these two that they up use or under very was we way water with what went will who words were  want why when would where which you yes your
                                    BEEN   ONLY   CALLED   INTO    ALSO  

Star of the Week: We are enjoying our Star of the Week Program and LOVE learning about our first grade friends. The details of our program is listed on the right side of this blog entry. If you have any questions or need to make a change in the schedule, just let me know.

Math: We will begin Unit 6 in our Bridges Program. In this unit your child will practice efficient math strategies to add and subtract within the range of 0-20, tell, write and solve a variety of addiiton and subtraction story problems, write equations to match the problems, use place value strategies to add and subtract up to 100 and measure, order and compare height in inches.

CGI: In an effort to increase rigor and incorporate more mathematical teaching strategies that will help reinforce the Standards of Mathematical Practice, I will begin teaching a rigorous story problem using the CGI, Cognitive Guided Instruction, approach. This will help me learn how your child problem solves and also help me to guide and plan my instruction.