Dear Parents,

Welcome to fall!  We continue to be busy first graders!  Here are a few highlights from our days at school:

READING:

We continue to read everyday and talk about how Reading is Thinking!  This is an important concept, and one that is not easily transferred into their reading!  First graders, especially those still focused on decoding, often forget to think about what they are reading, asking themselves, "Does this make sense?" We've talked about, and hopefully practiced, things readers do when the answer to this question is "No," including:  

*Reread the part that didn't make sense

*Try and fix the word that didn't make sense or that you are stuck on

*Try reading on and see if that helps

*Ask someone

We call this "monitoring our comprehension."  When we monitor our comprehension we listen to our "inner voice" - the voice in our head - when we read.  Besides asking themselves if what they read makes sense, readers should be predicting, making connections, asking questions, making inferences and understanding when they learn something new. We keep track of our thinking on sticky notes or think sheets and share our thinking with each other.  We read everyday.  Sometimes we read with partners and play a game called "Say Something" to share our thinking with each other.  Before turning the page, we "say something" about what we've read.  Try playing this game at home, when reading together!  

This week we will begin practicing the comprehension strategy of "Asking Questions."  We will begin by practicing with nonfiction.  We will discuss what we already know about a topic, what we learned, and ask questions (what we wonder) as we read. We will monitor how our thinking changes and if our questions were answered in the text we read.  Answers that aren't answered are called "lingering questions."  We will practice this with fiction texts too.  

Please continue to read together every day and practice these skills at home!  

WRITING
We will be finishing up our Small Moment Narrative Writing unit next week.  We've been talking a lot about how authors revise their writing - change it or add to it.  We've used a check list of concepts we've learned to make sure we are adding these things to our writing.  Items on our check list include;

*I have a beginning

*I have an ending

*I brought my story to life - people move and talk

*I brought my story to life - people feel and think

*I used colorful or "juicy" words (words that help my readers picture my story 

      such as: crawled, bright blue sky, or screamed 

*I used some of the "Craft Moves" I learned from the mentor authors we studied

      such as:  ellipses ( ... ), POP OUT WORDS, and Onomatopoeia (Drip, WOOSH, tick-tock)

We also talked about how authors must edit their work to make sure they can read it and others can read it.  Our editing checklist includes:

*I have spaces between my words.

*I checked the word wall to help me spell. (or my "Word Bank" book)

*I spelled tricky words the best I can.  I wrote letters for most of the sounds.

*I used ending punctuation and capital letters to start sentences.

*I can read my writing and my friend can read most of my writing without my help.

This is all hard work for first graders!  They love to write, but they also love to be finished!  It is hard for them to spend time adding to their work or to edit it!

We will end our unit by "publishing" one of our Narrative stories. We will make a cover and celebrate all of our hard work by sharing our books with our peers and our Book Buddies.  

Our next writing unit is on Informational Writing.  The kids will write "teaching books" that teach others about topics they are experts on.  This can include anything from taking care of a pet goldfish to everything you want to know about American Girl dolls, to Spider Man.  The kids really have fun sharing and teaching others about all of the things they know about!  

MATH

We have been working on a unit on Geometry.  Content Standards include having students describe shapes by defining attributes and constructing new shapes by composing and decomposing shapes. Thanks to everyone who helped cut out our paper shapes for this unit!  We've been using them to record our work, building new shapes with these pattern block shapes.  We've also done this with tangrams.  There are some fun tangram and geoboard apps that are free and fun for the kids to do, if you'd like to download them at home!  Students also find shapes in our world and use geometric vocabulary to describe them.  Try practicing this concept when looking at architecture.  

In our next math unit we will revisit addition concepts and begin work with subtraction.  One focus is to have students begin to memorize basic math facts.  We will also work daily on real-world problems focused on having students apply addition and subtraction skills and explain their thinking or how they figure out problems (which strategies and tools they used, and weather they should add or subtract).  

**There are also many apps you can download at home to practice math facts!  Have fun and try some of these!  

SCIENCE

We are continuing our unit on rocks.  We've learned that scientists observe or look closely at objects.  We discovered that rocks have various properties, such as hard, soft, color, shape, and size.  This week we will begin learning how geologists classify rocks by size.  We have containers of "river rocks" which include various sizes of rock material.  We will separate the rocks into different sizes by using screens, then name the various sizes of rocks (sand, small and large gravel, and small and large pebbles.)  We will then discuss larger sizes called cobbles and boulders.  We will be talking about how various sizes of rocks are used and other products we get from rocks.  We will look around the school to discover items that came from rocks. 

As you can see, continue to busy first graders!  Please look below for some important upcoming dates... You can also find these on the tab on my website, or on the Gold Rush Home Page.  

Thanks for all of your continued support at home!  As always, please feel free to contact my anytime and let me know if you have any questions or concerns! 

Stacie Martino

Important Upcoming Dates:

Thursday, October 30th:  Field Trip to The PACE Center to see a performance of Harry the Dirty Dog, based on the book with the same title by Gene Zion.

This field trip connects to our reading and writing curriculum by bringing characters to life in an imaginative way (as writers strive to do) and gives kids another way to connect to literature (text to world).  It also lets us experience the story as a community, practice appropriate theatre behavior, and be respectful, responsible ambassadors from Gold Rush.  We are looking forward to it! **Please pack a lunch!   We will not be able to eat in the cafeteria that day! **Please send a hearty snack!   We will eat lunch after the performance, around 1:00, and will need to eat a hearty snack before going to the theatre. Friday, October 31st - Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween Party will be the morning of the 31st, from 9:15 - 9:55.
All School Parade of Costumes, 9:55 - 10:15

**Please come dressed in your costume!
No weapons, masks or inappropriate costumes, please.
**Bring a change of clothes
We will change after the party and resume our normal schedule by 10:30.
*If your child does not want to participate in the Halloween festivities,
they can join us at school at 10:30.


Calendar Correction:  School is in session Tuesday, November 4th

September Blog

Dear Parents,

I wanted to share a few highlights about first grade with you!

Reading

We’ve sure been busy reading our “Good Fit Books” in class!  A Good Fit Book is one that fits you just right.  It is one where you….

*Know most of the words, (I even told the kids they should be able to read all of the words… their idea of “most” is different than mine!),

 *You understand the book – we talk a lot about how important it is to understand what we read.  We are always asking ourselves, “Does this make sense?”

 It is important for the kids to read from books that are on their level to improve their reading.  We read from our Good Fit Books everyday. 

We’ve also talked about the things that readers do when they come to a word they don’t know.  Most first graders rely on sounding out words and often get stuck when that strategy doesn’t work.  This is not the best strategy to use as there are many words that cannot be sounded out.  Some steps to take when you come to a word you don’t know are:

1.   Look at the picture

2.  Say the beginning sound – or try sounding out the word

**Point and slide under the word, say each sound, then blend them together.

3.  Skip the word, read to the end of the sentence.  Then go back and reread the sentence.  **This is my favorite strategy!

4.  Try a word and ask yourself:  Does it make sense? 

                                                   Does it sound right?

                                                   Does it look right?

Other strategies to try:

  *Cover part of the word and look for little words in big words, or parts of the word you know.

  *Look for word patterns:  day, say, way… ow says “ow” like in cow,  ing says “ing”

Another important concept we learn about reading is that reading is thinking… readers are always thinking about what they are reading.  We track our thinking in class by writing it down on sticky notes.  We might ask questions, predict, or think about what we've learned.  We’ve spent a lot of time talking about one kind of thinking readers do... they make connections when they read, thinking about what their reading reminds them of.  I hope you saw the letter I sent home about making connections.  When you read with your child share the connections you have!

We are also practicing connecting what they know about a topic (their background knowledge or schema) with any new learning.  We talked about listening to our “inner voice” – the things we are thinking in our mind when reading.  We shared some words/phrases we might hear in our inner voice when we learn something new… things like, “Wow!”  “I didn’t know that!”  “That’s cool!”  or “Amazing!”  We talked about how you can merge your schema or background knowledge with new learning.  We need to pay attention to what we are learning as it might change our thinking.  Practice sharing your inner voice when reading. 

Raz-Kids:  Everyone has the opportunity to use this reading program from home.  We also use it at school.  This is a great way to have access to books on your child’s reading level.  As they finish one level the program will automatically move them to the next level.  If you have any questions about Raz-Kids, please let me know.

Writing

We are working on narrative writing and telling “small moment” stories from the events in our lives.  A “small moment” focuses on one moment from our day… one small story, like loosing a tooth, baking cookies with Grandma, or falling out of bed.  We’ve talked about the steps writers go through when writing: 

1. Think of an idea

2. Plan – touch and tell – Kids meet with a partner and touch each page of their story as they tell it aloud.  Sketch – sketch a picture for each page as a plan for what will go on that page.

3.  Write! 

4.  Revise – "When you're done, you've just begun!"  Did you answer the questions Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why?  (This stage is the hardest for the kids!  They have a hard time going back and adding to a piece they think was finished!)

5.  Publish – We haven’t made it to this stage yet, but we will be “publishing” stories this year.

We will be working on adding details and strong words that help our readers picture what happened, and trying not to just tell, but show how their characters feel.  We work a lot with “mentor texts” – reading great literature and using it as an example of great writing. 

  

We also talk about using lower-case letters, adding punctuation, and using what we know about letter sounds to spell words correctly.  Of course I don’t expect all words to be spelled right!  But I do tell the kids that I expect them to use what we have to spell words.  This includes our Word Wall and any words you can find around the room.  

The kids love to write and share their writing with each other!  Try and find authentic opportunities for your child to write.  Have them help you write the grocery list, write down their chores, write a letter to a friend or grandparent (and they will LOVE getting letters back!), or write in a journal. 

Math
In math we are well into our first unit on addition.  We review this concept throughout the year.  This first unit focuses on counting accurately, combining two small quantities accurately, beginning to learn and memorize basic math facts, interpreting and solving addition story problems, and finding more than one combination of addends for a number up to ten.  We learn, practice, and discuss various addition strategies.  Many of the kids use a strategy called “counting all” – meaning they count all of the dots or pictures of the items they are adding together.  This is OK!  It is the first developmental stage.  They will move to “counting on” – they begin with saying one of the numbers in their head, then count on from there.  (6+5  They will say “6”, then count on, “7,8,9,10,11.)  The next stage is “use what you know”  (“I know that 5+5 is 10, so one more is 11.)  This helps us learn and memorize the basic addition facts that we can use later when adding larger numbers.  Our next unit will be on geometry, focusing on two-dimensional shapes and the relationships among them.  

Social Studies & Science
We've been busy building our class community and discussing what it looks like to go for the G.O.L.D. at Gold Rush.  We've made our Class Promise (rules), and discussed how to keep this promise in all areas, including specials, at recess, and in the restroom.  We've read many books about being responsible, keeping our friends, and even one about what happened to a little boy who tattled too much!  We are beginning our science unit on rocks called "Pebbles, Sand, and Silt" this week.  

As you can see, we've been busy first graders!  I look forward to sharing some of their work with you at our conferences coming up this Thursday and next Tuesday, September 18th and 23rd.  As always, if you ever have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me!  

Sincerely,
Stacie Martino

Welcome to Mrs. Martino's First Grade Class!

Thank you for taking the time to read through this important information in order to ensure that our year begins successfully!  

*School begins at 9:05.  Please do not drop off your child each day before 8:55.  They should go straight to their line.... no playing on the playground.  First Graders line up right outside the front doors of Gold Rush.  

*Please have your child pack a healthy snack each day.  No cookies, candy, or special treats, please. We will have one snack time during our day.

*Please send a water bottle labeled with your child's name each day.  We do not have a drinking fountain in the room.  This will come home daily.  

*Our lunch time is from 11:35 - 12:15.  The kids will go outside daily for recess.  Please have them dress appropriately for the ever-changing weather!

*Please click on the "Classroom Procedures" tab and read through this document.  It includes important information regarding homework, communication, and birthday celebrations. 

Friendly Reminders:

Each day your child will want to pack a healthy snack.  Your child will also want to bring a water bottle to school each day as we do not have a drinking fountain in the room.  This will come home each day.  They should also begin to memorize their lunch numbers, which is the same as their student ID numbers. 

Come Prepared!  Dress for the Weather... Hot or Cold!!  
We will go out for recess on all but the most inclement weather days.  Your child will stay safer, happier, and more comfortable if they have appropriate clothing and footwear to help them cope with being outdoors. 

Our lunch time is from 11:35-12:15.

We return library books on Tuesdays.