First Grade Weekly Update October 14th-18th
Weekly Syllabus: October 14th-18th, 2024
Reminders
Tuesday, October 15th is October birthday free dress.
Religion
We will begin Chapter 4 Jesus, the Son of God. Students will explore the birth of Jesus, discover that Jesus is truly God and truly human, learn that Jesus was raised in a human family, decide a way to live as a disciple of Jesus through kindness, and pray by singing a prayer.
Language Arts
Unit 3 Lessons 1-5
Word Work: Identify the final ng sound, read and decode words with ng, recognize and spell memory words (do, have, show, how, me, and a), understand and use verbs are and is, and complete a pattern poem.
Spelling Words: king, sing, thing, hang, bang, sang, long, song, hung, and sung
Reading: Develop fluent reading with repeated readings of a poem, read a poem rhythmically, read and discuss grade level literary texts, compare and contrast two poems, identify key details of grade level poems, and listen to and discuss a complex informational text.
Writing: Discuss the difference between a fact and an opinion, identify opinions, write about an opinion, use synonyms for good and bad, write opinion with supporting reasons, and share opinions and reasons respectfully.
Author Study: Arnold Lobel
Mathematics
Focus for October Number Corner: Ten is the magic number for October, the tenth month of the year. Students compose and decompose the number 10, practice instantly seeing quantities on ten-frames, and learn about “leaps of ten” on the number line. The Calendar Grid features sets of fall pictures to inspire math stories and during the Calendar Collector workout, students collect and count patterns blocks and make a composite shape picture.
Bridges: We will begin Unit 2 Module 1 Counting, Comparing & Adding With Dominoes. Module 1 focuses on developing counting and addition skills, using dominoes as a springboard. Students learn games in which they match the dots on dominoes, count or add the dots on the two halves of a dominoes, and write equations and inequality statements for the amounts. They also share and discuss addition strategies beyond counting by 1s, such as counting on, combining small groups, and working from known facts to those less familiar. Two new Work Places are introduced.
Science: Structure, function, and information processing: We will be learning about Parent & offspring Traits-How to help a lost baby animal find its parents?
Animal Structures & Survival-Why do birds have beaks?
First Grade Weekly Update October 7th-11th
Weekly Syllabus October 7th-11th, 2024
Reminders
Tuesday, October 8th-Friday, October 11th are half days for Parent/Teacher Conferences. Please be on time for your conference as they are only 15 min.
Monday, October 14th is Indigenous Peoples’ Day-No School
Religion
We will begin Chapter 3 God Our Father and Creator. Students will learn that the God is our creator, how God created us in his own image, ways to care for God’s creations, and ways to use pictures to help us pray
Language Arts
Unit 2 Lessons 6-10
Word Work: Associate th with the sound and spelling, read and decode words with th, encode words with th, sh, and ch, and use capitalization and exclamation points.
Spelling Words: this, that, thin, think, thank, bath, path, math, cloth, and moth
Reading: Develop fluent reading with repeated readings of a story, listen to and read both literary and information text, identify main topic and key details, give and support opinions, recognize text structure, understand and describe characters, and use the words choices, carefully, and decision.
Writing: Write answers to a question about a story, generate and write research questions, find answers to research questions, write and illustrate facts, and edit sentences for capitalization, end marks, and other errors
Mathematics
Bridges
We will begin Unit 1 Module 4-The number rack explorations in this module involve part-part-whole relationships, particularly missing-addend and subtraction problems. Students also engage in “quick look” activities to help them subitize quantities to 20, and they add 1 and subtract 1 from those totals. The final session features a post-unit assessment.
Number Corner for October
Focus for October Number Corner: Ten is the magic number for October, the tenth month of the year. Students compose and decompose the number 10, practice instantly seeing quantities on ten-frames, and learn about “leaps of ten” on the number line. The Calendar Grid features sets of fall pictures to inspire math stories and during the Calendar Collector workout, students collect and count patterns blocks and make a composite shape picture.
First Grade Weekly Update September 30th-October 4th
Weekly Syllabus September 30th-October 4th, 2024
Reminders
Monday, September 30th is our walking field trip to the library. Students need to wear their uniforms and comfortable shoes.
Friday the 4th is the feast of St. Francis. We will have the blessing of the animals at 8:00 AM during our morning assembly. You are welcome to bring your pet to be blessed. Students may also bring a stuffed animal or picture of a pet as well.
Religion
We will begin Chapter 3 God Our Father and Creator. Students will learn that the God is our creator, how God created us in his own image, ways to care for God’s creations, and ways to use pictures to help us pray
Language Arts
Unit 2 Lessons 1-5
Word Work: Work on words with wh, memory words (who, where, what, which, and why), the -ash spelling pattern, recognize and understand question marks, pronoun I, and use appropriate questions words to begin questions.
Spelling Words: where, when, why which, who, what, cash, dash, crash, trash
Reading: Develop fluent reading with repeated readings of a story, observe dialogue, punctuation, speech balloons, and question marks while reading, understand characters and events, describe setting, identify topics of an informational text, and identify main topic and key details.
Our Author Study for this month will be Arnold Lobel
Writing: Generate and write questions, write answers to questions, and write interview questions
Mathematics
Number Corner for October
Focus for October Number Corner: Ten is the magic number for October, the tenth month of the year. Students compose and decompose the number 10, practice instantly seeing quantities on ten-frames, and learn about “leaps of ten” on the number line. The Calendar Grid features sets of fall pictures to inspire math stories and during the Calendar Collector workout, students collect and count patterns blocks and make a composite shape picture.
Bridges: We continue to work on Unit 1 Module 3: In this module students engage in “quick look” activities intended to help them subitize, or recognize the quantity of objects in a set without having to count each individually. Students also explore part-part-whole relationships with numbers to 20. These explorations include work with equations in which an unknown variable might be in any one of three positions. The last session introduces length measurement with nonstandard units.
Social Studies
We will continue with Being Good Citizens in our homes, schools, and communities.
Weekly Update First Grade September 23rd-27th
Weekly Syllabus: September 23rd -27th, 2024
Reminders
Tomorrow is our annual fun fair. It is from 11-4 here at school. Hope to see you there!
Wednesday, September 23rd is a noon dismissal day. Faculty and Staff have Professional Development Day.
Friday, September 26th is a Spirit Day-Zoom Day-uniform on top and pajamas on the bottom.
Religion
We will start Chapter 2 God Loves Us. Students will explore how followers of Jesus are generous, discover people who help us to know God, learn about God from Jesus and our families, decide on ways to be a kind and generous follower of Jesus, and learn to pray the Sign of the Cross.
Language Arts
Unit 1 Week 2
Word Work: Identify initial and final sh sounds, decode sh words, read and decode a story with sh and ch sounds, decode difficult words from an informational text, use and spell Word Wall words (I me, she, her, he, his), use personal and possessive pronouns, capitalize place names, and use capitalization and end marks to write sentences
Spelling Words: fish, wish, rush, brush, I, my, she, her, he, and his
Reading: Develop fluency reading with repeated readings of a poem, read and discuss a grade-level literary text, listen to and read grade level informational text, connect ideas, know and use text features, comprehension, and recognize text structure.
Writing: Draw and generate ideas before writing, select a topic for a personal narrative, draw and write about something they did at a place they visited, capitalize place names, and edit sentences for capitalization and end marks.
Author Study: Tomi de Paola
Mathematics
Number Corner for September: The workouts in the first month of school focus on counting and recognizing numbers from 0-30, with a special emphasis on understanding that teen numbers are made of 1 ten and some more. Students will use a variety of models this month that will help them work in groups of 2, 5, and 10. Students review the concept of unitizing; that is, thinking of 10 items as a single unit called a ten.
Bridges: We continue to work on Unit 1 Module 3: In this module students engage in “quick look” activities intended to help them subitize, or recognize the quantity of objects in a set without having to count each individually. Students also explore part-part-whole relationships with numbers to 20. These explorations include work with equations in which an unknown variable might be in any one of three positions. The last session introduces length measurement with nonstandard units.
Social Studies
We will continue with Being Good Citizens in our homes, schools, and communities.
First Grade Weekly Update September 16th-20th
Weekly Syllabus: September 16th-20th, 2024
Reminders
Tuesday, September 17th is September birthday free dress.
Saturday, September 21st is the Fun Fair-hope to see you there!
Religion
We will start Chapter 2 God Loves Us. Students will explore how followers of Jesus are generous, discover people who help us to know God, learn about God from Jesus and our families, decide on ways to be a kind and generous follower of Jesus, and learn to pray the Sign of the Cross.
Language Arts
Unit 1 Lessons 1-5
Word Work: Phonics and spelling for ch and tch, spelling memory words, grammar and spelling with pronouns, comprehension check, and spelling test and phonics review of ch.
Spelling Words: chip, lunch, inch, chop, bunch, ranch, branch, pinch, chick, and check
Reading: Read and discuss grade level literary text, listen to grade level informational text, determine the meaning of key vocabulary words, practice reading fluently.
Writing: Writing a list of things we have done, selecting a topic for a personal narrative, drawing and writing about something we did, and editing for capitalization and end marks.
Author Study: Tomi dePaola
Mathematics
Number Corner for September: The workouts in the first month of school focus on counting and recognizing numbers from 0-30, with a special emphasis on understanding that teen numbers are made of 1 ten and some more. Students will use a variety of models this month that will help them work in groups of 2, 5, and 10. Students review the concept of unitizing; that is, thinking of 10 items as a single unit called a ten.
Bridges: Unit 1 Module 3: In this module students engage in “quick look” activities intended to help them subitize, or recognize the quantity of objects in a set without having to count each individually. Students also explore part-part-whole relationships with numbers to 20. These explorations include work with equations in which an unknown variable might be in any one of three positions. The last session introduces length measurement with nonstandard units.
Social Studies
We will continue with Being Good Citizens in our homes, schools, and communities.
First Grade Weekly Update September 9th-13th
Weekly Syllabus: September 9th-13th, 2024
Reminders
Tuesday, September 10th is picture day!
No School on Friday, September 13th-Faculty and Staff will be attending Professional Development with the elementary schools in the Diocese of Oakland.
Religion
We are learning about the parts of the mass and what each part means.
Language Arts
Review Unit
Word Work: Letter and letter sounds in addition to writing the letters for: Qu, Jj, Xx, Yy, and Zz, associate ck with the k sound, work on all short vowel sounds, use and understand verbs and plural s, and use beginning capitalization and end marks in sentences.
Reading: Read and discuss grade level literary text, listen to grade level informational text, determine the meaning of key vocabulary words, practice reading fluently.
Memory Words: for, you, like, to, of, and no
Writing: Write verbs to complete sentences, write different types of sentences (declarative, exclamatory, and interrogative), and use adjectives and prepositional phases to add details to sentences.
Author Study: Tomi dePaola
Mathematics
Number Corner for September: The workouts in the first month of school focus on counting and recognizing numbers from 0-30, with a special emphasis on understanding that teen numbers are made of 1 ten and some more. Students will use a variety of models this month that will help them work in groups of 2, 5, and 10. Students review the concept of unitizing; that is, thinking of 10 items as a single unit called a ten.
Bridges: we will be focusing on Module 2- working with the Number Rack. The five sessions in this module are designed to solidify students’ number sense to 10 and provide early work with facts to 10. Students explore number combinations for 5 and 10 in contexts that help them become familiar with fact families and also elicit higher forms of mathematical thinking The models support students to visualize numbers, number relationships, and number combinations. They also promote development of strategies that will eventually lead to mastery of basic addition and subtraction facts.
Social Studies
We will continue with Being Good Citizens in our homes, schools, and communities.
First Grade Weekly Update August 26th-30th
Weekly Syllabus: August 26th-30th, 2024
Reminders
We had a wonderful first week of school!!! We played some games and got to know one another and worked on some reading, writing, and math. Next week continues to be a 1:00 dismissal except for Friday, August 30th which will be a noon dismissal. Next week we will begin our normal routines and procedures.
The first couple of weeks of school are mostly review. I will be sending homework home on Monday, August 26th and it will be due that same week on Friday, August 30th in the homework folder.
Religion
We will begin with Chapter 1 The Bible. Students will explore God’s Word to us, discover what the Bible tells us about God, discover that the Bible helps us follow Jesus, explore ways to be a faithful and loyal follower of Jesus, and reflect and pray with Scripture.
Language Arts-Review Unit
Work Work
Handwriting and phonics Dd/d/, Cc/k/, Gg/g/, Oo/o/,Ll/l/, Ss/s/, Tt/t/, Aa/a/,Ff/f/, Ww/w/, Nn/n/, Ii/i/, Mm/m/, Pp/p/Vv/v/, Kk/k/, Uu/u/
Reading
|
Develop
fluent reading with repeated reading of a story, use beginning and
ending capitalization when reading, understand and use singular
and plural nouns, retell key details of a literary text,
understand characters, describe and compare characters, connect
ideas: compare and contrast, understand events, recognize problem
and solution, know the meaning of vocabulary words (cabin, proud,
loose, tied, hollers, ranger, lend a had, blast, set, vet, mend,
and clinic), and know Words to Know (adventures)
Writing Drawing and labeling self portraits, drawing and labeling a picture of something important in their life, using temporary inventive spelling, reviewing types of sentences, and adding nouns to complete sentences. August/September Author Study : Each month in First Grade we focus on one Author. Our Author for August/September is Tomi dePaola. Thomas Anthony “Tomie” dePaola was an American writer and illustrator who created more than 260 children’s books, such as Strega Nona. He received the Children’s Literature Legacy Award for his lifetime contribution to American children’s literature in 2011. |
Mathematics
September Number Corner: (we will begin this in September) The workouts in the first month of school focus on counting and recognizing numbers from 0 to 30, with a special emphasis on understanding that teen numbers are made of 1 ten and some more. Students use a wide variety of models this month that will help them work in groups of 2, 5, and 10. Students review the concept of unitizing; that is, thinking of 10 items as a single unit called a ten.
Bridges Module 1-Unit 1-We are working to count and organize popsicle sticks. Students are practicing counting forwards and backwards by 1s, 2s, and 5s on the number line and then exploring simple counting patterns on a hundreds grid. They will also express personal preferences as data on a chart and discuss patterns in the data.
Social Studies
We will begin to focus on communities and how rules and laws keep us safe.
First Grade Weekly Update August 19th-23rd
Dear Parents,
Mrs. Ratto and I are so excited to begin the new year! We just wanted to send you an email to say “Hi,” and remind you of a few things coming up and what you need on the first day.
Our first day is Monday the 19th! The school yard opens at 7:40AM.The first grade line will be marked, and Mrs. Ratto and I will be out on the yard so that students know where to go! All students should be in line by the 8:00AM bell. Students should please bring the following on the first day:
- 1-pair of headphones, wired, clearly labeled with your child’s name
- 1-spare uniform, including shirt, pants/shorts/or jumper, undergarments and socks, in a Ziploc bag, clearly labeled with your child’s name. These will stay in their backpacks.
- 2-boxes of facial tissue, large size
- 2-containers of baby wipes (NO refills, self-sealing packs only)
- 1-container of Clorox Wipes
- Please clearly label all items with the child’s first and last names.
- Please note that some supplies may need to be replenished throughout the year.
During the first couple of weeks of school, we will be focusing on developing our first grade classroom community and getting back into routines (both in the classroom and on the yard). Please see below for important dates, including Back-to-School Night, where I will provide a lot more information about what to expect this year in first grade!
The first two weeks of school will be 1:00 dismissal times for First Grade. The first full day of School for the first grade students will be Tuesday, September 3rd.
Dates to Remember:
- Monday, Aug 19–Friday, September 3rd–1:00 Dismissal
- Friday, Aug 23 – Ice Cream Social, 6:00-7:00 PM
- Tuesday, Aug 27 – Free dress for Jul/Aug birthdays
-
Thursday,
Aug 29 – Back-to-School Night (Schedule May
Change)
- Session 1: 6:00-6:15
- Session 2: 6:20-6:35
- General Session in O’Brien Hall: 6:40-7:00
- Friday, Aug 30 – Noon Dismissal (TK-8)
- Monday, Sep 2 –No School Labor Day
- Tuesday, Sep 3-First Full Day
- Tuesday, Sep 10-Picture Day (students need to wear white uniform shirt/blouse)
We are looking forward to a wonderful year! Please feel free to reach out to me at anytime.
Blessings,
Mrs. Russi
First Grade Weekly Update
First Grade Weekly Update
The Show and Tell topic this week is ‘something that makes you laugh.’
Thank you to everyone who purchased books from the Book Fair to donate to the First Grade Classroom. The library is growing and the students are enjoying reading.
The students have also begun reading on RAZ kids this week. This can be accessed via Clever and can be done at home as well as school.
We hope you will be able to participate in two SPN traditions Advent & Christmas season:
- Adopt a Family: We will be making cards and distributing gifts for Meals on Wheels, Friendly Visitors, and local convalescent homes. Please consider purchasing gift cards for groceries or food delivery and/or socks, scarves, or slippers for elderly men and women, wrapped (please label Male or Female and “socks,” “scarf” or “slippers”)
- Christmas Eve 5:15 p.m. mass: First graders are asked to volunteer to act out the nativity story. Please contact hcastelaz@gmail.com if interested.
The first grade portion of the Christmas Concert will be filmed on Thursday. Students are invited to bring Christmas attire to wear only during the filming (Santa hats, antlers, scarves….) with a white uniform shirt.
Finally, please check all sweaters/sweatshirts that come home to be sure it doesn’t have someone else’s name inside. We have a couple missing and they all look the same once they come off during the warmer days.
What we are working on:
Language Arts:
- handwriting
- continue to master short vowel sounds
- spelling/sounds: /ed/ (melted, spilled, cracked) and the past tense
- sight words: look, your, the, was, are, for
- story comprehension: sequence of events, text structure
- develop fluent reading with repeated reading
- opinion writing
Math:
- patterns
- addition and subtraction practice
- doubles +1
Religion
- Advent
- St. Nicholas & St. Juan Diego
Science
- What causes the Northern Lights?
Dates to Remember:
- December 8: Immaculate Conception Mass @ 9:30 a.m. live streamed in the classroom
- December 14: December birthdays free dress
- December 14: Art Docent
- December 16: Christmas Concert (a link will be sent)
- December 17: Minimum Day (noon dismissal, NO Share & Care)
- December 20-January 3: Christmas vacation
- January 3: No School-Teacher Work Day
- January 14: No School-Elementary Staff Day