First Grade Newsletter September 28 th – October 2 nd 2014 Mrs. McCarthy and Mrs. Frost MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Oct. 9 th Field trip permission forms are due. Be on the lookout… a permission form will be sent home shortly! Oct. 16 th Glass jars are due (see below) We’re Going on a Field Trip! Oct. 27 th Field trip to Cherry Crest Farm Please remember to check our website for upcoming events and school news. Friendly Reminders If you have not already done so, please label your child’s belongings such as: their lunch tote, water bottle, jacket, sweatshirt, etc. Thank you! Students are allowed to bring in soft/foam (nerf) balls for recess. No regular footballs are allowed. Safety first! We are very busy in 1 st grade! Please make sure your child is getting an ample amount of sleep. A nutritious breakfast and healthy snacks fuel the body for learning! Please remember that all snacks must be peanut free. Healthy Habits With allergy season here and the dreaded flu season right around the corner, please discuss with your child the importance of proper hand washing and coughing/sneezing techniques. We are disinfecting the desks, doorknobs and tables frequently. We are striving for a happy and healthy school year. Happy Fall! Art Project Thinking ahead… We have a special art project planned to celebrate Halloween. For this project, each student will need to bring in a glass jar (spaghetti sauce or mayonnaise). Please clean it thoroughly and remove the label. Write your child’s name on the bottom of the jar. Jars are due on Friday, Oct. 16 th. Thank you! We are looking forward to a fun-filled fall! Get hooked on some great books this fall We hope that you had a wonderful and restful long weekend. If you were unable to take part in the Pope’s visit, we hope that you were able to see some of the coverage of his trip on TV. His powerful speeches and touching gestures were inspiring. Let’s continue to pray for our Pope daily.

Curriculum Notes Math: This week, we will be diving into addition! We will focus on addition strategies and facts to 12. Please practice reading, identifying, and correctly writing (digit and word form) numbers at home. Continue to review counting patterns and missing numbers within a counting pattern, ordinal numbers, and comparing numbers using greater than and less than. Students will have a final assessment on these concepts later this week. Reading: Our word focus will continue to be on short i. We will read our second whole group story: Pig in a Wig. Our spelling words will be generated from our weekly story. Our spelling test will be on Friday. Continue to practice the lists of short i sight words that were attached to last week’s newsletter. Let us know if you need an additional copy of these words. It is important to practice them daily. We will also focus on fall poems and stories to improve reading fluency. Please practice rereading these at home. Grammar and Writing: We will continue to focus on sentences. We will discuss types of sentences, the parts of a sentence, word order, and correct punctuation. We highly encourage you to have your child practice writing complete sentences at home. Keeping a journal at home or writing a letter to a friend or family member are great ways to make writing fun! Reading and writing go hand-in-hand and are both skills that need to be practiced frequently. Religion: We will continue to learn more about Pope Francis. We will also begin Chapter Two, We Believe in the Blessed Trinity. In this chapter, we will learn that God sent Jesus, his own Son, to us. Social Studies and Science: All About Fall!!! As a whole class, we will continue to learn about Johnny Apple Seed. We will read and discuss the third edition of our Scholastic News magazine. In this issue, we will learn about leaf identification. Be on the lookout… a leaf collection project will be sent home shortly. Into good study habits! in fix it sit six and lip did mix pin wig take *trim *kick *quit * = bonus words Short i Spelling Words