1. First Grade Weekly News! What’s new?! This week we will be working on story structure/elements (characters, setting, etc.), writing “how to” pieces on topics we know a lot about, decoding ee/ea words, discussing different types of landforms, continuing our Gingerbread Man literacy unit, learning about Holidays around the world, and working with related addition/subtraction facts (fact families). December 14, 2015 Important Dates -Friday 12/18  Pajama Day, Holiday Celebration in class (1:30- 3:00), and Book Exchange -12/21-1/4  New Year Break (Students return Tuesday 1/5) Homework Dreambox: 15 min Monday and Wednesday nights Math Facts in a Flash: Practicing math facts EACH night for 5 minutes Lexia: Tuesdays and Thursdays for 15 minutes EACH sitting. *Be sure to correctly log out to save your work! Reading: Reading for 15 minutes Monday through Thursday night (students can also use Starfall) **ALL accounts are working here at school, please let me know if you are experiencing issues. Homework Dreambox: 15 min Monday and Wednesday nights Math Facts in a Flash: Practicing math facts EACH night for 5 minutes Lexia: Tuesdays and Thursdays for 15 minutes EACH sitting. *Be sure to correctly log out to save your work! Reading: Reading for 15 minutes Monday through Thursday night (students can also use Starfall) **ALL accounts are working here at school, please let me know if you are experiencing issues. Notes from First Grade Teachers Bell schedule – School starts promptly at 8:55 and ends at 3:05. Remember that Tuesdays are “early out” days, and students are dismissed at 1:40. Please refer to the Simonds Daily Schedule for recess and lunch times. Please be sure to take your student to the restroom BEFORE school starts at 8:55am. Book Exchange Please see the attached information regarding our Book Exchange on Friday! Holidays Around the World We will be reading stories and learning all about holidays from around the world! ( over ) In the upcoming weeks, you can review the details of our weekly classroom activities on page 2 of this weekly newsletter.

2. I hope you all had a great weekend with your families! Please feel free to see me before the morning bell or after school. However, it is best to send an email to set up an appointment… just in case! Thank you and have a wonderful week! Sincerely, Miss Rebecca Tucker rtucker@sjusd.org  Classroom Webpage  Remember, you can access my webpage through the Simonds Home Page online. This is also the best way to access the adaptive learning sites through “Student Links!” With the district driving us all toward equipping the students with 21 st century skills, we are implementing a new homework program this year in first grade. Your child will be using District Computer Applications in their weekly homework activities. Soon we will be adding a web- based program, Ticket To Read, funded by the PTA. These problem solving activities are a perfect way to address Common Core Standards and will prepare your children for the new wave of learning and testing they will face in their academic careers. Please remember that online homework is mandatory. District administrators, Mrs. Howell, as well as myself check these adaptive learning sites weekly for student progress. Thank you for your support and cooperation with this! Sight Word Testing : I will be testing students on the 100 sight words for first grade in the coming weeks. Students will be asked to read and write the words. Please see your copy of this list for at home review/ practice. I am so impressed with the progress we have made so far this year! Star Student: Our Star Student this week will be Baya! She will share her poster with us, lead our line, and take home a special handmade book from her classmates on Friday!