Fall, 2004

Dear Room 23 Families:

Welcome to our website.  I plan to use it to tell you some of the projects we will be doing in our room, some of the philosophy behind what we are doing, and some ways you can help your first-graders at home.  

Projects 

            (Of course each of these projects centers around teaching the state guidelines for reading, math, and writing.)

In October we will be discussing fire safety, fall, and night animals.  The study of fall includes discussion, reading, and art work about changes in weather, apples being harvested, and other signs of fall.    We will also do math and reading projects about apples.  One of the most fun projects will be making applesauce and apple crisp.  In cooking we read the recipe and learn to measure ½, 1/3, and ¼.  (These fractions are in the state math guidelines for first-graders.)

            In November we will talk about Indians and the history of the Pilgrims.

            In December we will study about folktales, especially The Gingerbread Man.  We will bake, cut out, and decorate gingerbread cookies.  Again, we will learn to read the recipe and measure the fractions required for first-graders to learn.

            Throughout the fall we will be covering 16 lessons on solids and liquids.  This is a hands-on science investigation program adopted by the Prosser District. 

Every family who celebrates will be contacted to provide an item for refreshments for one of our holiday parties-- Halloween, Christmas, or Valentine’s Day.  

Helping Your First-graders at Home

            Learning to read takes practice.  Help them read and reread the poems in their

 I Can Read notebooks so that their reading becomes fluent.   Help them read homework books in the red folders each week. 

            Children need to practice math facts so that they will be able to solve problems quickly.  We give four-minute time tests in first grade.  These tests progress from counting dots to adding and subtracting numbers to 5 and 10 and then to 20.   Help them orally practice combinations as you are traveling or waiting.  It is fine if they count fingers or other items.  Please help your child with the page of math homework that will be in the Wednesday envelope. 

            In first grade, part of our phonics program is learning to hear the sounds in a word they want to write and then writing the letters they hear.  We call this “phonetic spelling.”  In our daily Writing Workshop, we accept this spelling as long as we can tell what word they want to spell and they can read it back to us.  If we have studied a word in our weekly spelling list or if it is on our “Word Wall”, we expect them to spell it correctly.  It would be good practice for your first-graders to help write grocery lists, write letters to relatives, and write notes to people at home.

            Your child will be bringing home a spelling list on Mondays.  Please have him/her read the spelling words to you and then write them without looking at the list as you pronounce them.  Help them practice the ones they miss. 

            Room 23 has twenty-four eager energetic learners.  I am enjoying getting to know each one of them as we do our daily lessons.  They have wonderful, interesting ideas!

            Please call me at school after 2:45 or e-mail me  if you have any questions or would like to volunteer to help our class on any of the projects I have mentioned.  

                                                            Mary Fraser, Teacher of Keene-Riverview Room 23