Welcome to March! Let's hope most of the snow is behind us, and the days start warming up to above freezing! Wouldn't that be good?! There's still a LOT of snow out there, so we may be looking at a day or two of "flooding" before all is said and done. Let's hope not.
Wow, was there sickness going around our room just before vacation?! I found out just before vacation ended that I had bronchitis, strep, and a double ear infection. I'm on strong antibiotics (have been since the Friday of vacation), so I can't pass it to the kids, but MAN was I sick! I'm sure a lot of the kids were, too, with all of the coughing and fevers we were having before vacation! People seem to be "on the mend" now, though. Let's hope.
The time between February and April vacations tends to be a big learning time for First Graders. We will be talking a lot about how to get ourselves "ready" for Second Grade. (See your child's progress report for things he or she can work on in particular). The work period is less interrupted than February, and the kids are starting to build on skills that they have been working to acquire so far this year.
Some of you are already seeing a change in the Reading homework your child is bringing home. Once the kids are reading in chapter books, it is not unusual for them to have an easy chapter book for them to read during the week for homework. The book will come home on Monday with a special bookmark inside which divides the book into chapters (or pages) to read each night, with the idea that the book will be done and ready to return on Friday morning. It does not have to come to school each day. In fact, it is better that it is not returned until your child is finished with it because sometimes I forget what I am doing and take the book out and put it away without realizing your child is not done with it yet. Your child does not have to read all of those chapters to you! Usually, I just ask them to "fill you in" on what they have read today, and read their "favorite part" aloud to you, explaining why it is their favorite part. Once your child is in chapter books, it is important that he or she learns to do much of the reading on his or her own, since that is what they will be required to do more and more as they get older. It is still good to have them do SOME reading aloud to you, to check and make sure they are not just "skipping" difficult words, and it's always good to talk about what they are reading (or have read) just to make sure they are still comprehending. It was at this stage that I would take Emily's school book (after she had gone to bed for the evening) and read it myself so that I could talk to her about it, and know whether or not she was understanding what she was reading. Actually, it bonded us over books. She STILL gives me a list of titles to read during my "free time" so that we can sit and discuss them when she's around. Whenever there is a new movie out that is based on a book, we both read the book, see the movie together, and then have a "gab fest" comparing the book to the movie and discussing which we liked the best. It is one of the things I enjoy best about my time with my adult daughter, and it all started back in first grade when I would "steal" her book when she was in bed and read it myself so I could talk to her about it during the next few homework nights. What a happy accident! Those of you who are not seeing this change yet should be preparing yourself for it, since most first graders are in chapter books as or before they leave first grade.
Right now in Math, we continue to work on computation (addition and subtraction) during our independent work time, but during class time, we are focusing on Geometry. This week, we are learning to identify and draw 2d shapes: circle, oval (more egg-shaped), ellipse (more like a "stretched circle"), polygons (any 2D shape that has three or more closed sides), triangle, quadrilateral (any closed four-sided 2D shape), square, rectangle, rhombus (diamond), trapezoid, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, heart, star, and cross. Your child will need to know what each of these terms mean, identify the shape by name, be able to draw a representation, and be able to tell how many sides and how many vertices (angles, corners) each has. They will need to know the difference between planar shapes (2D, flat) versus solids (3D shapes) which we will learn in a few weeks. While all of that is going on, we are still working to learn the names and values of coins and how to add them up to amounts under a dollar. This is something you can easily practice at home with your child. Grab a "handful" (6-10) of coins, and have your child sort them into types of coins. Then, have him or her identify the type of coin (name and value) for each sorted pile, and, finally, STARTING WITH THE COIN(S) OF GREATEST VALUE AND ENDING WITH THE PENNIES, count out the change and total it. (We start with the greatest value coin first because it's easier to count from 75c by ten than to start at 35c and add 25c to it.) Most kids have the greatest difficulty changing their method of counting midway through (ie. counting quarters by 25, then switching to continuing the count by tens when she switches to dimes, then counting on by fives as he switches to nickels, to switching to counting by ones when counting on for pennies). This takes lots and lots of practice, so doing one "handful" two or three times a week is fun, and helps provide extra practice. (It is more successful and less stressful to do ONE practice several times a week than it is to practice THREE times once a week.) We also continue to practice reading and drawing hands on analog clocks for hours, half hours, and "quarter of" and "quarter past". This is another skill that will take continued practice throughout the remainder of the year.
Our study of penguins is over, though we will still occasionally read another "Tacky" book. We are trying to wrap up our study of maps, and the seven continents and five oceans of the planet Earth, though some children are having a difficult time remembering which name is applied where. Your child should be able to tell you what his continent, closest ocean, his state, his town, and his school is, and not all of the children can do that yet. In Social Studies, it is time for us to begin comparing "the olden days" to the present day. We do that largely through an exploration of the world of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Starting this week, I will be reading many "Little House on the Prairie" picture books to your child, and will begin Little House on the Prairie as my read-aloud chapter book beginning March 9th. First graders often fall in love with the "Little House" books, as the home life portrayed by Laura, her Ma, her Pa, her big sister Mary, and her baby sister Carrie, and "their good old bulldog, Jack" is so loving and comforting. It is not unusual, after sharing this book together in class, that children ask for these books (when I give books away) or ask for their parents to read one of the other "Little House" books to them. If your child did that with the "Boxcar" books, expect this to happen to you with the "Little House" books, too. Reading this book aloud provides us with many opportunities to compare how life for Laura is different than the life we experience today. Some of you have taken your children to places like "Sturbridge Village", "Norlands Living History Center (in Norlands, Maine) or "Plimouth Plantation" or some other living history museum so that they have had a chance to experience the difference for themselves. If you have not done so, consider sharing this kind of experience with your child during April vacation or summer vacation. There is nothing like experiencing it yourself to make the experience "stick"! One or two days a week, we will also try to fit in a study of the human body and its six major systems: skeletal, muscular, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, and nervous systems. We do NOT tackle the reproductive system in first grade!
Have a wonderful week! Let's hope that today's and Wednesday's "snow" is just a dusting, and that we have another full week of school. Please be advised that NEXT Friday, 3/13, is a Teacher Workshop day, and there is no school for your child on that day.
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