This month we are working on retelling and reading with comprehension. Some of the skills we are learning are:

• using post-it notes to hold our thoughts
• use character names when retelling
• look back in the book when you are stuck
• use a storyteller's voice to retell
• think about how the character is feeling
• Connect the story to something that happened to you or another story

• Check your child's folder every night for notes and homework.
• Remember to read with your child each night and fill in the star paper!
• Dress your child appropriately as the weather gets colder!
• Label all of your child's clothing
• Send in a healthy snack everyday!

• Jan. 2nd - school reopens
• Jan. 21st - school closed for Martin Luther King Day
• Passport to Learning Presentations are beginning!

• count change (pennies, nickels, and dimes)
• tell number stories
• practice addition flash cards
• measure things at home using a ruler (in.)
• practice counting forward and backward from any number
• practice telling time on analog clocks (hour, half hour, "quarter-to" and "quarter-after")

• review /er/ spelled er, ir and ur, /sh/, /th/, /ch/, long a
• plurals with -s, and -es
• contractions
• homophones
• practice word families for a_e (cake, make, date, rate, etc. )
• find long a words in take home books
• Spelling begins this month :
  List 1 - short a words
  List 2 - short o words
  List 3 - short a and o words

• measurement (using rulers and tape measures) to nearest in. and cm.
• time to the quarter hour
• timelines
• number scrolls (counting beyond 100)
• fact power (addition facts)
• domino addition
• Using base 10 blocks to identify place value (tens and ones)

• Passport to Learning
• using map legends
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• penguins (special in class project: research on the internet. Check out the site on the school home page under school links for 1st grade)
• Begin Solids and Liquids Unit
• identify properties of solid objects
  
• change in weather
  
  Open Circle:
• dealing with teasing
• recognizing differences
• speaking up
• identifying feelings and body language
• using calm breathing

• brainstorming for writing ideas
• choosing a topic
• using adjectives, punctuation marks, and strong verbs
• adding on to writing
• using complete sentences
• peer conferencing
• using chart to go throught writer's process
• writing in picture book format