May Newsletter

Can it be May already? Wow! The class is busily preparing for the Passport to Learning Celebration on Friday, May 16. (Parents need to be in the Multipurpose Room by 8:45 am) The program will be followed by time in the classroom, when individual children will stand near their project and will share it with parents. Projects are due in school Wed., May 14. Because of the work the children are doing on their projects, I will only assign math homework next week, giving them extra time to finish their projects.

May themes (for poetry, literature and Social Studies) include frogs, butterflies, plants, Mother's Day, Passport to Learning, and Memorial Day.

Science: Spring is a season filled with learning and activities in First Grade. We are reading about plants and seeds. The children will plant Brassica seeds in May. These seeds quickly grow into plants, flower and produce seed pods. We should be able to watch the whole life cycle before the school year ends. During the week of May 27-30, we hope to receive our Painted Lady caterpillars. We will be observing their life cycle as well, hopefully releasing them, as adult butterflies, in June.

Passport to Learning: A favorite center these days is flag making in preparation for May 16. The children chose a flag, find its country of origin on the map and make the flag out of paper. As we hang the new flags each day we have had fun reciting their names. We are looking forward to the Celebration on May 16. Projects are due in class on May 14.

Math: We are finishing up Unit 8: Mental Arithmetic, Money and Fractions.We have studied fractions and fractional parts of sets. We have also been working with the dollar, and learning to make change. We are investigating place value, adding the hundreds place. Unit 9 will cover more information about place value. We will be adding and subtracting tens, doing number grid puzzles, adding and subtracting two digit numbers, learning fractional parts of the whole and comparing fractions, and learning many names for fractional parts.

Phonics: In addition to small reading groups which meet each week, the class works on specific phonics skills each day. We continue to practice all the short vowel sounds and also the long vowels. In addition the children are learning how to add endings to words. They will work with the sounds of "oo", "ou", "aw", "ew" and "ow", "kn". New sounds this month include "oi" and "oy", "wr", "ph"and the beginning of a review of this year's learning.

Reader's Workshop: the class is reading poetry for a portion of the period each day. They choose a book from our Poetry Basket and share with a partner, reading orally to see how the poem sounds. This is followed by time reading our "Just Right Books" anmd then retelling what we have read with a partner.

Writer's Workshop: This period of the day continues to be a favorite. The children are continuing to develop their skills in writing narrative, poetry and non-fiction. Our celebration of Non-Fiction "All About Books" took place with Mrs.Biglin's Kindergarten. It was wonderful sharing new skills with another class. After immersing themselves in reading poetry, the children are now trying their hands at writing poetry They love to share their writing with each other..

This is a wonderful class. We have had a great time learning together this year. It's hard to believe how quickly the days are going! See you at Passport to Learning!

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