Welcome to February! The children are enjoying all of the snow on the playground, and we are busy at work in our class during this productive time of the year.
We have finished sight word testing and we are continuing to do reading records with students. You may have noticed that your child has moved up to more challenging books for their nightly reading. Some of these books may also be a bit lengthier and more detailed than the books they were bringing home previously. Try to spend a few minutes with your child after he or she has read to ask some general questions about the book. This may require that your child has to refer back to the book, or may have to re-read the book in order to answer your questions. This is fine, as often your child is concentrating on fluency during the first read through and may need another chance to read the book to focus on comprehending the material.
We have also been working on several strategies for solving unknown words in reading. Your child should not simply try to sound out every unknown word. We have been focusing on using meaning (what makes sense) and structure (what sounds right) along with visual information (what looks right). Students have been using lots of strategies along with sounds, such as using the picture for support; skipping the unknown word to read to the end of the sentence, then re-reading the sentence to try to solve the word; and thinking about what makes sense within the context of the story. This does not mean that sound/letter relationships should not be used, but sounding out is often a time consuming task that makes the children lose the meaning of what they are reading. As well, if your child makes a mistake when reading please give him or her the opportunity to notice the error and correct it on his or her own. If your child does not notice the mistake, tell him or her that he or she made a mistake on that page and ask him or her to re-read it to see if he or she can notice the error.
In math, a baggie has gone home along with +0 and +1 math fact flash cards. The cards should be cut and kept in the baggie. We are currently working on our double facts (e.g 2+2, 3+3, 4+4) and a sheet of these will go home when I finish introducing these in class. As each new set of math facts comes home, please cut out the flash cards and add them to the baggies. Please take a few minutes each weeknight to practice some of the math facts. When subtraction is introduced, flashcards will also be sent home.
We are also working on numbers to 100 in math. Later this month, a hundred chart will go home with your child along with some sample ideas to try with your child.
This month is a busy one in grade one! On February 14 we will be having our Valentine’s Day party in the afternoon. I have included a class list of all students in the class. Students do not have to make Valentine cards, but we ask that if they do that one is made for each child in the class. On February 15 (unless we have a storm day before then) we will be celebrating the 100th day of school. A note will go home a little closer to that date asking children to bring a collection of 100 items to school. You may want to start thinking about some things your child might want to bring in. Some examples are 100 paper clips, 100 pennies, 100 cotton balls, 100 Q-tips, etc. I will be talking in class to the children about how 100 is made up of 10 groups of 10, so you may want to have that same discussion at home with your child as they are counting their 100 items to bring to school.
We have almost finished our sound study for the year. Your child’s sound scribbler is being sent home as we have started a new scribbler to work on the remaining sounds. You can use this scribbler to review the sounds with your child. We rely heavily on our sounds when writing unknown words.
Thank you so much to Deb Gallant, who along with her children Jazmyn and Gideon did a presentation for the class about Chinese New Year. We will be celebrating the end of Chinese New Year on February 7 with a lantern parade. We love having visitors to our class and if any parents would like to come in to share expertise in a certain area or to read a favorite story we would be more than happy to have you. The children feel so proud when they see their parents visiting the school!
As always, please feel free to contact us with any concerns or questions you may have. Thanks for your continued support,
Mrs. C and Mrs. Newson
