Dear Parents,

     Happy Mother’s Day, belatedly!  I do hope all of you had a day of the special attention and pampering you truly deserve!

    I believe everyone had a great time during the Race for Education last week.  Congratulations to Riley Payne who ran the most laps in the first grade group.  Thank you to all the parents who came to cheer us on and volunteered in so many different jobs!

    We will begin the last unit in language arts later this week.  I expect this unit to take us through May 24^th or so, at which time we will begin to review the skills we’ve worked so hard on and preview some second grade skills.  Math, Science and Social Studies will begin to take up a larger part of the instructional time, as the children use their language arts skills while they are reading and comprehending non-fiction work.

    We will have our annual May Procession this week on Wednesday morning, as well as the first school mass at which our second grade first communicants will attend and receive the Eucharist.  This is a very special time for our entire school community. The children should bring flowers from the garden to include in the first grade vase being presented to our blessed mother. Please join us if you can; we begin @ 9 AM with a school mass, followed by the procession.

     Finally, I am pleased to announce the end of official homework for the school year.  A letter will come home today to explain the summer routine I hope your child will engage in at home.

May God’s face shine upon you this week!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Pam Claytor

This Week in First Grade

Language Arts:  The children will work on identifying sound-letter correspondence for the dipthongs oi, oy (join, toy) as they decode words containing these letters.  The comprehension skillwork involves summarizing text (an important skill to work on this summer). They will use the words cause, effect, and happen when discussing non-fiction work.  They will retell a story to show their understanding as well.  The grammar focus is on combining sentences using the word and.  They will also review beginning proper nouns with a capital letter.  Study skills will be addressed as they use captions to determine information about a photograph or illustration.

Math:  The children have been using “money” to buy things  and give change (with paper money so far).  They will continue this work and add coins to the mix.  This is an introductory skill that they can work on this summer as a “real life” experience.  They will also identify fractional parts of a whole, write observations about a graph, and measure line segments to the nearest centimeter.

Religion:  We will continue to focus on Mary during this month of May, as well as discover that holy songs are prayers.

Science:  the children will explore the properties of a gas through inference and define gas in terms of its properties.  We will then have a chapter review on the properties of matter and an assessment.

Social Studies:   We will be reviewing what we’ve worked on in the chapter, Everything Changes and demonstrating what we understand.

  

May 6, 2013

Dear Parents,

     The children spent this past week focusing on jobs, from those chores they do at home, to class helpers, to their “dream” jobs of the future. This appears to be a class of both dedicated to service to others and providing goods for others.  They are all creative in using their strengths, from writing to drawing to speaking!

     There is still much work to be accomplished before the children become official second graders.  Please continue to support your child’s progress in learning to add and subtract without using their fingers.  They have a strong skill set to accomplish this goal; practice is the final component to success!

     The Race for Education is this coming Friday.  We love having parents here to “run” with us and to cheer us on.  Please join us if you can.

     Let us all be disciples, sharing the good news in words and actions this week.

Yours,

Mrs. Pam Claytor

This Week in First Grade

Religion:  We will celebrate our blessed mother Mary, recognizing the different names with which we honor her.  The children will learn that the month of May is devoted to the mother of Jesus.

Language Arts: The focus this week is on growing up. The phonics skills are a bit more challenging as the children work with the variant vowel combinations au and aw, blending these sounds in words, as well as learning to spell words with them.    The comprehension focus is on summarizing text in nonfiction articles.  We will continue to use pronouns in sentences and look for them in the articles we read.  Organizing using a list in order to write a report is our writing goal this week.

Math:  We will review the identification of solid shapes: cone, sphere, cube and cylinder. We will also add three single-digit numbers, round numbers to the nearest 10, and count money this week.

Science:  The children will recognize that all things are made of matter and define the properties of matter.

Social Studies:  We will work on identifying inventions and ideas that made communication easier, as well as compare communication methods from long ago with those used today.

April 29, 2013

Dear Parents,

Thank you so much for chaperoning our CBEC trip this past Friday.  The children’s pure excitement was both warming and infectious as we explored our beautiful bay under brilliant blue skies. I believe we are all going to be more respectful of the, due to our experience at the Chesapeake Bay.

We are in the 5^th week of Easter, with the daily scripture readings telling us of the ways Jesus set about preparing his disciples to continue the work of His Father.  The children are curious about the disciples and express their desires to help others.  One way is to share time with you, reading the bible and discussing how we are called to love one another in many ways, great and small.

May our risen Lord smile on you and your family this week.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Pam Claytor

PS The children tested out of the spelling work again this week!  I am listing the challenge words in the homework section, in case you would like your child to practice them.

This Week in First Grade

Religion  The children will discuss and learn ways they can praise God, as they go about spreading the good news of the bible.

Language Arts    The children will build and blend words with the variant vowel oo again this week as they work on the sound found in the words broom and moon.  The comprehension focus is on using classification and categorization as a tool.  The children will read nonfiction articles to learn about many different types of jobs.  They will work on learning that pronouns take the place of nouns as the grammar focus.  Finally, the children will be working on writing interesting sentences.  

Math  We’ll be using our math fact knowledge as we branch out to adding 3 or more digits.  This is a popular activity, which the children are quite adept at challenging each other.  It is a fun thing to do in the car, or while waiting in line with you.  We will also work on rounding a number to the nearest multiple of ten and counting paper money as we play E-Bay shopping.

Science   We will begin a unit on properties of matter, determining what the children already know and what they would like to learn.

Social Studies   The children will identify inventions and ideas that made communication easier.  They will then compare communication means from long ago, not so long ago, and today.

April 22, 2013

Dear Parents,

We had a busy week last week, with the children eager to make connections between their “worldly” understandings and the materials we are working on.  Many have a new vocabulary and understanding of the Chesapeake Bay to work with.  I hope you, too, will find time to learn about God’s gift of the largest estuary in the United States.  We are all looking forward to our field trip to the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center this Friday!  I hope you received the note with vital information as to what to wear and bring last Friday.  If, somehow, the note did not get home, please let me know. 

I would also like to remind you of the Maryland Day, Explore Our World  happening at the University of Maryland’s College Park campus.  There are numerous special events, campus-wide from 10-4 on Saturday, April 29^th “ something for everyone” is planned at this free event – you can go to www.marylandday.umd.edu for more information.  

Finally, the fourth week of April is “National TV turnoff Week”.  You might even extend this to video games and anything on the computer that isn’t homework or work related.  Sweeten the pot with some creative alternatives that involve the whole family!

The Lord’s love reaches to heaven: let us give thanks and praise, alleluia!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Pam Claytor

PS There is no spelling homework this week – the children “tested out” during the pretest this morning, when they spelled both the word list and challenge words 100%!

This Week in First Grade

Religion  Having learned of the first Christians and their desire to build the Church, we are working on how to act like Christians.  We will also be discussing why birthdays are special, relating our experiences to the birthday of the Church: Pentecost.

Language Arts    The children will build and blend words with the variant vowel oo, found in the words book and hood.  The comprehension focus is on rereading material to check for understanding.  We will also work on predicting as a comprehension tool.  The children will read a nonfiction article, looking for the important information in it.  This will be an abbreviated week of work, with the field trip on Friday. 

There is no spelling homework this week – the children “tested out” during the pretest this morning, when they spelled both the word list and challenge words 100%!

Math  Our acting skills will be brought into focus again  this end of the week as the children act out to solve a problem, then draw a picture.  I will also introduce four of the last 8 addition facts.  Please keep fact practice on your daily schedule! (I am especially proud of the fact that the children are recalling the facts without using their fingers!) We will also be working with the identification of geometric solids.  Finally, we will identify quarters as we practice adding a “pocketful” of change.  This is a great opportunity to practice at home, first sorting the coins by value, then adding.

Science   We will prepare for our trip to the CBEC this week, reviewing concepts and vocabulary.

Social Studies   The children will continue to work on the concept of the past and timelines.

April 15, 2013

Dear Parents,

After completing a unit test, we will begin our last unit in Language Arts this week.  It is a 6 week unit on the theme of Let’s Discover!    We will also be completing work on the last addition fact families using all of the numbers from 0-9.  Learning about the Chesapeake Bay and making connections to all subject areas is another focus we have, leading up to our field trip April 26^th.   (

(Please note my mistake in reusing the CBEC field trip note sent home last week.)  The field trip date is Friday, April 26^th.  All parents interested in chaperoning may join us!   The focus in Social Studies is making connections with our past, through family history.  This is an excellent opportunity to share family albums with your children, especially the ones their grandparents have of you as children.

I would like to thank all of the parents who sent in the delicious breakfast treats and helped pay for the catered faculty breakfast last week.  It was a truly welcomed feast  which we had before our monthly faculty meeting.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Pam Claytor

PS The children may now wear summer uniforms. 

The summer uniform consists of:

• Navy twill knee-length walk shorts with a brown or

black belt for boys or, for girls, a navy skort.

• The regular (white for grade 6-8 boys, yellow for

everyone else), short sleeved, monogrammed shirt.

• Regular uniform tan suede oxford shoes, white crew

socks (over the ankle)

 

This Week in First Grade

Religion   The children will discover ways in which the Holy Spirit works through the Church today and learn ways that  church helpers love and serve others.

Language Arts  The phonics emphasis this week is on dipthong words with ou and ow, pronounced “out”and “cow”.  The children will build and blend words with these sounds, as well as learn to spell words with ou and ow in them.  The comprehension focus is on using illustrations as a way to monitor understanding of material presented. The illusive “subject” of a sentence will be searched for, as the children practice making sure that they have written an understandable sentence.  Our study skill this week is using a dictionary to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.  Fianly, the writing focus is on sentence fluency.

Math  We begin the week working on identifying one half, one third, and one sixth.  We then move on to comparison symbols, which can be tricky for first graders.  Our acting skills will be brought into focus towards the end of the week as the children act out to solve a problem, then draw a picture.  I will also introduce four of the last 8 addition facts.  Please keep fact practice on your daily schedule!

Science   We continue to learn more about the Chesapeake Bay habitat and the animals that live here.  The children will name plants and animals that are important natural resources to us.

Social Studies   The children will use the words past, present and future to describe changes that happen in your life.  Tell how we learn about the past and make a timeline of their “past”.