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st Grade is Hoppin Fir

Dear First Grade Families, I wish you all a wonderful Christmas with your families. If you are traveling, be safe. I will look forward to seeing your children once we return in January. Here are a few things we will be doing in January: We will finish our Weather Watchers science unit and do some winter activities We will learn about What makes a sentence? I will divide the month into four sections: sentences, nouns, verbs and adjectives. It will be a very hands on way to learn basic grammar skills that are essential to writing. We have talked about sentences and they know that word order is important. They know there are different kinds of sentences telling and asking. (We will review this after vacation.) When we learn about nouns we will focus on naming types of nouns (person, place, thing, or animal); singular and plural nouns, proper nouns and pronouns. When we learn about verbs, we will focus on the action verbs, verb tenses, linking verbs and contractions. For adjectives, we will focus on words that describe colors, shapes, size and numbers; words that identify now things feel, taste, smell, and sound; and words that compare. Your child will be practicing retelling a story and learn symbols that go along with vocabulary I want them to use in retelling a story. Once again, they will be reminded that good readers listen to themselves read and can re-tell important details about the story. We will be making stories with beginnings, middles and ends, and remember to start our sentences with capital letters, spaces between words, and ending marks. We will also try to include more details in our stories. I introduced booklets in December and the kids are excited to continue using these in January. Also, if you see that your child is having difficulty with reversals, please have them correct their letters and numbers and make it correct. In math we will finish up Unit 4 in math by teaching Quarter to and Quarter after the hour. This is a very difficult concept, and we didnt want to rush it before Christmas break. We will also really work hard on having fact power. It is like being a good reader-reading is easier and more enjoyable if you recognize many words automatically. The same is true of number facts. Solving problems is easier if you automatically know the sum of two numbers from 0 to 9. The kids reviewed turn-around facts before vacation, and learned about doubles facts too.

December 18, 2012

Word Wall Words:

Jan. 7-11 know, around, dont, take, pretty

Skill work: -ake family, and nt contractions

Jan. 14-18 four, here, jump, after, ran

Skill work: ump family; homonyms (four/for, hear/here, too/two/to, know/no,)

Jan. 21-25 old, away, where, let, help

Contact information:
kdonze@rockfordschools.org
Classroom phone: 863-6363, ext. 4721 Office phone: 863-6362
Blog: kimdonzeclassroom.blogspot.com

Belmonts Best
Mrs. Thelen will invite these kids to eat their lunch with her during the week of: Jan. 7 : Julia Belcher Jan. 14: Megan Unger Jan. 21: Aubrey Johnson

Special Schedule:
Monday: P.E. Tuesday: ART Wednesday: LIBRARY
Please note that all library books must come back to school by Wed. morning in order for your child to check out another book.

Thursday: P.E./ COMPUTER LAB

Winter is here:
Please have your child wear boots to school. You do not have to pack extra shoes for the kids. They can wear their PE shoes in the classroom, which will give them more room in their backpacks plus make buying those PE shoes worth the investment. Also, it is very windy on our playground and so I would recommend that your child have a hat and mittens each day from now until it warms up. You can also send an extra pair of mittens/socks so when they get really wet, they have a dry pair to put on.

Friday: MUSIC

Mark your Calendar:

Dec. 20: Dec. 21: Jan. 7:
Christmas party 2:303:15 Final day of school before Christmas vacation. School resumes. You can send back the December

reading calendars. ( I will send Januarys calendar home before vacation so you can record the minutes your child reads over vacation. What a great opportunity to spend time in books.) I have a few I cant wait to read!

Jan. 11 & 22: Jan. 22: Jan 29:

Popcorn Days (25 cents a bag)

Mismatch Day Early dismissal 1:30 pm

Important News:

We have a new student in our room. We welcomed Lila VanSuilichem last week. The children remembered her from Kindergarten and were excited to welcome her. We have an even number of children in our room now. Our total number of students is 20. We are running low on nice, soft Kleenexes in our room. The colds and allergies have been heavy and I believe the kids would prefer your nice soft ones to the school ones. If you are able, would you please send a box or two with your child after break, so we can start out with a fresh supply in January. Thank you! (We have enough disinfecting wipes for now, but I will let you know when we run low on those as well.) I probably say this often, (at least to the kids) but I will be working them hard once we return from vacation. I will expect more out of their ability to listen and follow directions. I will expect them to listen and not blurt, so that others get a chance to think for themselves. I will be stretching their brains and make them think harder for themselves. They will be amazed at what they can do in first grade come January and February. :) Rockford will begin a Bully-Prevention program beginning in January. More information will be sent home soon.