FIRST GRADE NEWS

First Grade October Newsletter

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Here you will find some important
dates and reminders for the month of
October. Most of these activities do
not involve parent volunteers. Please
keep your eyes peeled for
communication regarding volunteer
opportunities (Mystery Readers, field
trips, Halloween).
More detailed information regarding
some of these events and November
dates (such as our North Market field
trip on November 6th) will be
included in the weekly Ask-MeAbouts and November newsletter.
Thank you for your continued support!
Please let us know if you have any
questions!

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*Friday, October 9th- SPIRIT DAY Wear spirit wear (CA sweatshirt,
tee-shirt, etc.). More details to
follow!

*Monday, October 12th - Fall
Holiday - NO SCHOOL!

*Week of October 19th

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grade/buddy only activity. No parent
volunteers needed.)

*Week of October 26th - Canned
Food Drive

*October 26th - October 30th BOOK FAIR

*October 27th- First Grade Concert

at Assembly

*Friday, October 30th - Halloween
Party and Parade

*Monday, November 2nd - No
School - Teacher Professional
Development Day

FIRST GRADE THEME NEWS

Going Global

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Columbus Academy First Graders are excited

to go global!
go in g glo b a l L i t e r a c y C o nne c t i o ns

Global Activities

My Place in the World

We will learn about maps and
our place on the map - our own
country/state/city/home. In
addition we will be exploring a
variety of places and cultures
around the world, focusing on
the daily experiences of the
kids who live there.

Global Mapping
We will explore maps and
globes. The students will also
have the opportunity to
investigate the OddIzzi website,

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with videos, games and
interactive maps.

Global Read Aloud

We will be part of The Global
Read Aloud Project.
Classrooms from all over the
world will be reading books by
the same author over the same
time period. We will discuss the
book via Skype, e-mail, and
Twitter - sharing our thoughts
and showing any related
projects. This year's GRA
author is Amy Krouse
Rosenthal.

FIRST GRADE NEWS

In the classroom...
Literacy

Math

We are currently working in Unit 2 in

our Everyday Math book. This unit
focuses on introducing strategies for
solving addition problems. Children will
continue to learn strategies that help
them become fluent with addition
within 20 as the year progresses. The
children will also begin modeling
number stories and use numbers and
symbols to write number models that
represent these problems.
Our math program continues to give
your child rich opportunities to
make connections between their own
knowledge and experiences and learn
skills in meaningful contexts so that
mathematics becomes real
(Everyday Mathematics).

Students will be using the Phonics Dance,

their Monster Words, new Hunks and Chunks,
and the Word Wall for different activities
throughout the day. We feel that all children
need many opportunities to work with word
chains, rhyming words, prefixes, suffixes, and
vowel/consonant patterns. All of these
activities help in spelling and increase word
recognition and word decoding skills, even for
our fluent readers.
We continue to practice many reading
strategies together as a class, in small groups,
with partners, or independently during our
independent reading time. Our goal in first
grade is to promote fluent readers who can
find enjoyment in just right books!

Halloween

The Halloween Party and Parade will

be held on October 30th this year.
We ask that you send your child to
school on this day in his/her school
uniform and carry his/her costume in
a bag. We will give the students time
to change into their costumes for the
party and parade that afternoon. If
you would like to arrive early to help
the children get into costumes, please
arrive by 1:30. Our classroom party
will begin at 2:00 followed by the
parade at 2:30. Thank you to those
who have volunteered to help with
planning this party.