Welcome to First Grade
Ms. Sheila Clary and Mrs. Kitte Bobich
A Little Bit About Us:
Room 103In Religion:
Mrs. Kitte Bobich, Room 103's teaching assistant, is teaching both first grades a fingerplay she created to help the children understand the Mass, a recent unit of study in our text. Both first grade classes hope to present it together to the whole school at a Morning Assembly soon.
Additionally, we study the Holy Spirit this week.
The first graders will soon begin practicing for St. Isidore's traditional "Balloon Ceremony" held at the end of the eighth graders' liturgy May 29th.
In Math:
In Unit 10, we study fractions and measurement.
Unit 9 introduced us to second grade Math with "carrying" and "borrowing" in addition and subtraction. We have been using the Math facts that we have been studying since January. Sometimes, we have had to go "next door" to our "tens' place" neighbor to "borrow" a bundle of "ten" to open up so that we could do the subtraction in the ones' place. Parents, this analogy helps us do the Math. :)
Students need to be able to identify a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, and half dollar, as well as know their values. Give your first grader an assortment of coins to count, reminding him/her to begin with the coin that has the greatest value. Also, it helps to have your first grader "tap" a quarter, for example, saying "5,10, 15, 20, 25" before moving onto the next coin and continuing to count by 5's while tapping the coin---except for the penny, of course.
Room 103's students have looked at a picture of bundles of sticks with some loose sticks, and they have deciphered the numbers. We pretend that we are cave dwellers who don't know how to read or write numbers, but we can "read" a picture of a number. It's fun!
The Math facts in addition and subtraction from the 0's through the 20's both in vertical and horizontal forms are part of the first grade curriculum in the second semester. Through the 16's, students are allowed one error for a passing score on each fact quiz. After the 16's quiz, students may pass a fact quiz with two or fewer errors. It is important that parents help their child with the Math facts. If a child does not do well on the Math fact quizzes during the school year, summer tutoring will be necessary to be ready for second grade and beyond. Learning aids are available at stores such as Lakeshore in Walnut Creek, the Golden Apple in Pleasanton; flash cards are usually sold at Boswell's, Long's, Target, and Costco, too. The study sheets do not have to be returned to the teachers, but are for parents to photocopy if they want. Since Wednesday, January 16th, the students have taken one quiz each week, and the corrected quiz has been returned by the following school day stapled to the study sheet for the next quiz the child will take. The 0's through the 6's were given as a set January 9th since we had already been working on the addition and subtraction facts through the 6's for a few weeks before Christmas. "Thank you" to First Grade parents Patty and Dante DeWitt (Patty is also the teaching assistant in the other first grade class.) for reformatting the fact quizzes. The quizzes in both vertical and horizontal forms are so much easier to read now!
Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we work on Math game/puzzle cards from the Marcy Cook Math with Manipulatives program which supplements the learning from our text. For most of the Marcy Cook activities, each student has a pencil bag with two of each of the number tiles 0-9, and the students place the number tiles on the cards to make true number sentences in either vertical or horizontal order. If needed, the children are given a number line to "count on" to arrive at the correct sum or to "count down" to find the difference when comparing numbers. The children may need to be reminded that in subtraction the biggest number always comes first in a number sentence whether it is a vertical or horizontal number sentence.
In Reading:
During our four rotating Reading groups of approximately 20 minutses each, we read from our Reading series' collection of stories or have a lesson and then do the practice pages for grammar, spelling, and phonics accompanying the stories. On Tuesdays, the class is divided into three groups which rotate going to the school library for a book and to hear a story read by one of the librarians.
Most recently, we have studied pronouns in our grammar lessons with Mrs. Bobich. With Ms. Clary, we have practiced the rule to "drop the e before adding -ed or -ing." The endings -ed and -ing are ending letters that stay together when added: they are buddies. Additionally, the children learned that the suffixes
"-or" and "-er" add meaning to the root word or base word. Those suffixes mean "someone or something who does _________."
In Phonics, the students have been introduced to "syllables." Now they can "draw a line" between two consonants in the middle of a word to help them decipher the whole word syllable-by-syllable before putting both syllables together to make the word. It helps to cover up one syllable when figuring out how the other syllable sounds. We are generally working with reading 2-syllable words.
We continue to practice reading the long vowel sounds in words: "Bossy e" (formerly known as "Magic e" or "Silent e") says it's not going to say its name at the end of a word, and it tells the vowel up ahead to say its name instead. Thanks to Mrs. Deb Storey, a St. Isidore mom and Reading tutor, who passed along the name "Bossy e" to Mrs. Hutchinson who shared it with me. In the fall, I had the children in each of my four Reading groups vote for their favorite name, "Magic e" or "Bossy e" for the Silent "e" rule, and "Bossy e" won!
In Creative Writing, the children are working on writing five sentences on a topic. They have learned to indent the first writing space of a story. Students write from one side or edge of the paper to the other for the writing spaces after the first one so that they don't waste space. Of course, "a finger space between words" is required to make the message legible. For a Handwriting help, Mrs. Bobich, our teaching assistant, recommends that parents get an old typewriter for their first grader to "type away" as he/she strengthens his/her hand muscles for fine motor coordination. What a great idea! Check out the garage sales around town for an old typewriter if you don't happen to have one for your child's practice. Mrs. Bobich who taught second grade before her children were born also recommends the use of a hand puppet to help students develop oral reading fluency, or smooth reading out loud. With a puppet in their hands, students may feel more confident when reading aloud. They can pretend that the puppet is doing the reading, and that the puppet is the one making any mistakes that occur as they read out loud. Thank you, Mrs. Bobich, for sharing this idea!
Finally, parents, please do the "Family Activity Page" from the week's Reading story because it reinforces an important skill which your child needs for the upcoming Reading assessment. Additionally, parents should be reading to their first grader at least 20 min. daily so that he/she gets the "feel" for the flow of the language. It expands children's horizons, attention spans, and vocabulary when their parents read to them---especially from a book that is at a level beyond the child's independent reading level. Remember to use "three or four tracking fingers" gliding under the printed words so that your first grader's eyes can follow along. Please go to the "Class News" subheading for this Web site for links to wonderful stories, series, and authors for children from picture books to chapter books for early readers. Wondering how to know if a book is at your child's independent reading level? There is a simple way to determine whether a book is at a child's reading level: "The Five-Finger Rule." Parents, put your five fingers behind your back as you have your child read a page from a book to you. As he/she reads a page to you, put one finger down whenever an error is made. If your fingers are down before your child finishes reading that page, then you know the book is too hard for him/her.
In Science:
We are studying solids, liquids, and gases. Students enjoyed working with their "6 o'clock clockface partner" to play a game where one partner provides the clues of "color, shape, size, and texture" of a solid from his/her desk cubbie or Hangaroo, or a solid that he/she is wearing, and the other partner must identify the solid. If the first partner has given good clues, and the solid is simple enough, it's easy for the other partner to identify the solid. The children had fun!
In Social Studies:
The children enjoyed working with their " 12 o'clock clockface partner" to make a picture graph entitled "Our Pets." A picture graph is utilized to share information in Social Studies topics.
In Technology:
Mrs. Caren Foley, Technology Director, and Mrs. Cristina Goldt, Technology Assistant, along with Ms. Clary and Mrs. Bobich, are in the Technology Lab Thursday afternoons for about 45 min. to help all 32 students under Mrs. Foley's tutelage.
In Music:
Students had fun at the all-school "Spring Sing" last Thursday afternoon and evening after rehearsing for the first time together for the first time last Wednesday afternoon. Students will meet Monday, May 12, to record a CD of their music.
Mrs. Fryer visits Room 103 for 30 min. each on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.
In Art:
Miss Katie Mirault, Art Teacher, and her teaching assistant, Mrs. Laura Lettire, offer the students an eclectic art experience Tuesday afternoons for 30 min. in the Art Room.
In P.E.:
Room 103's teaching assistant, Mrs. Kitte Bobich, accompanies the children to P.E. Monday and Thursday mornings for 30 min. each time to assist the P.E. teacher. Room 103's P.E. teacher for the last half of this last trimester is Mr. D. J. Oster; Mr. Charlie McGuire, the other P.E. teacher, teaches Room 102's first graders at the same time.
In Spanish:
Mrs. Jaime Zapata, Spanish teacher, utilizes TPR, or Total Physical Response, and finger puppets from Peru to teach songs and games when she comes to Room 103 Friday afternoons for 30 min. Friday, May 9, Senora taught the children to play "Duck, Duck, Goose" in Spanish outside on the circle painted on the blacktop; they also utilized a ball to respond to her questions in Spanish.
In closing:
Please let me know of any concerns you might have. Although no other formal conferences are scheduled for this school year, parents are certainly welcome to ask for a conference at any time. If I don't have the answer for you, I will refer you to someone who may.
Sincerely,
Sheila Clary
Room 103's First Grade Teacher