Welcome to First Grade
Mrs. Hutchinson and Mrs. DeWitt

A Little Bit About Us:
Hutchy’s Herald
May 2008
HAPPY SPRING! The heroes are nearly done with first grade! How can that be? We have been praying, working and learning together for nearly nine months! Speaking of nine months, congratulations to the Devlins and the Wongs upon the arrivals of John Paul Anthony and Aidan McCloskey! Your children made beautiful paper quilts to welcome these sweet babies!
May is of course the month of Our Lady. Friday’s May Crowning was beautiful. Our eighth grade school leaders looked so grown up! We will be studying Pentecost and continuing to review the Mass. We will take a second tour of the church, visiting the sacristy and seeing things “close up”. The students learned a simple approach to the Mass with a creation starting with the old “Here is the church….” finger play from our wonderful Mrs. Bobich and her daughter Laura! Ten fingers, ten parts to Mass! We are also creating a book about the parables Jesus used for teaching. I must share with you that one of kiddoes asked me about the “Labradors in the Vine Yard!” That would be the Laborers in the Vineyard!
Your first grader just brought home a folder with packets we used in April to reinforce our reading skills with Old Favorites like The Little Red Hen, The Gingerbread Man and 3 Famous 3’s. These familiar stories provide another source to practice oral reading, comprehension, comparing and contrasting, vocabulary and alphabet skills. Our final activity with our Old Favorites will be re-telling productions the children have planned in small groups. In May we will do the same sorts of things with two books about moms, Are You My Mother? and Henry and Mudge and the Funny Lunch. We will also read Play Ball Amelia Bedelia and A Boy, a Bug and a Bear. Our Reading Street series will form the basis for instruction but these books offer interesting opportunities to reinforce skills. I am still working on the list of readers that will be suitable for your student’s independent reading levels. I apologize for the delay; there are not enough hours in the day!
We are seeing lots of good progress on the fact quizzes. Once your child is finished with the quizzes we will continue to work on the facts. These should be answered as quickly as you can say your name. I will be using materials that involve timing up to the 10’s for extra practice. The quizzes will not be timed, however I think the students will enjoy the challenge of timing themselves with flashcards and and these other worksheets. Please keep this in mind over the summer. Students do lose some ground over the summer so reading and math basics do not go on vacation!
Finally, your darlings have done the most amazing self-portraits and poems in the last couple of weeks. At the end of the month you will receive a package of their writing. It is arranged chronologically, starting with early work and ending with their biography. It is my feeling that seeing all of this together and getting a feel for their progress will give you a peek into why our days here are so pleasurable. Mrs. DeWitt and I are blessed that our jobs are truly what we love to do! To spend our days teaching, learning, and growing with our students is joyous work!

Blessings, Mrs. H.