Welcome to First Grade!
Mrs. DiChiro
Room 1
“Watch us bloom” is our motto in Room 1! Like beautiful sunflowers, you’ll be proud to
watch your first graders bloom and grow this year! Naturally, an important part of this process
is family involvement and there are many things you can do to help your child
grow.
·
Read, read, read, and read
again! You can read to your child and more importantly, have
them read to you. Encourage them to use
the good reader strategies they’re learning to figure out new words. This will include picture clues, phonics,
context clues, and many more strategies.
As the year goes on, look for your child to develop an expanded sight
vocabulary, better fluency, self-correcting skills, comprehension skills, and
decoding strategies. Remember that
understanding is the real reason for reading and we want to give your child the
background for this. In addition, we
want them to acquire a love of reading and an appreciation of books and
authors.
·
Write, write, write! In Room 1, your child will do a great deal of writing. From daily journals to non-fiction writing
and from stories to poems, they are learning the mechanics and structure of
writing. In addition, they will be developing
a sense of story, content, and ideas through examining the works of real
authors!! You can help at home in many
ways. Have your child keep their own
journal. By writing each night, you can
help them to improve their writing skills and clearly see what they need to
work on. Encourage them to write
letters, lists, directions, anything they can think of to write about. And please…let them do the writing and
spelling. In first grade, we work on
spelling every day. As time goes on,
they will be responsible for many words.
However, when they come to those interesting words that they can’t spell
yet, let them use their ENCODING skills to help them sound out the word. They know how to s-t-r-e-t-c-h out a word to
hear the sounds. We are working a great
deal on beginning, ending, and middle sounds, especially the short and then
long vowels! When you help them with
this, you will learn a great deal about their phonics as well!
·
Math counts too! There are many topics and
skills that the first
graders need
to learn in math. We rely on our Grade Level Expectations and our
Investigations Math Program to help us reach our goals. Early
on, it is important that they have a good understanding of the concepts that
they are learning. Especially when
learning number sense and addition and subtraction, the children will have many
experiences with using manipulatives. It
is important that they have time to practice the skills with real, concrete
objects. This will hopefully make the
transition to more abstract concepts easier.
At the same time, you may not see a load of papers coming home each
day. Does this mean that the children
aren’t learning?---Not at all! Does this
mean that they will not need to learn addition and subtraction
facts?---Absolutely not! In fact,
nightly practice with math flash cards would make the perfect homework
activity. We just want the children to
understand and then be able to explain what they are doing and learning. Problem
solving is also an important
skill. This is modeled and practiced over
and over again with the children so that they have a good understanding of how
to approach a problem. They are learning that for every problem you need to
have a plan for solving. They have also
learned to use a key, label their work, and begin to make math
connections. In addition, the children
will be learning concepts of time, money, place value, geometry, measurement,
fractions, graphing, estimating, and comparing.
WOW!
·
Science and Social
Studies- In
Room 1, we love to observe and explore!
In
fact, Science and Social Studies topics are integrated into everything we
do. We read. write, listen, and speak
during every unit of study. Some of our
topics include Living Things, Magnets, Weather & Seasons, and Our
Earth. In addition, we work on map
skills, needs and wants, goods and services, fair play, and the concept of
city, state, country, continent, ocean, and the equator.
As
you may have guessed, Sunflowers and blooming are the themes for Room 1! We also work on other special activities and
projects during the year. Our “Heart”
project helped us work on map skills and taught us about different states in
our country! In addition, we’ve acquired
lots of new learning through research and from reading non-fiction books. Believe it or not, first graders can do
research! We also have many celebration
days throughout the year where we integrate all curriculum areas into our
learning. Learning is meaningful and
fun!!!
·
Think! It is so important for your first grader to learn
good thinking skills and some
decision-making techniques. Encourage
them to have some responsibility at home and to make wise choices. It is not always easy for some children to
take positive risks, as they are afraid to make a mistake. This year, I’m encouraging them to take a
chance with their learning and to realize that giving it your best try helps
you to learn and grow. The children are
encouraged to meet challenges and high expectations but I am ALWAYS mindful of
their developmental levels and learning styles.
No child will be left behind!
·
A caring environment! Kindness and caring are the most important qualities I want the
children to display this year. As we
have learned to work, play, and learn together, we have become a community of
learners. In order to make our community
great, it takes all of us working together and supporting each other. Yes, the children have rules to follow but
these rules are important for their safety and well being. I want them to feel safe and comfortable in
our class. I also want them to know that
I will respect them as much as I want them to respect each other and me. We are like a family this year and in order
to bloom, we have to give each flower special attention and love! Please be a part of our growth!!
·
Home Activities! Communication between home and school is so very important. In addition, please be supportive of homework
activities. The children should be
borrowing books and reading each night.
Please continue to record one book for them on their reading log. Tuesday night is “Home Poem” homework
night. On Wednesday night, there is math
homework. You will also need to work
with them on their monthly homework
calendar. In January, when we begin a
more formal spelling program, they will have words to study too. Finally, spend a few minutes each night reviewing
addition and subtraction facts to 10 and coin recognition and values.
We hope
that you have a better knowledge of our classroom and will help us bloom this
year. Thank you! Your support makes all the difference!!
Tips for Parents-
·
Please check your child’s backpack and folder
nightly. Communication between home and school is
very important and many notices, etc. will be coming home.
·
Please
look for our weekly newsletter, the “First Grade Flash”, which comes home every
Friday.
·
A
good night’s sleep and a good breakfast are important for every child. Please remember lunch and a small, healthy
snack for Snack Time.
·
Please
help choose a special spot in the house for your child’s book borrowing
bag. This will help them become
responsible for reading every night and returning it every day.
·
Please
help out with homework. Your child
should be reading a book to YOU every night.
In addition, please check their homework or in some cases, help them
with a math concept or tricky word. Remember to let them do the writing and
spelling.
·
Love
and enjoy your child!!!
Thank you for your support!
Some favorite websites to
check out:
http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html (National Library of Virtual
Manipulatives) This is a great site for learning
with math manipulatives.
http://www.tomie.com/main.html (Tomie dePaola website)
http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/junieb/
http://www.popcorn.org/index.cfm