As of this week, first grade is half over! Report cards went home today in the orange home folders. The report cards themselves are in a white folder that has a place for your signature. Please take EVERYTHING out and just return the report card envelope. The easiest thing is probably to return it when the homework is ready to come back. As you look over the report cards, keep in mind that meeting the standard (M) is in regard to how a 6-7 year old would meet the standards. So meeting the standard for spelling, for example, doesn’t mean that they spell everything correctly, but that they are spelling words phonetically using their knowledge of letter sounds and how words are divided into phonemes. A lot of the common core standards are considered goals for students to reach in later grades, and as such, many of the standards that are on the fifth grade report cards are repeated WORD FOR WORD on the first grade report cards. So when you see “Determine the meaning of unknown and multiple meaning words and phrases by using context clues, prefixes and suffixes, and root words,” that means at a developmental level for a first grader. We’re not expecting children to be inquiring about the language of origin to help them determine the meaning of a new word! An imperfect system, but that’s where we are right now.
In science we have started our Sound & Light unit. This week students discovered that all sound is caused by vibrations which are picked up by our “sound receivers,” better know as ears. Ask your child about hitting tuning forks on blocks of wood then touching the vibrating tuning fork to a ping pong ball hanging from a string. We also explored volume and pitched, looked at the piano strings on our classroom piano and made observations about what characteristics of the strings produced high and low pitched sounds, and discussed what sounds are easy to identify and why. Next week we’ll explore light, how it travels, and how it passes or doesn’t pass through certain materials. We’ll also explore how light is necessary for us to see objects.
In math we are exploring the relationship between addition and subtraction, continuing to work with fact families, determining the value of a digit by whether it is in the ones or the tens place, and working with comparison problems (Bob has 5 Pokemon cards. Jane has 9 cards. How many more does Jane have than Bob.)
We are doing well with our spelling routine. As a reminder to you, we take a spelling pre-test and words go home on a blue sheet with the homework on Fridays. The following Thursday students take a post-test on their individualized lists. And so on and so on. The kids did GREAT with the routine this week. They got it!
Valentines exchange will happen on Wednesday at 12:45 if you’d like to join us.
I have extended the volunteer sign up sports all the way to mid-June. There is a button at the top right of this webpage or click here to sign up: https://signup.com/client/invitation2/secure/2160358/false#/invitation. Thanks to everybody who has been coming in and helping. This job is too big for one person to do alone!
Have a wonderful weekend–
Will
