Woods School

We are halfway through the school year! Time sure seems to be flying. The 1st graders are growing so much!

Conferences have come and gone. It was great to see all of the parents!

We will be finishing our unit on Dental Health. This leads us into a short study of the body. This is always a fascinating subject for the children.

In Math we are learning about place value. We will start our unit on money soon. Practice at home with real pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters will be a big help!

The children are doing a great job in Reading. We have begun our third hard cover reading book. Thanks to all of the parents for being so faithfuil reading with the children at home. Many of the first graders have discovered the wonderful world of Chapter books. What a great way to pass some time!

Map making and cooperative groups has been our focus in Social Studies. Keep an eye out for the results of our endeavors.

We are looking forward to our annual trip to Covenant Harbor. The Maple Syrup tour is a favorite. We can't wait to taste those great cookies. Information about this trip will be coming home soon.

We are now halfway through the school year. Time sure seems to be flying! The children are growing in every way. It is exciting to see them begin to blossom.

In math, we are studying place value. We will be moving on to our unit on time and money. Practice at home counting nickels, dimes and pennies will be a great help.

The children are doing a fantastic job in Reading. We have begun our third hard cover reading book. Thanks to the parents for being so faithful reading with the children at home! Many of the first graders have discovered the wonderful world of chapter books! What a great way to pass some time.

Maps are our focus in Social Studies. Check out our hallway. We will be displaying our maps of our classroom. The cooperative activity will be the culmination of our unit.

We are learning about dental health. This will lead us into our unit on health and nutrition. The children will learn about all of the healthy, tasty food choices we have available.

Skiing is almost over. Thank you to those who donated money to help keep the cost down! A big thanks to all of the parents that came out and helped. We could not do it without you!

Our Valentine's Day party is coming up on Friday, February 12th. That will be our last party of the year. We look forward to having a fun time.

Start making plans for our annual Silent Auction. The first grade always donates a basket of CHOCOLATE for the auction. Watch for information on when to send your donation for our basket. It is sure to get a good bid.

Welcome back from a nice vacation. The first grade has been working hard. We all had good report cards!

Math is really starting to become challenging. We are learning about fact families and will begin place value soon. This will lead to more difficult adding and subtracting problems. Practicing our math facts at home is important. We are also beginning to learn about estimating with the help of our estimating jar.

Our reading is progressing nicely. Reading our own directions is a skill we are practicing daily. We have found out that this helps us with our other subjects.

We are learning about maps and their uses. Check out the maps we are drawing of our room. It is fun drawing these maps in our cooperative working groups.

Skiing is an eagerly anticipated activity for first grade. We are able to ski all four times! Thanks to the groups that help make this an affordable experience for all. And a big thanks to the parents who come out to help!

Happy Thanksgiving from 1st Grade. The Thanksgiving Feast was terrific!!! Everyone had plenty to eat and a great time. Thanks to all of the wonderful cooks for the delicious food. A big thank you to Mrs. G, the crew of parents and the Junior High for doing such a good job serving us!!!

Our reading is progressing at a fast speed. We have learned so many words, we even amaze ourselves! Our parents have been very diligent in practicing with us every night. Keep up the good work. Thank you! Now is the time to begin practicing our number facts. We know how to add and subtract numbers up to 12. Get out the flash cards everyone!

We will be wrapping up our Native American unit. We have learned a lot about Native Americans. Our vests we made for our Thanksgiving Feast turned out beautiful. Of course our placemats were neat. Each one told a story using pictures.

Our next focus will be on the holidays. It gets very busy in the first grade room. If you happen to walk near our room, you may hear the noise of busy elves at work. Please don’t enter if the door is shut!

Your children have received their first homework assignment. This will be ongoing throughout the school year. The envelope contains their "I Spy" words for the week. Each week new words are introduced with our reading lesson. As we learn these new words, they are placed in the "I Spy" envelope. Each night the children are to practice reading them outloud to an adult. When the practice is finished, the adult will initial on the line. The envelope will be brought back to school each day. I will be checking these on a daily basis. As I tell the children, the more they practice, the better readers they will become.

Thanks for your help. I am looking forward to a great year!

1)  Create a special reading area for your child.                 

2)  Place favorite books and magazines in this area.

3)  Schedule a quiet reading time for the entire family.

4)  Talk about what you read.

5)  Encourage children to reread favorite books.

 
TIPS FOR READING WITH YOUR CHILD 

•  Read aloud to your child.

•  Have your child chime in on repeated phrases or sentences.

•  Read alternate pages of a book.

•  Read silently side by side.