Conferences

As you prepare for Monday's conferences, please come with questions about the report card as well as other questions you may have for me.  I will have a tight schedule and as much as I would love to spend hours with each one of you, the demands of the schedule will only allow me a short visit with you.  If you need additional time with me, we can schedule time this week or after Thanksgiving.  Your child is very important and valuable to me.  Oh yes......Happy Thanksgiving dear families!!

Spelling

This week the words are:  he, are, she, said, for, of, was, on  Bonus words are:  turkey, family, thankful

Reports Begin Today!

Some of the kids are ready for their presentations of his/her endangered animal.  I will be grading the kids on things that will be on next semester's report card:  Organization, Delivery, Eye Contact and Content.
I'm excited to hear the kids tell what they have learned.  Thank you, parents for your support in helping your child prepare for this important, life-long skill of being able to speak in front of people.

Spelling

Please go to spellingcity.com to reinforce the spelling words at home.  Those students who play the games and do the exercises seem to ace the test every week.

Username:  scarey1
Password:  mollyd

Words this week:  are, said, was, of, your,                           Bonus:

SUBTRACTION

We are diving deep into subtraction using a lot of mental math.  Words to stress when you are working with your child on paperless, mental math are:  "How many fewer.., How much less, What would happen if this many were missing?"  Please get used to talking with your child in that manner at home.  Subtraction is a mental shift from addition and it feels like some first graders need to spin their heads around to think differently than adding numerals together.  Here are some examples:

Two more than ______ is 10          ______ - 4 = 6    Five less than eleven is ?   What is one less than 40?

What numeral is five less than 35?  How much money is left when a dime is taken from 17 cents?

I know that this is a lot different than we were used to learning math.  Once their brains are used to thinking in these types of methods, math makes sense and the future Standardized Tests will be much more attainable.  If you don't know already, the scores that the kids need to attain beginning in 3rd grade are much higher than a few years ago.  We're starting earlier to get YOUR child ready!!  This is all about training your child's brain to picture concepts in his/her head!  This isn't going to happen in a week's time. It will take many weeks and perhaps all year!  Together we will make great strides!

ITS REPORT TIME

Last Thursday I sent home your child's report assignment to be done at home.  Please find and look over the sheet since there is only 10-12 days to complete the report.  If you need additional help from me, please see me and I will personally help purchase supplies that you may need.  Also, your child reads his/her writing to the class on a daily basis and is used to being in front of the group.  This is different in the eyes of the students.  They are more nervous and may stumble.  Please, please help your child be successful in his/her presentation by STARTING NOW AND praciticing at home!!  This means more than once!  It means to do so several times in front of the family and have perhaps in front of a mirror.  Call or email me with questions.

I will be grading their reports and this is part of the report card for the next nine weeks so I do take it seriously.  Thank you ahead of time for your attention and support to this assignment.  This report is probably the toughest due to it being the first one.  Later reports will be much easier and believe it or not the kids will be asking to do more.  They like it and I feel it builds a tremendous amount of confidence.

RESEARCH AWAY!!

First Grade Has The BEST Parents!!

Even though it seems like it's been weeks since the Halloween party, I want everyone to know how much fun the kids had.  Mrs. McIntosh orchestrated a wonderful party and the kids absolutely had a BLAST! Many thanks to all of you who came and helped make it an amazing time:  Mrs. McIntosh, Mr. Abraham, Mrs. Kellum, Mrs. Lane, Mrs. Vidrio, Mrs. Scharf.  My hat it off to all of you AND to the parents who sent things for the children:  Mrs. Oak and Mrs. Lavoie.  These are very lucky kids to have such great parents who support them the way you do.  Thank you, thank you!!

I am hoping I didn't forget anyone.  If I did, please let me know!!