Happy Fall!

Team Ward had a wonderful trip to Rivershire last week. Thanks to all of the parent volunteers who helped us measure trees and look for habitat trees – Mrs. Jette, Mr. Kelly, Mrs. Liu, and Mrs. Kevehazi.

We also picked our class pumpkin from the first grade pumpkin patch in the courtyard.  We shared observations about the pumpkins and learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin.  This is just the beginning of our science unit on plant life cycles and seed dispersal.  We have great scientists on Team Ward!

We also had our first week of doing Reading Workshop choices which means I have begun to meet with small groups for guided reading.  Don’t be surprised if your child brings home more than one book in their book pouch.  If you have time, please have your child read both books to you.  If you’re short on time, have your child pick the book they want to read to you.

By now you’ve probably seen your child’s poetry journal in their book pouch as well.  They are allowed to bring these home on Fridays so they can read their poems to you.  We introduce 1-2 poems per week in our class in order to practice reading smoothly and with expression.  We also use poems to practice identifying high frequency sight words, rhyming words, and visualizing.  Please be sure to you’re your child return the poetry journal to school every Monday!

We are almost to our goal for our September Scholastic order!  I extended the deadline until Monday, September 30th.  Please consider placing an order if you have not done so already.  Even the smallest order helps our classroom!!  You can send in a paper form or place your order online.  We will receive the books in about a week.  Thanks again!

On Monday we will have our first lesson in TEAM Spelling.  This means that children in first grade will be grouped according to their developmental spelling stage and have a lesson introducing their words for the week.  Your child will bring home their first spelling sort on Monday as well as a list of suggested activities.  Please keep the activity letter in a safe spot at home so you can continue to use it on a weekly basis.  It's also worth noting that spelling and reading are different skills.  Often children can read their words with ease but still need a fair amount of practice to internalize how to spell them.  The students will also have a spell check every Monday to see if they mastered their words from the previous week.   

Another fun option for studying spelling words is using a website called Spelling City.  You can find the link through the Spelling tab on my website. http://award103.weebly.com/spelling.html  Before practicing, make sure your child selects his/her spelling group (Green, Yellow, etc.)  

As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to call or email me.  Thanks for your support!

Mrs. Ward

Hello all!  Thanks to everyone who came to Curriculum Night on Monday.  The first grade team enjoyed sharing an overview of what we’ll be doing this year. Please let me know if you didn’t receive the handout about the Home Reading Program and I will send it home with your child.  Also, please return the blue Parent-Student Handbook signature page as soon as possible so I can return them to the school office.

Team Ward worked hard all week!  They truly are a great team of learners.  We are diving right into our reading, math, writing, and social studies curricula. We learned about different voice levels in our classroom. Everyone practiced being quiet like mice during writer's workshop and using soft "buddy voices" during math games. We also read more great stories by Kevin Henkes, including  Lilly's Big Day, Julius, The Baby of the World, and Sheila Rae the Brave.   The children loved bringing their stuffed animals to school on Wednesday!  We had a day of fun-filled activities - learning a teddy bear poem, writing about our special friends, reading with them, and making a teddy bear project.  

The children were very excited about bringing home books for the first time!  At this point in the school year, don’t be surprised if some of the books they bring home are either a little easy or a little hard.  This is a learning process that takes time.

Please remember to sit with your first-grader, listen to him/her read the book, and write the date and title on the reading log every night.  You will notice some reading strategy cards in your child's book folder.  You can refer to those as they are reading.  Think of a compliment to tell your child, such as “Nice job reading with expression!” or “I liked how you didn’t give up when you came to a tricky word.”  Please send the book back to school the next day in your child's book folder.  Even if your child doesn't have time to read one night, it is still important to bring the book folder back to school the next day.  Thanks for your support!

I am simply amazed with the stories children our writing during writer’s workshop each day!  I am particularly impressed by every child’s desire to share his/her story with the whole class on the document camera.  We’ve been practicing giving compliments to our teammates after sharing, and they are doing a wonderful job of building each other up as writers!!  Our goal at the beginning of the school year is to get the children excited about writing with special booklets and writing tools.  We focus on telling stories that have a beginning, middle, and end.  As the year progresses, we will work on writing conventions (punctuation, capitals, spelling) and other writing genres.

If you haven’t already placed a Scholastic book order, please consider doing so in September.  This month’s order can earn the most bonus points for our classroom!   I am hoping to use the bonus points to build up our classroom library and order other materials throughout the school year.  The website is https://clubs2.scholastic.com and our classroom code is H7DRJ.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.  The best way to reach me is usually through email.  My email address is award@d103.org.  You can also reach me at school at (847) 945-6665.  

Thanks and have a great weekend!!

Mrs. Ward