April News #2

It's hard to believe that we are moving into the middle of April. And, it won't be long before we move into the month of May. The next two weeks bring two four day weeks and the Easter holiday. I would like to wish you and your families a relaxing Easter holiday and enjoy the extra days off. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and the kids will get lots of outdoor time as well.

Field Trips: We have the following field trips scheduled for all first grade classes:

Thursday, May 8th- Carroll County Recycling Center and Quandt's Auo Salvage (PM)
Thursday, May 15th- Swan Lake- Matt has come to us once a month throughout the year and now we are going there to visit the Conservation Center and to enjoy some fun outdoors.
Friday, May 16th- 1st Grade Picnic at Breda Park- We will be leaving around 11:45 and returning to Fairview around 2:30.
The picnic day at Breda Park is the only day your child will need a lunch from home, or you will have the option of a prepared sack lunch from the lunch program. More information regarding the picnic day will come home when the date gets closer.

Units: Last week, we started to learn about the "Food Groups" and making healthy choices. We will continue to learn more this week. We are creating a "Healthy Shopping List" and listing foods that make up each of the five groups (grains, vegetables, fruits, proteins, dairy, and fats). Next week, we will move on to "Recycling and Taking Care of our Earth".

Math: We have begun our unit on "Geometry". On Friday, we started by identifying the following geometric solids (rectangular prism, pyramid, cube, sphere, cone, and cylinder) and brainstormed "real-life" items that resemble each. Our lessons this week, will focus on identifying and describing three-dimensional shapes, composing a new shape by combining three-dimensional shapes, and identifying two-dimensional shapes on a three-dimensional shape. With a new chapter focusing on new concepts, we will continue to do "Number Work" focusing on writing number sequences, solving a variety of equations, and equality work. Progressive math timings with addition and subtraction will also take place at least three times a week.

Reading: We are focusing on comprehension daily. While reading each story in our readers, we stop often to predict what might happen next. We also discuss sequence and identify important details. At the end of the story we may identify the main idea and discuss details that support it. The students have discovered that illustrations tell/show details that the words may not express. Now that we are all readers, it is important that your child is reading for meaning. If your child is stopping frequently to decode/sound out words, that may be a sign that the story is too difficult. Our learning goals last week were to read and spell words with oo as in book, predicting as we read, and identifying the predicate/action in sentences. Our learning goals this week are to read and spell words with oo as in room, classifying information as we read, and using pronouns to take the place of nouns. Spelling test will take place on Thursday this week. Next week, we will not have a spelling list.

Testing: This is the time of the year when planning is taking place to schedule assessments that will be given to check and document growth made in first grade. On Monday, April 28th I will be administering the spring FAST assessment which measures reading skills, the "Go Math" end of the year test will be given the week of May 5th, as well as the timed assessment for addition and subtraction facts to 10. Fluency for facts to 10 is a goal we want the first graders to master.