100th Day of School

It's the 100th Day Of School

Dear Families,

Our 100th day of school will be on Monday 2/8/16. To celebrate I would love to have the children dress up like they are 100 years old. I have included some ideas to help you get started planning what your child will wear. 

     GIRLS                                                                                                     BOYS

1. printed skirt                                                                   1. button down shirt
2. pearls                                                                              2. flannel shirt
3. eyeglasses sweater wig or curled hairstyle                  3. suspenders
4. gray hair spray                                                              4. tie
5. knee high stockings                                                       5. eyeglasses
6. large purse                                                                     6. drawn on                                                                                                                                         mustache/beard
7. scarf                                                                                7. gray hair spray

Thank you,

Mrs. Salcito

Class List

Mrs. Salcito's First Grade CLASS LIST

Michael	Joah
Lennon	Molly
Timothy	Ella
Trip	Isabel
Leighton	Megan
Aamir	Mia
Kadyn	Kylie
Zachary	Alexa
Dylan

Valentine's Day Celebration

Dear Parents and Families,
As Valentine's Day is just around the corner, now is a good time to remind our students to display acts of kindness in school. In order to reinforce kindness, caring, and considerate actions, we'd like you to participate in a special at home Valentine's Day project.

Attached you will find a list of all the students in your child's class. Please help your child  write a     special comment or compliment about each classmate. Please try to use appropriate capitalization and punctuation as well as descriptive and creative words. Help your child to come up with unique and thoughtful comments that will make their classmates feel extra special!

 Here are some examples:
 -Katie is a kind friend because she played soccer with me at recess.
 -Dave is fun to sit with at lunch because he is funny.

Comments may be typed or written by hand. Once complete, cut the compliments apart, place them in a baggy labeled with your child's name, and send them into school. Try to write 2-3 comments a night . ln order to complete our project at school, please return your comments no later than Wednesday, February 1Oth. When we celebrate Valentine's Day on Friday,  February 12th, the children will decorate a giant heart and glue on their kind comments from their classmates. ln order to support this project, we are asking families to donate Valentine themed stickers, glitter glue, paper doilies, and other decorative items. Due to food allergies, we ask that you please refrain from sending in food or candy.

Thank you for your help and support at home!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Latest Chapter Information for Math In Focus

We are beginning Chapter 8 in Math, where we will be working on adding and subtracting to 20. Students will practice a variety of strategies including making a ten, grouping into tens and ones, and using doubles and doubles+1 facts. We will use all of these skills to solve real world problems as well!

January Happenings

Career Day
On January 22, 2016
Today we saw some great professionals at school, who taught us a lot about what it takes to do their job. Students came to school dressed in an outfit that represented a career that they are interested in. They had to do research on that career and present what they learned to the rest of the class.  What a fun day of learning!

Thank you for all of the support at home. It made career day a success at school!!
The Monarchs Visit
On January 21, 2016 we had a great treat at school--a visit from a few members of the 2015-16 Manchester Monarchs!

Several players came to visit a few first grade classrooms and read the book “The Bulliest Dozer” as part of the Monarchs Against Bullying program.

After reading the book, students got to ask the players questions regarding their job. We learned that the Monarchs practice for an hour and a half a day, play approximately 65 games per season, and eat very healthy. We also learned that there are close to 1000 hockey sticks in their equipment room!  The players told us that most of them went to school beyond high school (one player was from Canada--they have a different system of schooling!) and had to keep learning before becoming professional hockey players.

It was an exciting visit and we thank the Manchester Monarchs for a great afternoon!

Holiday Celebrations...Oh what fun!!!

Gingerbread House Construction

Beginning Stages

Ready to begin!

Ready to begin!

Grinch Day - Making Grinch Grime

Grinch Day - Making Who Pudding

Elf Day

Our Class Giving Tree - Recognizes students in the act of giving

December 2015

December 2015

Reading

Our new reading theme is called "Our Neighborhood at Work". We will be working with the following skills.

• Using text and graphic features, such as photographs, illustrations, captions, and labels
• Story structure (characters, setting, problem, solution)
• Understanding author's purpose

We will be working with the following comprehension skills.

• Sequence of events (first, next, and then, last)
• Cause and effect
• Questioning (who, what, when, where, why, how)

During phonics, we will work on reading and writing syllables (closed syllables and -le syllables).

We will also be reviewing short vowel sounds/spellings, r-controlled vowels (-ar, -or, -er, -ir, -ur) and diagraphs (-sh, -ch, -th, -wh).

Please continue to help your child practice reading sight words with speed and accuracy. Automatic recognition of sight words will help your child become a more fluent reader. 

When reading with your child at home, remember to use these strategies.

• Point to each word as you read (one-to-one correspondence)
• Look for picture clues.
• Get your mouth ready for the first sound (onset).
• Look through the word and attempt to blend the middle and ending sounds.

Math 

We will be working on learning Numbers to 20. 

                                      Concepts include:               

• Counting to 20
• Place value
• Comparing numbers
• Making patterns and ordering numbers

Please continue helping your child memorize addition facts up to ten and fact families. Using flashcards at home is a great way to help children learn their facts. You can also have your child play math fact games on the following free website at http://www.softschools.com/math/games. This will help them improve their speed and accuracy. 

Writing

In our journals we are still working on putting our ideas into sentences that others can read. Students should be spelling high priority words correctly and using transitional spelling that more accurately reflects the word attempted. We will also be working on writing related sentences on a topic. Students should be using upper and lowercase letters, spaces, and punctuation correctly. During the second trimester we will be working on adding more details to stories. 

Social Studies

We will be covering Economics. Concepts include:

• Needs/wants
• Goods/services  
• Money                        

UA's

We now have two more unified arts to add to our schedule. 

• Monday 9:30 - 10:00      HEALTH        11/23 - 1/14
• Wednesday 9:15 - 9:45   GUIDANCE

                    Upcoming events                

12/15 Cawley Holiday Concert at Underhill

12/16 Elf theme

12/16 ALPS Coding day in computer lab

12/18 Reindeer theme

12/21 Grinch theme 

12/22 Gingerbread houses

12/23 PJ's, Breakfast, and Movie

(specific details of each will be coming soon)

Please Note:

Now that the weather is colder, please have your child dress appropriately for the weather. We will go outside when the playground is clear from snow and ice. Jackets are needed, and hats and gloves are highly recommended.

DAYS OFF - Our holiday break is Thursday, December 23 through Sunday, January 3. 

Happy Holidays!

Mrs. Salcito