Today is: Tuesday, January 6, 2009.

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Welcome to Mrs. Wright's 1st Grade Class Home Page!!!

We are off to a great start in first grade!! Check back periodically for updates to this page.

Language Arts

We are currently finishing up practicing to write all the letters with proper formation. Children should write each letter from top to bottom using the formation that was sent home on Parent Night. Please reinforce this at home as children to their homework.

We will begin reviewing the sound of each letter through daily phonemic awareness activities.

We have begun daily literacy workshops/ centers. There are 5 workshops for each week. The children rotate in small groups to a new workshop each day for approximately thiry minutes. Typically these include: computer, listening center, partner reading, writing, and guided reading. This is the time of day when I meet with small groups for guided reading. The groups are flexible, differentiated and change frequently based on need, skill level, or interest. The children love workshop time and look forward to this time.

We will also soon be starting reading conferences. I will meet with each child one on one to provide them with a "bag of books" at their level; known as their "just right books". These will come home periodically so that parents can listen to their child read independently. Please reinforce the reading strategies we spoke about on parent night. Each strategy is in the packet that you were provided with that evening. Please let me know if you need a parent night packet.

Writing

We have started journal writing as a "shared writing" activity. Children copy what I write on the overhead into their journals as I model and discuss the process. This includes the date and a sentence about the day, followed by an illustration. The next stage is students writing independently in their journals. Each month there journals will contain more lines for writing. They are to use their inventive/develpmental writing. Correct spelling expectations are only for "word wall"/hi frequency words that have been introduced. There are 25 new wrds for each quarter.

We will begin Six Trait writing this week. Students will write a paragraph on spiders. This will be a "shared writing" experience at this point. We will read about spiders, make a list of spider facts, use a graphic organizer to plan the paragraph, and finally write it in paragraph format.

Social Studies and Science

I teach Social Studies to both the first grade classes. I have introduced maps and globes, compared and contrasted their features. We have located our city, state, country and continent. Briefly discussed and located the poles, the equator, and climate related to these areas. We will continue to build on these concepts throughout the year. The children are very enthusiastic about learning geography and it is one of my favorite subjects. My first B.A. degree was in geography and geology!!

Our fist unit is about families. We made family trees and will learn about families around the world. If your family is from another country and you would like to come in and share some information about your culture with the first grade classes that would be awesome!! Let me know if you would be interested in this.

Mrs. Ohlman teaches science to both the first grade classes. They love science!!

Math

We have completed our first math unit and are into our second unit. Often children come in with less than a love for math but usually begin to like it very much. Math can be fun even though it is challenging. My goal is for every child to come away from first grade with a love and excitement about math!!

Surfs up!!

Surf the net with these websites.

Distric 96 Treasury of Websites
These are sites chosen by District 96 Teachers.

Starfall
A website of reading activities.

Last updated on 10/8/06.

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