First Grade News
Off to a Busy Start
by Dana Creekmore
October 09, 2006
The first grade
class is off to a busy start this year. Students have begun
reading groups and literacy centers and have already completed the
first unit in their reading series. They really enjoy center
activities and listening to stories during read-aloud time. Each
first grader will bring home a library book on Tuesday and Thursday
nights. They are required to read the book with an adult and
complete a book report on each book. The book reports will
count toward the students’ Book-It goals each month.
Mrs. Creekmore has started reading the second book in the Flat
Stanley series, Stanley, Flat
Again. First
graders will soon be creating “Flat Stanleys” in their own
likenesses and sending them out to friends and relatives across the
nation. The Flat Stanleys will spend several days with these
friends and relatives and will be sent back to the first grade
class with pictures and information about the state they
visited. This will be a very fun and educational project.
The Saxon Phonics program has been going very well. Students
use letter tiles each day to segment phonemes and manipulate them
to spell words. They also work on coding words using such marks as
breves and macrons, and identifying sight words. The program
requires students to have homework almost every night.
Spelling is also incorporated into this program. Lists are
sent home on Monday of each week, the initial test is on Wednesday,
and the final test is given on Friday.
Saxon Math also
requires nightly homework. Students have been working on
writing numbers, counting, learning left and right, graphing,
identifying shapes, adding doubles facts, and solving addition and
subtraction word problems. They really enjoy singing the
doubles rap (for addition facts to 10) during class.
Social Studies concepts have been a big focus in class. First
graders have learned about and discussed rules and laws and who has
the power to enforce these, neighborhoods, community helpers, and
Christopher Columbus/Columbus Day. They also created maps of
the school.
First graders are really enjoying science this year. They
completed an ocean unit and really seemed interested in learning
facts about the blue whale. They learned about where animals
live and how they hide from their predators. This week
students will mold boats from aluminum foil and add weight to them
to see which ones float longer.
The first grade students have been extremely busy in class so far,
and there is a lot more to come!
