First Grade Is Moving into Winter!! December Newsletter December 2015

First Grade Is Moving into Winter!!
December Newsletter
December 2015
Dear Parents,
Wow! Winter is near and the first grade team continues
working on the Read with Me Club at home. This is a valuable experience
giving you the opportunity to read with you child each night. Please record
your initials on the reading log. Your child will receive a certificate and
move on to the next level .Students enjoy being a part of this fun reading
club and we value your home support! We have been learning to take
notes and use the notes to construct sentences about a topic. They will be
reading for information, learning to take notes about the information, and
using the notes to construct sentences about a topic. When writing,
students need to remember to use a capital letter at the beginning of the
sentences and proper punctuation at the end of the sentence.
As the first grade team works in small guided reading groups, we
continue to work on comprehension strategies for all kinds of text. We
are stressing the importance of demonstrating understanding through
discussion as well as in written responses. Students must be able to use
textual support. In other words, students need to be able to find details
and examples in the book that support their answers. Key phrases like,
“in the book it says….this shows that…..” help students prove their ideas
so that their written responses demonstrate a full understanding of the
text.
The First Grade Team

Bring an afternoon
snack.

Practice handwriting

Join the Read
With Me Club.

Write in your home
journal every week!

Read to your child
and have your child
read to you every
night.

December 24 January 3– Enjoy
your winter break!

Do your first Book
Report!
Good Readers always preview the text features before they
read informational text.
Use During Reading Strategies while Reading Informational Text
What do I do as I read?

Look at the pictures and think about how it
supports the text.

Relate what you are reading to what you
already know.

Use the headings and subheadings to help
give you the main idea of the text.

Read captions to help give you more specific
information about the pictures.

Look at labels on the page to help you
visualize the parts of something.

Reread something that is confusing, doesn’t
make sense or is unclear.

When something is unclear, use the pictures
to help you better understand what the
words are saying.
How can I help my child use during reading
stratgies?

Look at the headings and ask, “What did
you learn about the topic?”

Give your child an opportunity to make
connections between the topic he/she is
reading and what he/she already knows
about the topic.
What do I do After I Read Informational Text?
Good readers are able to remember, think about and respond to their reading after they finish reading.
Written responses are a necessary element that help a reader demonstrate his/her understanding of a story.
What kind of after reading strategies
could I use with my child?
What makes a strong
sponse?
Have your child:
A good written response has many
components. First, it is written in
complete sentences. Second, it
answers the question accurately.
Finally, it includes information from
the text as evidence of understanding.

fill in a graphic organizer.

write sentences that include facts
about the topic he/she read.


written re-
How can I help my child respond in
writing?
Have your child:

read the question out loud.

tell you what the question is
asking him/her to do.
draw pictures and write captions
that use information in the story.

talk about how he/she might
answer the question.
discuss what kinds of things your
child already knew and what kinds of
things he/she learned.

sticky note examples in the
story that prove the answer.
Math
The students have been exploring the use of different strategies to solve addition and subtraction word problems. We are studying fact families. We continue
to review the concept of place value.
Science
The students have identified and compared the characteristics of living things
and non-living things. They are working on identifying the materials from which
objects are made. We are experimenting with magnets and learning how they
attract and repel objects.
Social Studies
We will be discussing and exploring how things have changed. We will specifically
talk about clothing, transportation, schools, and technology.