August 20

Welcome to our First Grade Newsletter Blog! This is the venue we will use to communicate with our first grade families this year at CAC.
We had a great two days with the new first graders last week.  

We spent time playing games, learning routines and getting to
know each other.        

As we launch into our first full week of learning there are many new routines and expectations our students will be learning and your support with the following is greatly appreciated.

• Please remember children may only come up the ramp to the classroom at 7:45am when the music starts. Before this time teachers are preparing for the day or may have meetings and may not be able to actively supervise your child. 
• After school you are asked to wait on the ES lawn or at the bottom of the ramp. It is very important that children pack their own backpack and are dismissed by their teacher independently.
• First graders are learning to be responsible and look after their own things. Please can you help your child by labeling all their belongings clearly with their name and room number.

Home Learning

Each day your child will bring home their "take home folder" which needs to be returned to school the following day. The folder may contain the following:

• A reading book which should be read at home. We ask that first grade students do 20min of reading each day. This may include their independent reading or being read to by an older sibling or parent.
• Notices for parents
• Finished pieces of work which should be kept at home.
• Math homework will be sent home on a Wednesday and needs to be returned by the following Tuesday. This will be a revision of what your child has done in class.
• Mathletics passwords will be issued this week and this can be done as part of home learning to revise prior knowledge and concepts being taught. We recommend ten minutes per day where possible.
• Lunch envelope. You only need to send this to school on the days your child will be having a hot lunch from the cafeteria. Please remember that Monday children need to bring cash, but every other day they will need a lunch card. This can be purchased before school outside the cafeteria.

Reading, Writing, Math and Science

This week we will begin formal instruction. For an overview of what will be taught in first grade please refer to the Curriculum Calendar

Readers Workshop

We are pushing ourselves to be the best readers we can be. Readers are learning how to be organized for the week by book shopping for "just right books". We are learning how to warm up just like runners do.  We are reviewing the skills and strategies we used in kindergarten, i.e. we warm up, we set goals, we build stamina, we reread and we regain our focus when we lose it.

Writers Workshop

• This week we will be having our writing on demand assessments to see what we have remembered from Kindergarten. 
• On the other days we will begin writing personal narrative stories, called “small moment stories.” Our lives are full of stories to tell. Some of the strategies we use include planning, using pictures, stretching words, focusing in on small moments, and rereading what we have written.
• Please could you send to school some photos or pictures of places your child has been over the summer. We will use these to decorate our Writing folder and this will help when students are thinking of ideas to write about.

Math

Students will begin to understand that they can use a variety of strategies to add and subtract numbers to 10. We will be using number bonds to help us understand sums and differences to 10

Library

Please make sure your child has a library bag at school on Tuesday for their library lesson and that it is clearly named.

Back to School Night / Parent Day

We look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday at our Back to school night.  This is a wonderful opportunity to get to know one another so that we can build a strong home school partnership. Parents will meet the elementary team and learn about the many learning opportunities throughout the year such as; the grade’s curriculum, how students learn at CAC, how we communicate, student leadership, field trips, library, student services, and nitty gritty essentials.

Also our Parent Day is August 27. Meetings are 15 minutes. Please sign up for a time through Skyward, on the Parent Dashboard.

The purpose is for parents to share invaluable insights and goals to help the teacher to know your child. Your perspective is important and supports building a strong home/school partnership.

Please click here for further details and please take the time to read our Grade One Back to School Night slide show

Important Dates

1. After school activities sign up begins tomorrow (August 21st) Click here for further details
2. Back to school night - August 22 (5pm-7pm)
3. Parent / Teacher day - August 27 (No school for students)

Room Moms

Each class needs a "Room Mom" to help organize class parties and events. If you would like to fill this very important role please contact your child's teacher.

We have lots of exciting things planned over the coming weeks and we look forward to partnering with you to ensure your child has a successful, fun year in first grade. Please don't hesitate to contact the first grade teachers if you have any questions or concerns.

Your Partners in Learning

Taryn Carr (tcarr@cacegypt.org)

Gaby Morales (gmorales@cacegypt.org)

Charlie Saunders (csaunders@cacegypt.org)