Dear parents thank you for taking the time to read our blog and staying informed of First Grade happening. This past week started full on with a new Math module and writing to persuade, we appreciate all the support continue to give us from the home end. This month's Core Value is CREATIVITY and we will start to send home the book "The Almost Terrible Play Date" by Richard Torrey. We appreciate you reading the book with your children at home, having a conversation about what they learned, and sending it back to school the next day.
From the Counselor's corner
Dear CAC Parents,
In guidance we are working on emotional management and discussing strong emotions, how they make our bodies feel and calming down strategies. It is important for kids to understand that everyone gets upset but that we are all still responsible for our behaviors.
We discussed the concept of “flipping our lids” and how to calm down when our emotions take over our thinking. We are sharing calming down strategies and practicing different ways to calm ourselves down when upset. Please share with your children strategies that you use when you have a strong emotion.
This month’s Core Value is Creativity. The elementary school defines creativity as ‘being inspired to imagine and explore’. A lot of the time when we think of creativity we think of the arts. However, creativity is more complex and fascinating. In elementary, will be spending the month exploring the idea of creativity and have shared this article with the teachers. You can help support our efforts at home by investigating the concept with your child.
How do you define creativity? Is there anything that might block creativity?
Attached is a thought-provoking article in the New York Times about developing creativity.
Parent Math Night
Mark your calendars for Feb. 7, 4:15 pm to 5:15 pm. Come play math games with your child. Games develop fluency with math skills and problem solving. Experience the fun of learning through games!
Our Family Math Night games are intended to help build fluency in math in a fun and engaging way.
You’ll find the rules and instructions for a wide range of math skills games using a variety of different resources, including playing cards and dice. We’ve assembled games for different skill levels ranging
from Grades Pre-K through 5, all with an educational math twist.
Did you know? The games are available to be checked out from the library after Family Math Night, if you would like to play them again at home. Ask your child to talk with the librarians.
Locations: Grades 1-5 are in the ES Hall, KG in the Drama room and Pre K in their own room.
Family Picnic
Pre K: 11:00 am - 11:30 am; KGGr. 5: 12:10 pm - 12:50 pm
Due to popular demand, we will be having another BBQ for picnic day next Thursday, February 8.
Kindly sign up through the google form (below) if interested! There is a google sign-up form
for each grade. For siblings, please sign up each child in their respective grade order form.
The DEADLINE for orders will be on Tuesday, February 6th by 5:00 p.m.
We kindly ask that parents drop off the money in a labelled envelope to the ES office
(name, class code and order). Note the following grade level lunch times:
- Pre-K will eat lunch at 11am,
- KG to Grade 2 at 12:10pm and
- Grades 3-5 at 12:30pm
IMPORTANT: Unfortunately we will not be able to take orders on the day of the BBQ and
we will have to cancel orders that have not been paid by Tuesday the 6th.
We look forward to seeing you all!!
A Field Trip to Stabl Antar Dreams School
Saturday, February 10th, 2018
10:30 AM - 2:30 PM
The Service Learning office is planning a field trip to Stabl Antar Dreams School for Elementary School students to
deliver Pass the Parcel donates. If you interested to join the trip please email Mariam Hassan directly.
From the Curriculum Corner
Readers Workshop
Essential Questions:
- What reading strategies can we use to make sure our reading looks right, sounds right and makes sense?- What can readers do to make sure they understand what they have read?
This week our first grade readers will apply some of the skills they have learned during word study. We will discuss how in English there are letters and letter teams that are sneaky, and that good readers are flexible and look patterns that we know, and try the different sounds that they can make. Students have been learning sight words since the start of the year, and this week they will realize how sight words can help them to read fluently. Since we are preparing to read longer and more challenging books, we will end the week by making sure that as readers we make sure to stop to check for understanding, and rereading if we didn't get it.
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| Busy first graders working on big jobs to become the best readers they can be |
Writers Workshop
Essential Question:
- How can I use writing to share my opinion?This week our persuasive writers will learn how to write catchy introductions and conclusions to captivate their readers from the beginning to make them want to read more, and also to urge them to try new things. Students will continue to use the power of persuasion, but they will also work on keeping their audience in mind and making their writing easy to read. Partners will play a big role in this job as they will work together to check each other's work and provide feedback to make their partner's writing the best that it can be. Our students will close the week with the second mini celebration of this unit: they will get together in groups and write review anthologies based on common things they wrote about before.
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| Some of our favorite things we will be writing reviews about |
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| We love writing about our favorite things! |
Math
Essential Question:
- What are efficient ways to count?- How does counting by tens and ones help you count larger numbers?
- What is place value?
- How does a digit's position affect it's place value?
- How can numbers be expressed and compared?
- In what way can numbers be composed and decomposed?
This week students will use the concepts and strategies learned last week, and they will apply them when they compare pairs of two- digit numbers and identify the greater or lesser than the two given numerals using the >, <, and = signs. Students will also compare quantities and numerals from left to right.
Parent Tips Topic B
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| Learning about tens and ones |
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| Representing two digit numbers with different manipulatives |
Social Studies
Essential Question:
- How do families grow and change over time?This week we will be learning about homes from the past and present. We will research how homes have changed over time in different places around the world, and students will talk about their own homes and how they are different from each other's.
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| First graders drawing their families now and how they think they will look in 20 years |
CIRCLE SOLUTIONS:
1C Over the next few weeks 1C will be looking at emotional awareness during our circles. We will be discussing our feelings and how they change. We will learn what emotions are for and the ability to recognize and name our feelings.
1M Since we have been talking about, and identifying our strengths; this month the theme will be our emotional awareness to foster intrinsic motivation and be a positive member of our class, school and community.
1S This week we will be reviewing 'friendship' and what it means to be a good friend both inside and outside the classroom. Students will work together to come up with a 'recipe' for friendship that they can use when they are making new friends and when they are trying to make current friendships stronger.
1. Empathize with your child and model empathy for others.
2. Make caring for others a priority and set high ethical expectations.
3. Provide opportunities for children to practice empathy.
4. Expand your child's circle of concern.
5. Help children develop self-control and manage feelings effectively.
Article link: How Parents Can Cultivate Empathy in Children
Important Dates to Remember:
Wednesday February 7th: ES Math Night in the ES hall 4:15 - 5:15pmThursday February 8th: Family Picnic (sign up required)
Saturday February 10th: Field trip to Stabl Antar Dreams School (sign up required)
Tuesday February 13th: First Grade field trip
Tuesday February 20th: 1M assembly
ASA activities session 2 will end the week of February 18th
If you have any other questions or concerns about this week, please don't hesitate to contact your classroom teacher.
Your Partners in Learning,
Taryn Carr (tcarr@cacegypt.org)
Gaby Morales (gmorales@cacegypt.org)
Charlie Saunders (csaunders@cacegypt.org)
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