2 / 14 / 2025


📣 ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Students need to bring a water bottle with name on a daily basis for proper hydration!
  • Please make sure students have utensils in their lunchboxes. 
  • Reminder about lunch drinks - please no glass bottles, soda cans, Kool-Aid, or fountain drinks. Thank you.

💡DATES TO REMEMBER
  • February 17th: NO SCHOOL (President's Day) R&R weekend
  • March 5th: Kindergarten/First grade Athletic Field Day - Half Day Dismissal
  • March 7th: Half Day Dismissal (12:30pm)
  • March 10th - 14th: Spring Break - No School

    • 💡REMINDERS:
    1. Please double check your child's uniform to make sure they still have the right length.

    2. The scholars should bring the following daily:
    • Water bottle with name
    • Healthy and dry snacks in front pocket
    • Take Home folder (please make sure it is emptied out at home)
    *Your child may use the small backpack-shaped checklist of the things they need to bring to help them pack their things. 

    3. Please review the Driveline procedure here: directionsforparentsdrivelin.docx We have also attached the file in the resources on the right side of this webpage. 

    All first-grade classes are in need of reading volunteers! Please use the sign up located under your teacher's page. If you have any questions or would like to volunteer at a different time, please contact your teacher.

    💡WHAT WE ARE LEARNING THIS WEEK 

    📕LITERATURE: We read a story of "The Rainbow Fish", learned about friendship, wrote a letter to a friend, and made a fun paper plate fish craft. We also read more of Beatrix Potter's tales with "The Tale of Benjamin Bunny", who learned an important lesson while in Mr. MacGregor's garden. We will start on the first chapter of "My Father's Dragon" on Thursday, February 21st. Please send a copy of this book to school if you haven't done so. 


    📕 SPALDING: Continue practicing at home the phonograms they haven't mastered yet. Check out the Spalding resources on this website to review letter formations, spelling/Spalding rules and phonogram list.
                   
                                   Jobs of silent final e:
                    Job 1: Silent final e jumps over the consonant and makes the vowel say its name.
                    Job 2: English words don't end in u or v.
                    Job 3: c and g will say their second sound.
                    Job 4: Every syllable needs a vowel.
                    Job 5: No job (silent final e does not do anything, it just has to be there).
                      
                          rule 1: q is always followed by u, and together they say /kw/. (queen)
                          
                           rule 2: c before e, i, or y says /s/. (cent, city, cycle)

             rule 4: Vowels say their name at the end of a syllable

    rule 5: I and y may say /i/ (si lent, my)                                           

    rule 6: y, not i, is used at the end of an English word. (try, fly)                  

    rule 8:  /er/ can be found in "Her first nurse works early".

    rule 9:  1-1-1 rule: One syllable words with one vowel followed by one consonant need to double its last consonant before adding an ending beginning with a vowel. (hop + p + ed)

    rule 11: Words ending with a silent final e are written without the e when adding a vowel ending. (come - com + ing)                       

                       rule 13: sh is used at the beginning or end of a base word 

                      rule 17: Double f, l, s after a single vowel that says its short sound 

    rule 18: "ay" is used to say a at the end of a base word 

    rule 19: i and o will say their name if followed by two consonants

             rule 25:  ck is used after a single vowel that says its short sound.
    sick
    block 
    rock, back, neck

    rule 26:  Capitalize proper nouns.                                                      

                    rule 27: Words beginning with the sound /z/ are always spelled with z never s. (zoo)

                    rule 28: ed has three sounds and is added to form the past tense of regular verbs.


                     rule 29:  divide words between double consonants


    📕 SAYINGS: 
    •  Never leave 'til tomorrow what you can do today. 
    • The more the merrier. 
    • Land of Nod
    • An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
    • Sour grapes 
    • Do unto others what you would have them do unto you. 
    • It could always be worse. 
    • Let the cat out of the bag. 
    • Wolf in sheep's clothing   
    • Practice makes perfect.
    • If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
    • Fish out of water

    📕 MATH: This week, we learned different ways to add two-digit numbers: a) counting on; b) getting a ten; and c) adding them vertically with renaming and without renaming. We will have a check up test on addition next Friday. 

    📕 POETRY:
    My Shadow  
    by Robert Louis Stevenson 
    I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
    And what can be the use of him is more than I can see. 
    He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head; 
    And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed. 

    The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow— 
    Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
    For he sometimes shoots up taller like an India-rubber ball, 
    And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all. 

    He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
    And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
    He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;
    I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

    One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
    I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
    But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
    Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

    📕HISTORY:  For this week, we continued to study about how the colonies united and made a letter to King George III. We pretended to make our own letter too in class and signed our names on it. We also learned about how the patriots came together in the Battle of Lexington and Concord, and how the American Revolution began with "the shot around the world". We learned a song about the revolution, and pretended we were patriots. 

    📕SCIENCE: This week students learned about dolphins and sharks. They learned about how dolphins use echolocation and that they live in the sunlight zone. They learned that sharks have been around for millions of years and that they are the top predators in the ocean. They also learned about the unique predator in the Abyss, the Angler Fish.  



    Have a great week!
    1st Grade Teachers