April Newsletter

Dear Parents,
      April is already here and so is Spring!!  Slowly snow pants and mittens are disappearing.  We still welcome boots due to the mud and puddles.  In the month of April, we will be focusing on the season of Spring and doing some work with Literature Bags.  These bags consists of all sorts of literature.  2 children will be working on 1 book.  Together, the students will read the story and do some activity extensions.  We are planning on working with these literature bags during center time.
      In Math, we will continue to work on place value and coins.  Unit 7 will concentrate on geometry and attributes.  We will also continue to tell time to the hour and to the half hour.  These concepts may be hard for your first grader.  Please understand that at this grade level, we are introducing these concepts.  It is important to practice these skills at home so that they may be more aware of these life long skills.  Other things that you may practice with them are the days of the week, the months of the year and continue counting by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s.
     Please continue to remind your child to use all strategies when reading.  Reading and writing are learned concurrently and we are seeing evidence of this development.  It is so important that you continue to read and write with your child even at this very busy time of the year.  Frequently used words should be spelled correctly at this time of year.
     Our writing workshops are also going well.   We have come so far since September.  We will be working  on letter writing, creating our own fairy tales, spring haikus, as well as writing creative stories.  We are working so hard to make sure our stories have beginnings, middles and endings.  We are creating different characters and settings and are beginning to take more risks.  We are also going to be using our dictionaries more frequently for correct spelling.  Please feel free to comment on your child’s spelling at home.
     Book orders are attached. Please send checks made out to the book club.   Please return by April 12th. There will be a half day of school on Wednesday, April 11 and no school on Friday, April 13.
     In closing, have a wonderful April vacation.  Don’t forget the best way to become a better reader is to read-read-read!!
                                                            Sincerely,                                                                                                                                                                             The 1st Grade Team