JANUARY       

         Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Year!

               We have had a nice long break and we're looking forward to a month of interesting and exciting activities revolving around our themes of winter, weather, diversity and mammals.
               We will have a long-term homework assignment this month centered around our year long unit on the Maine forest. It will be a Maine mammal report that you and your child can research together and then your child can decide in which creative way to present this to the class. It does not have to be a long pencil and paper report but could be simply three research facts that they have learned. Use your creativity to have fun with this at home! We will send more specifics after your child has chosen his/her mammal.  We will be discussing what a mammal is, which mammals live in the Maine woods and what their predators and prey are. We will discuss how mammals live in their habitats differently over the seasons.  We will complete the mammal web quest found on our classroom web site.  Please visit and share it with your child.  http://staff.msad71.net/kpt_lab/web/linkups.htm

               It is time once again to send out a cheer for our annual first grade Winter Book Blizzard! This project really helps our first graders build the skills and strategies to become fluent readers. Each evening, when you read with your child, please have your child write the book title and his/her name on the snowballs. If you have a busy night, this can be just your child's baggie book but if you have more time to read, please read an additional book. Please continue to record your child' s progress in the usual way. Each child should have a minimum of four snowballs a week. We will cover the hall wall with all of the snowballs. At the end of this project, we will count all the snowballs by l0's and report back to you. We want to see a real Nor'easter blizzard this January!  We will be practicing our retelling more this month both orally and written.  I have been encouraging your child to dare to challenge themselves with reading!  Learning how to choose an appropriate book is all part of learning to enjoy reading. 

    We will begin a new reading program this month beginning Friday, January 5th, from 2:00 - 2:30!  We call it Family Read and it will continue every Friday that school is in session for the rest of the year.  Please let your child know if you will be attending.  We will read to the adults that come to our room for a half hour and are allowed to go home with our parents after!  Please note that the finish time of this program is 2:30.  This is an effort to prevent congestion with the dismissal buses.  If you are unable to attend maybe a grandparent or neighbor could come instead.

               In mathematics, the children will continue with work on counting by 2's, base ten blocks, graphing, money, telling time to the half and quarter hour, measurement and reading thermometers. Learning the double facts helps with memorizing addition facts. We will be using related vocabulary and will become familiar with the math message.  It is a problem that I will give the students each day and expect them to discuss or record their answers in some way...sometimes on the white boards and other times in their Math Writing Journals where they are expected to be able to explain their answers and how they arrived at them.  At the end of the units I have been sending home the assessments so you will know how well your student is progressing and what to help them with.

               In writing, we are working on expanding the children's ideas to stories using the elements of the writing process. We are editing their writing using library/dictionary word. They rewrite their work in a published format.  We are also using a writing prompt to begin assessing their written work.  If you would like to help at home, you can begin by starting a story and have your child complete the story verbally, making sure it has a beginning, middle and ending.  Together you can write stories. 

               If you are interested in ordering from the January book club, please return the order form with a check by Friday, January 12th. 

               With the winter weather upon us it would be helpful if you would send sneakers/shoes for your child to change into when he/she comes inside. An extra pair of socks is a terrific idea to have in the backpack. Thank you for helping us with this matter.

A special thank you to all families for their generous gifts at the holiday!

               Lastly, we would like to extend our warmest appreciate to all the volunteers that help all the children in the class. It makes a HUGE difference! Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year!


                                                                     Sincerely,

                                                                       Kathy Cmaylo