First Grade Curriculum Night

Information for Parents

Literacy

Six Ways To Read• Get help from pictures – a picture can tell you

what the words say.• Remembering – you remember some words

because you see them over and over.• Predicting – expecting words

to come along makes you ready to read them.• Writing – writing the words is good practice for

reading them.• Sense – if what you read makes sense you are

reading it right.• Phonics – the sounds of letters in a word can help

you read it.

What Do Good Readers Do Before

Reading?• Think about the title and the cover.

• Think about the pictures.

• Think about things that might happen in the story.

• Think about what I already know.

What Good Readers Do

• Use eyes and fingers to make the text match.

• Look at the pictures.• Get mouths ready to read.

• Ask if the word or text look right, sound right and does it make sense.

• Start over to fix the word or to check it.

While Reading if I Don’t Know a Word…• Look at the pictures.• Say the word slowly.• Skip it, read on, then go back.• Look for chunks.• Ask where have I seen that word

before.• Ask what would make sense.

What Parents Can Do

• Read with your child for 10 – 20 minutes each day.

• Find a quiet, comfortable spot to read.

• Read different types of materials.

• Let your child see you reading.

• Read aloud to your child and reread favorite stories.

• Talk about what you and your child read.

Respond to Reading

• Talk about what you are reading.

• Predict what they book will be about by looking at the title and cover.

• Question while you read…the who, what, when, where, why and how.

• Relate the text to personal experience.

• Retell the story in sequence.

• Discuss favorite parts, likes, dislikes, or something learned.

• Discuss your thoughts and feelings about what you are reading.

Accelerated Reader

• Books may come from home, school, or the public library.

• Identify if the book is AR by visiting www.arbookfind.com

• Have your child read the book three times.

• Discuss the book with your child.

• Send the book with your child to school so they can take an AR test.

Writing

• Probably the most difficult.• Combine reading, spelling, and

fine motor skills.• Students must recall ideas,

vocabulary, and rules for spelling, punctuation, and grammar while putting thoughts on paper.

What you can do to help

• Have your child write in a journal.• Have your child tell you a story. Ask them

questions to encourage them to add more detail.

• Allow them to see how words are spelled through labeling household items.

• Have your child draw a detailed picture and then tell or write the matching story.

• Have your child write a letter to a family member. Ask the family member to write a letter in return.

By the end of first grade your child should…• Communicate in writing.

• Reread their writing to monitor meaning.

• Begin to use feedback to change their writing.

• Revise their writing by adding text in the middle.

• Make deliberate choices about language they use.

• Use proper punctuation and capitalization more often than not.

By the End of First Grade Students will…• Develop appropriate reading strategies.

• Decode unfamiliar words.

• Understand or are able to figure out the meaning of what they read.

• Develop and maintain motivation to read.

• Understand how speech and sounds are connected.

• Predict what will happen next.

• Identify characters, setting, problem, and sequence of events.

MathInvestigations

Goals

• Investigations in Number, Data, and Space is a K-5 mathematics curriculum designed to engaged students in making sense of mathematical ideas. Six major goals guided the development of this curriculum. The curriculum is designed to

• Support students to make sense of mathematics and learn that they can be mathematical thinkers.

• Focus on computational fluency with whole numbers as a major goal of the elementary grades.

• Provide substantive work in important areas of mathematics—rational numbers, geometry, measurement, data, and early algebra—and connections among them.

• Emphasize reasoning about mathematical ideas.

• Communicate mathematics content and pedagogy to teachers.

• Engage the range of learners in understanding mathematics

Helping your child

• As a parent, you are your child's first mathematics teacher. In fact, you have probably been doing math together since your child was very young. Counting pictures on a page and singing songs helped your child learn about numbers and counting. Building with objects such as blocks and cardboard boxes exposed your child to geometric ideas such as shape, size and symmetry. Chores such as putting away the dishes and sorting laundry engaged your child in sorting and categorizing, which are important features of data analysis.

• Once your child enters school, it is important to continue to support their growing understanding of mathematics. There are many different ways to help your child learn and appreciate mathematics, even if math was not your favorite subject in school. You can help your child by:

• believing that s/he can successfully learn mathematics

• expecting your child to work hard to learn mathematics

• sharing how you use mathematics everyday

• playing games that make learning fun and important

• solving problems together and exploring different ways to solve the same problems

• asking your child questions as s/he solves problems

• examining why solutions are correct and incorrect

• knowing how Investigations helps your child learn mathematics

• supporting your child as s/he completes homework assignments

Expect Your Child to Work Hard and be Able to Learn Math• Many adults leave school thinking that

mathematics doesn't make sense. The way they learned math did not always enable them to solve problems in efficient ways that made sense to them. When working with your child, keep in mind that children can make sense of mathematics if given the opportunity and support. Encourage your child to stick with a task even if it seems challenging. Be sure to talk through what the problem is asking and discuss some of the strategies that might be used to solve the problem. Help your child learn that there are many ways to solve problems.

Ask Questions

• There are many different types of questions that you can ask your child. Try to use productive questions that promote mathematical activity and reasoning. Productive questions include: "What do you think…?" or "Why do you think…?" Questions such as these encourage children to develop ideas and test and defend their thinking. Other helpful questions include:

• Why did you solve the problem in this way?

• Will your strategy always work?

• What else did you try?

• After you ask a question, be patient. Don't automatically give your child the answer. Instead, give your child time to think about the question and how s/he might answer it. If your child gives the wrong answer, ask how s/he got it. Probe to gain a better understanding of their thinking. Suggest alternate strategies that might help your child find the correct answer.

Homework• Investigations homework involves developing

flexible and efficient ways to solve problems, as well as practicing facts and discrete skills through word problems, activities and games.

• Investigations homework provides opportunities for students to:

• review and practice current and past work

• develop and solidify mathematical understandings

• extend classroom work

• prepare for upcoming math activities Taken from: http://investigations.terc.edu/families/

Discipline Plan

• A discipline policy is important for several reasons:

• Rules and consequences are essential for a safe, secure, and productive environment

• Students learn to take responsibility for their own actions

• The following are the classroom expectations:

• Be safe Keep hands, feet, and objects to yourself Walk in the halls and in the classroom Report unsafe things/objects to an adult

• Be respectful Raise your hand and wait to be called on Share with your friends Use kind words and kind touches Use manners

• Be responsible Do your best work while you are at school Take care of materials

• Students will enter each day on green. If they consistently follow classroom rules students will remain on that color. If their behavior has to be corrected during the day, the color will be changed to yellow. Students will progress through the colors of red and blue. Students who do not remain on green will have a note written in their planner.

• Students who come home on blue will receive a “Bear Blunder” which is a referral that is sent home and to the office. 3 “Bear Blunders” in a month can result in the loss of privileges that are decided by administration and the teacher.

• Certain actions will result in an automatic office referrals such as: hitting, stealing and lying.

Positive Action Time (PAT)

• Mondays students will be awarded 10 minutes.

• As they demonstrate positive behavior, such as transitioning quickly and quietly, students earn more time.

• If the class has difficulty maneuvering throughout the day, such as walking in the hallway, students will lose time.

• On Friday afternoons, students will be given the amount of time they earned as free time. During this period, students will get to choose from a variety of activities.