Calais Elementary School

Welcome Back to School!

Mrs. MacMartin's 1st Grade

2010-2011

 Dear Students and Parents,                                                          

Welcome Back!  I am so excited that school is back in session and that we are all learning together this year.  I just know our time together is going to be rewarding and fun.  We will begin the year slowly using the Responsive Classroom approach for the first six weeks of school.  We will learn about and practice the CARES principles (Cooperation, Assertiveness, Respect, Empathy, and Self-Control) and spend this time building a respectful and cooperative classroom community.  We will talk about our summer adventures, get to know each other, establish our daily routines, learn how to use classroom materials, and begin our academic lives together.  We will do team building activities, talk about our hopes and dreams for the year and also have the opportunity to make beautiful pieces of artwork.

The following informational packet will provide an abundance of information that will help make this a successful year and help you and your child to be informed about different aspects of 1^st grade.  I can’t wait to begin learning together!

Volunteer Notice:  

            During the first six weeks of school, through the Responsive Classroom approach students will learn about the expectations, schedules, and routines that help them work well as a team and feel prepared to learn.  I would like to hold off on parent volunteers in the classroom until this six week period has concluded.  Then, I will send home a parent volunteer sign-up form detailing specific volunteer opportunities.  This will include academic support, organizational support, reading aloud to the class, chaperoning trips, and much more.  I love having you in the classroom helping students grow!

Morning Routines

            Students will be taught the morning routines as they arrive on the first day of school.   Each day, they will be asked to put their backpack and coat on their hooks in the hall, to bring in their reading book bags, notes, and Friday folders, and to settle into their desks to take care of morning work.  By accomplishing these tasks independently, students are showing their learning community that they are capable big kids now.  I believe we should not do for students what they are capable of doing for themselves.  You'll be surprised at what they are able to do on their own if we teach them how and give them the chance to show us!  Thank you for allowing your child to accomplish morning routines independently. 

Daily Instruction:

            Many of you are probably wondering the same thing.  "What will instruction look like this year?"  I will give you a schedule and an overly detailed outline here and if you have further questions about specifics, please contact me.  I want you to have the information you need to feel secure that your child will have an excellent education this year.  I view the 1st grade as one wide spectrum of abilities.  All students develop at their own pace and I want to be very sensitive and respectful of where each person is at in all academic areas by recognizing their zone of proximal development. This is the difference between what a learner can do with help and later independently and what a learner cannot do even with assistance.  I want to give students the opportunity to collaborate with peers in order to construct their own understanding of new concepts and to apply that understanding to their prior knowledge base.  All students will be appropriately challenged and work to meet grade level expectations.

Weekly Schedule:

Literacy:

Sight Word/Phrase Study

            Each day when first grade students arrive at school, they begin reading from the first 100 Fry words, which make up 50% of all the words kids read. When students learn these words, they make a huge impact in their reading ability. They have the opportunity to progress beyond 100 and they usually do. Some even finish all 1,000 words by the end of the year. Students are given 5 new words each week to study.  When they master these words, they are replaced with new words.  At the start of each day, teachers go around the room reading these words each morning one-on-one with students.  In addition to the Fry words, there are lists of Fry phrases that correspond.  These phrases are rehearsed in the same way as the sight words.  The goal is to work towards fluency when reading these words/phrases.   These words are tricky because they are abstract.  If you don’t know it by recognition, then how do you solve it? No rules apply to these words.  Once students can recognize and read the high frequency words/phrases, then they can easily solve what will come after it when reading a text.  It is critical to know these words in order to be fluent.  As teachers are going around the room reading the sight words/phrases with individuals, students are practicing reading and spelling irregular high frequency words in pairs at their desks through a variety of fun activities.

Reading Workshop

            In the morning, students will participate in ReadingWorkshop. During reading workshop, students come for a mini lesson for skills instruction in the areas of concept of print, decoding, comprehension, and much more.  Then, students go to their chairs and read independently for a period of time.  I begin the year with 10 minutes. This period of time increases as the year goes on and varies for each person’s level of stamina. One of our goals for the year is to build the amount of time students are able to read independently.  Then, students are given a stretch of time to turn side-by-side and partner read from their reading buckets.  These groupings are flexible and change throughout the year.  Partnerships are sometimes similar-ability groupings and sometimes mixed-ability groupings.  When students do their independent/paired reading practice, they read books that are pre-chosen (some by me and some by them).  During that time period, I call students to the rainbow table off to the side for guided reading groups as needed.  Guided reading groups meet for 10-20 minutes each and are centered on a skill that specific students need to work on.  Students in guided reading groups may or may not be all at the same level.  When I am not doing guided reading groups, I use one-on-one conferences to further support and monitor student reading growth. I try to do conferences with all students at least twice each week. At the end of Reading Workshop, I meet with the full class to debrief.  Kids generally enjoy this framework for learning to read and practicing their skills.

            Students will not only read their book bag books at school in guided reading groups, but also to mom or dad as homework each night.  It is essential that students have practice rereading their books each night as this second reading helps them become more fluent and confident.  I will send home a letter that outlines homework expectations with your student's book bag at the start of the fourth week of school.  For the first three weeks, we will focus on handwriting studies through the Handwriting Without Tears program and will not do reading groups.

Writing Workshop

            Writing time is another key component of our balanced literacy program.  During Writing Workshop, all students will receive a short mini-lesson outlining a specific writing strategy.  Then, students will be sent to their desks to do independent writing tasks.  I will walk around and do conferences with students during this independent writing time.  On Mondays, students will write in response to a read aloud during our Literary Project time. During literary projects, students listen to a read aloud/think aloud, respond to the book through an independent writing activity, and then create art work in response to the theme of the book.  On Tuesdays, students will write in their journals about their weekend activities.  Wednesday through Friday, students will write narratives, reports, responses to literature, and more.  At the beginning of the school year during writing time, 1st graders will work to get the beginning and ending sounds of words down on paper and slowly hear and add in the vowel sounds.  They will use the classroom word wall to find sight word spellings that will help them begin to spell words correctly.  As they begin to write more, they will use "have a go" sheets to try writing hard words on their own and then ask for help from the instructor to find the correct spelling.  My expectations for how much and how deeply students are able to write will depend on my knowledge of each individual student's abilities and their progress over time.  

Phonics

            Phonics is simply the system of relationships between letters and sounds in a language.  Daily instruction in phonics helps students to be able to identify and isolate sounds in speech and to be able to transfer this knowledge to print. It also helps students to learn common and not-so-common word patterns that our language is composed of.   Students are placed into ability groups according to how they do on the Developmental Spelling Assessment.  Those groups are centered around the skills necessary for each stage of development including: Pre-Letter Name, Letter Name, and Within Word.  Students receive hands on and multi-sensory opportunities to build words through direct and cooperative instruction as well as partner work.  The skills learned during phonics instruction are then transferred into the work they do during writing time, which comes directly after phonics on our schedule.   

Math:

            During Math, we will continue to use the Investigations in Number, Data, and Space program, which is a game-oriented and hands-on approach to learning concepts.  At the beginning of each new unit of study, a letter will come home describing the goals and learning activities that will take place.  1st graders will not receive any mandatory math homework.  I believe that nightly reading is essential and plenty of work for first graders to accomplish.  Last year, 1st graders often requested homework and I gave it to those students when they asked.  Sometimes I will send home workbook pages for students to do for fun, but they are not required and do not need to be returned to me for grading.  Nightly reading should take priority over these fun pages.  The 1st grade math units are as follows:

Unit 1: “How Many of Each”

Addition, Subtraction, and the Number System 1

Unit 2: “Making Shapes and Designing Quilts”  

2-D Geometry

Unit 3:  “Solving Story Problems”

Addition, Subtraction, and the Number System 2

Unit 4: “What Would You Rather Be?”

Data Analysis

Unit 5: “Fish Lengths and Animal Jumps”

Measurement

Unit 6: “Number Games and Crayon Puzzles” 

Addition, Subtraction, and the Number System 3

Unit 7: “Color, Shape, and number Patterns”

Patterns and functions

Unit 8: “Twos, Fives, and Tens”

Addition, Subtraction, and the Number System 4

Unit 9: “Blocks and Boxes” 

3-D Geometry

Theme Units:
            The units of study this year are listed below. Activities in these units will be hands-on and inquiry based.  In addition to these themes, there will be much time dedicated to nature explorations and catching and releasing slimy creatures that we find outdoors.  I firmly believe that young children need plenty of opportunities to connect with and explore their natural world.  At the beginning of the school year, while the weather is so beautiful, we will use our theme time to further develop our classroom community by taking group walks on the nature path and playing cooperative games on the field.  We will continue to participate in Hands-On-Nature lessons each month as well. 

1^st Grade Integrated Thematic Units of Study

Building Community through Responsive Classroom

The Lifecycle of Butterflies

Fall and Families

States of Matter

Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Life

Embryology (hatching chickens, frogs, and newts)

Mapping our School

Mini-Real

Motion and Magnets

Snack and Chat:

            A daily nutritious snack will be provided by the school each morning.  If you would like for your child to have an additional or different snack, please send that in with your child.  Additional snacks need to be nutritious. I think it is very important for students to have many drinks of water throughout the day.  We have a classroom water fountain.  Many students last year enjoyed their own water bottle.  Please feel free to send in a water bottle with your child if you'd like.  

            Snack and Chat will happen each day as a way to give students practice discussing and sharing incites on important issues, global/local ideas, and text ideas.   The instructor will post a question or idea on the board and students will munch on snack while discussing the question/idea presented.  Groups will be made of 4 or 5 people who sit at pods together.  These groups will change frequently throughout the year.

Birthdays:

If you would like to send in a birthday snack, please feel free to do so.  We will save birthday treats for an afternoon snack. 

Jobs and Share Day:

            Each child will have a job to do each day as outlined on our classroom jobs chart.  One of the jobs is "share person".  This person will be reminded the day before to bring something personal to share with the class.  Share time is a way for students to get to know each other better.  Once items are shared, they will be put back into the student's backpack and sent home. If the student brings an object to share, it must be no larger than a shoe box and cannot be living.  Many students have brought in a favorite toy, a book, favorite rocks, cards, jokes, dolls, a story, pictures, fossils, games, and much more.  Please do not send in anything breakable or irreplaceable.  Thank you!

Friday Home Folders:

            Each Friday, a folder will be sent home with completed work, notes from teachers, school and class newsletters, permission slips, and more.  Please look at these papers and clean out this folder each weekend and return it to school on Mondays.  I will send home a class newsletter each month. 

I’m getting really excited about our upcoming unit of study on Butterflies.  We will hunt for caterpillars and watch them transform into beautiful monarchs in the classroom.  We will study much about lifecycles and changes this year and I can’t wait to learn with you!  Let the fun begin!

            I am thankful for your support and look forward to a wonderful year!  Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.  My home phone number is 485-9063 and the school phone number is 454-7777 ext. 311.  My email address is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

Sincerely,

Mrs. Kelly MacMartin