Balloon pop....Count down to summer vacation! Each balloon has a little surprise inside. Balloon number 10 had a dance party inside.

Wiswell Farm Trip with some Fantastic First Graders

First Grade News for June

Important Dates to Remember

    June 7th - Spring Concert - 1:00 p.m.

    June 14th - Field trip to Moosepoint State Park -   

          8:45-2:30

    June 17th - Field Day K-4 (more info will come home soon)

    June 18th - Last student day - 1/2 day

These last couple of weeks in first grade are going

to be so busy! We still have things that we are

trying to finish up before we send the children

off to second grade.

We will wrap up our reading working on making predictions,

summarizing, and sequencing of events.  Our grammar focus

is on describing words (adjectives) and comparing using -er and -est.

Continue to read and talk to your child about what they are reading.

We will be working on our last math unit this week.

This unit is on fractions and students will be determining

whether shapes are divided into equal shares.  They will divide

shapes into 2 or 4 equal shares.  A goal is to understand that

more equal shares of the same whole create smaller shares.

We end our math program with a step up to grade 2 topic.

In Writing Workshop we are working very hard to finish our

last writing unit, which is writing realistic fiction. We just

started writing a new realistic fiction series, and these

will be chapter books! Hopefully we’ll have time to get our

last series all finished. If the children work hard

I’m sure they can do it!  

    

Dear Parents,

On June 14th the entire kindergarten, first, and

second grades will be taking a field trip to Moose

Point Park in Searsport.  We will be leaving at 8:45

in the morning and returning to school at 2:30.

 Please remember you are required to complete the volunteer

training and have a background check before you are

able to volunteer. This can take up to 3 days so if you

haven't completed this you will need to contact the

office as soon as possible.  

Items students will need for the field trip:

- Bag lunch with plenty of water

- Sun screen/bug spray

- Change of clothes (in case we get wet)

- boots/sneakers/water shoes that can get wet

- sweatshirt or coat (we are on the coast where it can be breezy)

- shovel/bucket (if you have one to explore the tidal pools)

****************************************************************

* We are only taking two buses for all the students.

We will fill the buses, so parents will be asked to carpool.  

The park has asked for us to do this because of limited

parking spaces.

**Chaperones will need to pay a $3.00 fee at the gate.  

This is due to a change in park policy.

              May in Grade One

It is hard to believe that we have already entered

the month of May.  As the saying goes…..“time flies

when you are having fun.”

Important Dates

May 6th    k-4 assembly wear a favorite jersey/sport team shirt

May 9th    noon dismissal

May 24th  no school teacher inservice day

May 27th  no school Memorial Day

Reading

As we read and work on comprehension we will also

focus on making predictions, sequence of events,

and summarizing.  Keep reading daily.

Writing

We are now working on narrative writing.  The children

are writing realistic fiction.  They are fiction writers

that will call upon their pretending skills to invent

characters and small adventures. They need to realize

that realistic fiction is something that could happen

but has not really happened…..not fantasy.

Science

Animal Trait Inheritance and Variation is the unit

we are finishing up. There will be lots of discussions

about traits and characteristics. Once this unit is

complete we will be moving into plant science.  

Math

Topic 14 focuses on understanding and defining

and non-defining attributes of two-dimensional

and three-dimensional shapes.  They will compose 2-D

shapes and 3-D shapes and identify attributes of the

shapes (such as number of faces, vertices, and edges).  

In topic 15 we will work with halves and fourths of shapes.

As always if you have any questions or concerns

please never hesitate to contact me.  

The published authors!  So proud of these writers.  

APRIL NEWS FROM FIRST GRADE

Important Dates

April 2nd K-4 assembly - Spirit Day

Theme students can wear a hat

April 15-19 - April Vacation

Another month has arrived ever so quickly.

 It is so hard to believe how fast this year is going.

 The students have made so many gains in many areas.

It is always so amazing to see the progress in reading,

writing, and in math practices.  

This time of year is so muddy out on our playground

please help us encourage the children to try to stay

away from those areas.  It is still a great idea to have

them wear/bring boots to play outside in. We still have

snowy areas to play in, so snow pants are also needed.  

Reading - We will continue to build reading fluency while

working on story structure, comparing and contrasting,

and noting details.  In grammar we will work with proper

nouns, pronouns, the correct usage of is and are and was

and were.   In spelling we will be working on words with the

vowel sound as in book and vowel sound as in moon, long i spelled

with y, and adding -es to naming words, and the vowel sound in coin.

Math - Topic 12 in math is measuring lengths.  Students will develop

and understanding of length by comparing objects to determine

which is shortest and longest. They will also measure the

length of objects using nonstandard units. In topic 13 we will

work on telling time to the hour and half hour.  They will

practice writing time using both digital and analog clocks.

In Topic 14 we will discuss attributes of two-dimensional

and three-dimensional shapes. Students will put together

various shapes to create composite shapes.

Writing - We will be writing book reviews.  It is very

interesting to read the opinion writing and the reasons

to support their thinking.  We are still focusing on capital

letters and periods to complete sentences….these are a must.

Science - We have begun the parts of animals unit.

 The goal of this unit is to be able recognize certain animal

survive.  After that unit we will begin animal traits and

variations. In this unit students will make observations

to construct evidence that young animals are alike,

but not exactly like their parents.