Homework Support
Dear G1 Parents,
Thank you for helping your child complete his/her first week of Grade 1 homework!
I wanted to take a moment to discuss how to best support your child when he/she completes his/her assignments and how much assistance should be given to your child when you see a mistake, especially in the sentences he/she has written for Spelling homework.
We are in the process of helping our students become more independent in their school work and are strongly encouraging them to read, evaluate, then correct their own work before bringing it to the teacher to be checked. As we work toward independence, these skills are still new and we are asking parents to check their child’s homework and provide support to correct it as needed.
We are recommending the following steps to helping correct your child’s homework:
Ask Questions
Start with questions when he/she has finished, such as:
- "Have you checked that you have everything you need, such as capital letters, end marks, and correct spelling?"
- "Can you see any words we should check for spelling?"
- "Have you used your best handwriting?"
- "Is anything missing?"
Guide Their Attention
If you see mistakes, guide his/her attention toward the area that has the mistakes.
- "Let’s check the end of the sentence again."
- "What should we do at the beginning of a sentence?"
If he/she still hasn't picked up on any mistakes, you can give your advice to your child on what you would do.
- "I think we should fix that spelling here, what do you think?"
- "Maybe we should use a capital letter here, what do you think?"
- Spelling Correction - If it’s a weekly word from school, it should be spelled correctly in your child’s work. If it’s a new word, ask your child to sound it out and do his/her best to write the letters he/she hears. You can write the correct spelling above your child’s spelling. We will be able to look at the word and know if your child should be spelling that word correctly based on what letters and sounds have been taught at that point in the school year.
We believe that if you keep correction student-led and positive, this will help your child’s confidence while also encouraging him/her to speak more at length about his/her work and writing process. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to email us.
Thank you for your support!
- Mr. Hassey & Ms. Allison
Extra Note:
The first unit of writing has just begun and will last until October. During this unit, we will teach students:
- how to write complete sentences (naming part, telling part)
- types of sentences (telling sentences, asking sentences, exclamatory sentence)
- punctuation (. ! ?)
- capital letters
- editing marks
Throughout the school year we will also focus on other parts of writing, including other punctuation marks, grammar, and parts of speech.
- plurals
- alphabetical order
- using the right word (homophones)
- nouns
- verbs
- adjectives
- pronouns
- commas
- apostrophes
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Parent Sign Up
Mr. Hassey and I would like to invite parents to UST to read books to the G1 students this year as Mystery Readers! G1A and G1B will come together in the 3F shared space to listen to the Mystery Reader read a story.
When you have a moment, please visit the G1 Mystery Reader calendar.
Mystery Reader Calendar - CLICK HERE
If you are interested in being a Mystery Reader, you can choose a week that's highlighted on the calendar. After you pick a week that is open (no one has signed up) please complete the section on the left side of the calendar with your name and child's name. You can also write on the calendar to show the days and times that work best with your schedule. Once you have filled in the calendar, please take a moment to email your child's homeroom teacher letting us know that you are interested in being a Mystery Reader for Grade 1. We will work with you to schedule a day and time during the school day to visit.
Remember, it is a mystery! Please do not tell your child if you are the mystery reader. We would like to keep it a surprise for the students. We hope to have many parents volunteer and participate! Thank you!
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This week I introduced Growth Mindset to our class. Students shared times they felt like giving up because something was difficult or they felt upset because they made a mistake. We created a display for our classroom wall to help us change the words we say and understand that we are always growing and learning! I'm excited to have this as part of our class and hope to see the students motivated and ready to face challenges, keep trying, and put forth their best effort no matter the task!
Reading
Readers Build Good Habits
This week we started a new Reading unit focusing on how readers build good reading habits.
At the beginning of the week, I introduced Real Reading vs. Fake Reading. During independent reading time (Read to Self), students are practicing how to stay focused and show "real reading".
Read to Self
- Eyes on own book
- Read whole time
- Stay in smart spot
- Read quietly to yourself
- If you are done, get another book quickly
Students also started learning that there are different ways to read a book. We practiced how to read the illustrations and the words. Next week we will pick a familiar book and practice how to read a book by retelling the story to a reading partner.
3 Ways to Read
- Read the illustrations
- Read the words
- Retell the story
Morning Meeting + Classroom Posters/Songs
Share Time is a valuable part of our day where students can learn more about each other. We'll talk about how we are similar and different while also supporting one another and starting our day in a positive way. This time can also help create a safe learning environment at school where students feel comfortable and are ready to grow together!
New Classroom Songs
- Morning Song
- Line Up Song
- Days of the Week
- Months
Writing
Sentences and Paragraphs
This week students learned about the six writing traits and that a complete sentence is a group of words that tell a complete thought. We also practiced putting words in the correct order and checking if the sentence makes sense.
Six Writing Traits
Ideas - Start with great ideas.
Organization - Make your words and sentences easy to follow.
Voice - Sound as if you are really interested in your topic.
Word Choice - Choose the best words.
Sentence Fluency - Use sentences that are fun to read.
Conventions - Follow the rules for writing.
Writing Sentence Rules
Rule 1 - Start each sentence with a capital letter.
Rule 2 - Leave space between your words.
Rule 3 - End each sentence with an end mark.
Writing Vocabulary
Complete: has no missing parts
Order: the way things follow one another
Related: words that go together in some way
Sentence: group of related words in the correct order that states a complete thought
Spelling / Word Work
Weekly Focus: short a, short i
At the beginning of the week I introduced our weekly words. Every Monday students will write the weekly words in their Spelling notebook and complete their Spelling homework on Monday and Tuesday. Spelling homework is due back to school on Wednesday.
Week 1 Weekly Words
Short a: jam, sad, glad, flat
Short i: win, if, list, fix, dig,
Rule Breakers/Challenge Words: want, was, been
Word Families: -am, -in
During the week students practiced reading and spelling the words by participating in different spelling activities.
Weekly words will be on display on our class' Word Wall throughout the school year. Students also add our weekly words to their Word Dictionary in the back of their Writing workbook (ABC order). The Word Wall and Word Dictionary will be used during the school year to help students spell words correctly during Writing activities.
Math
Numbers to 10
We completed our first chapter in Math. Students have been learning how to count objects to 10, how to compare numbers (more, fewer, greater than, less than), and how to complete number patterns (1 more, 1 less). We used connecting cubes to build number towers (see photos below) to practice 1 more and 1 less.
Students took our Math Chapter 1 test on Friday and were encouraged to do their best to show how much they have grown in their Math learning!
Social Studies
Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship - How Can We Get Along in School?
This week we started our first Social Studies unit focused on Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship. Our first question was, "How can we get along at school?"
During this unit students will:
- learn how to solve problems
- examine why we have rules
- understand how people can work together
To begin answering the question, "How do we get along in school?" the class listened to a story called The Goats on a Bridge. We read the first part, then stopped and brainstormed what might happen next.
The students came up with a lot of different ideas, such as:
- the goats will fight
- the goats will fall into the water
- one goat will jump over the other goat
- the goats will take turns
The story helped the students discuss how the goats could have solved the problem. I introduced the word cooperation and we asked ourselves, "Did the goats cooperate? How could they cooperate in a way that is fair to both of them?"
Next, the students played a game called Two on a Task. Each student thought about a picture they wanted to draw and without telling their partner their idea, they had to hold one colored pencil and draw a picture together. They were not allowed to talk. The students told me this was a difficult and frustrating task. The second time they played the game they were allowed to talk. The students discovered that being able to talk, share ideas, and listen to their partner made the task much easier.
This activity helped the students learn that cooperation is one of their responsibilities as a student in our classroom.
What ways can we get along at school?
- share
- listen
- talk
- take turns
- play fairly
- be a good sport
G1A POKEMON WEEBLY CHALLENGE
Outdoor Recess - Park Time
Have a wonderful weekend!
- Ms. Allison