Welcome to first grade! This will be an exciting year of learning for your child. Our goals are to help each child develop a solid academic foundation, a love of learning, and a feeling of success. We will strive to meet the academic, social, emotional, and physical needs of each child by planning appropriate activities and using a variety of methods and materials. Information about curriculum and activities to do at home with your child are outlined below. We are looking forward to working with you and your child this year.
~ The First Grade Team
Documents
Newsletters
Please look for the First Grade Newsletter each month in your first grader's take home folder!
Practice your Dolch Word List.
Find a comfortable place in your home to read with your child. Have them read to you or listen to them.
Encourage your child to use the reading strategies when reading silently or with a parent or sibling.
After your child has read a book, encourage them to do a project that would describe the book, the exciting parts, and what they liked about it.
For example, after reading your child could:
- build a diorama displaying their favorite scene.
- read and tape record the story, in their best reading voice, adding sound effects.
- perform a T.V. commercial to sell the book.
- make a comic book based on the story.
- create a book cover.
- construct a crossword puzzle of words and their definitions from the story.
- create a photo album page showing the main events of the story.
- have them pretend they are their favorite character and write to themselves explaining his/her actions in the story.
- do research on an animal from the story.
- design a banner, poster or billboard advertising the book.
Invite your child to print his or her name or to dictate a brief message whenever you send a card of letter to friends or relatives. Address the envelope together and help your child write the return address.
Post a family calendar. Put your child in charge of helping record family appointments, celebrations and holidays. Have your child provide "reminders" to family members in the form of small notes.
Ask your child to draw illustrations of favorite book characters on 4x6 cards. On the back of each card, your child can write a short description of the character, similar to the description found on baseball cards. Keep this as a permanent collection.
Have your child write a family newspaper by writing articles about each member of family, and possible exciting events of past or present. Be sure to encourage them to illustrate and write it in a real newspaper layout.