Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, the students continued to practice perseverance and resilience at school.  They were encouraged to use their strategies from their perseverance wheels created last week as a way to choose an option to learn how to better self-regulate.  

• This week, first graders also learned about accountable talk.  They learned that while it is important to listen attentively and respectfully to the speaker, it is also important to stay engaged while that person is speaking.  They learned how active listening helps us learn and they learned how accountability in conversations can lead to better learning outcomes too.  We practiced different conversation topics and used different questions and statements to help us stay engaged.  Next week, Ms. Nicole, our school SEL Coach, will join our math class and help our students embed social-emotional learning skills and strategies in math class.  We are so excited to welcome her to our math class!

You Can: 

• You can help foster these conversation strategies at home too by encouraging your child to have a calm body and give eye contact when someone else is speaking.  You can also encourage your child to ask relevant follow-up questions, such as “Can you tell me more about…” or “What do you mean by….?” and re-stating the information just shared.  You can foster your child’s development of accountable talk by encouraging your child to see himself/herself as an equal member in the conversation, with wonderful insights and ideas to share on the topic.  When people feel that their ideas matter and are heard, they can show more engagement and interest.

Reading:

• This week, first grade readers continued to participate in mid-year reading assessments at ABS.  At this point in the school year, we assess fluency, comprehension, phonics and phonological awareness.  Information about these assessments will be shared at our upcoming conferences in March and they will also help inform our report cards, which go out on Monday, 1/29/24 (Please see below for more information regarding this year’s report card)

You can:

• Thank you for supporting your child’s reading at home.  Reading a variety of texts help our young learners develop confidence and skill.  Please read your child’s carefully selected library books too.  While our students are encouraged to select “just right” books (books they can read independently), they often choose high-interest/choice books, which require a skilled reader to read them.  Thank you for taking the time to enjoy these books together and for having daily conversations about the books read.

• Your child is bringing home an extra Scholastic magazine this week for home reading.  This is optional, as always.  Please consider reading this magazine together and solve the questions on the back.  There is no need for your child to bring these back to school.

Writing:

• This week, first grade authors continued to edit and revise their writing pieces.  They are expected to reflect proper finger-spacing, letter formation, use lower case letters when writing and reflect proper capitalization and ending punctuation.  This week, we learned about, and wrote about Martin Luther King Jr. and we wrote our weekly reflections in our Friday Journals.  They are doing great using GUM (grammar, usage and mechanics).

You Can:

• Thank you for supporting your child’s emerging writing skills at home too.  As mentioned before, we work on penmanship, letter formation and finger-spacing at school, but it is helpful when our young learners hear the same message from many different people to help them change inefficient and incorrect penmanship.  Breaking inefficient habits takes time.  With patience and positive feedback, along with repeated practice and time, I am confident that all students will develop a love of writing and see writing as an efficient tool to facilitate new learning and help self-regulate strong emotions and feelings.

Math:

• We finished all mid-year math assessments with the help of Mrs. Singh.  Thank you Mrs. Singh for helping us!  The students were assessed on basic number sense, place value, and their ability to compose and decompose numbers.  They were also assessed on their understanding of telling time to the hour and half hour, using analog and digital clocks.  They did a fantastic job!  What a group of mathematicians we have!  We are so proud of their mathematical thinking and progress.  

• This week, we also started doing some number talk work around equality in mathematics.  Equality in first grade means that the two different sides of the equal sign show the same quantity (number of objects).  The students were encouraged to share their understanding by deciding if an equation was true or false and why.  The students were also challenged to make the equation true if it was a false representation of equality.  For example, we looked at some of the following ones: 10=6+4, 8+2=9+1 and 12=9+3 and 13+2=20-5

You can:

• Thank you for supporting your child's understanding of numbers and how they relate to one another.  It is clear that these young mathematicians love numbers and math!  Thank you for finding moments when your child can practice telling time to the hour and half hour too.  As mentioned last week, telling time to the half hour using an analog clock can be very challenging.  With repeated practice and exposure, I am confident all students will learn to master this skill as well.

News and Reminders:

• Please take a moment to read the communication from our school/school district about our upcoming report cards.  The school district will communicate with you via the School Bell and through specific emails.  This will not come from me.  The report cards will be different this year.  This is particularly important for families of older siblings who are used to “the old way.”  For example, report cards will be emailed to you.  They are scheduled to be sent out on 1/29/24.

• It is getting really cold outside.  Please make sure your child comes to school with weather appropriate clothing (hats, mittens, snow pants and snow boots).  Please send in a pair of “inside shoes'' as well, such as sneakers.  It is difficult for your child to navigate the whole day with large, uncomfortable boots and they often drag first and slush into our learning spaces.  Thank you.

• Many students have asked for more snack and still feel hungry after eating snack.  Please make sure you check in with your child about potentially packing some additional healthy options for your child.  They are hungry and growing fast!  Thank you.Please also talk to your child about the importance of eating during snack/lunch times as many students forget to eat because they get distracted by talking/socializing with their peers.  Thank you.

Have a great weekend,

Maria