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- Our Family
1st Grade
LANGUAGE ARTS – Mrs. Ewert
Thank you for coming to open house. I hope you enjoyed visiting our classroom and viewing your child’s work.
We are currently working on individual character traits and writing an autobiography. The individual poster can be about 12x17 in size. Ideas: time line, growing process, important events, family tree, and other ideas are welcomed. Please return blue sheet as soon as it is completed, so we may begin our first draft of our writing process.
March is National Reading month; please continue listening to your child read. Your children should be reading at least fifteen minutes per evening. The more a child reads the more confident and fluent they become. Remember to return the yellow slips for reading minutes on Monday mornings.
As spring approaches we tend to get spring fever, the quality of the children’s work decreases, please encourage your child to do their best every day.
The month of May the children will be taking the Gates MacGinite test for vocabulary and comprehension. I will send a note home before testing to let you know the exact date. The results will be sent home with your child’s final report card.
MATH – Mrs. Knape
Mastery of addition and subtraction facts continues to be an area of focus. Money, time, fractions, shapes, and measurement skills are also improving.
Practice and/or review of basic math facts will strengthen your child's mathematical foundation. Learning “the doubles” (3+3=6, 4+4=8, etc) is an excellent beginning. The next progression is “doubles +/- 1” (if 4+4=8, then 4+5=9 and 4-3=7). A review of all skills will “sum” up the year. Thank you for making a difference.
Research shows that children lose up to 25% of their previous year's learning over the summer. Whether it is through Summer Enrichment, Summer Learning Kits, or a combination of both, please provide experiences for your child to continue building essential academic skills.
SCIENCE – Mrs. Knape
Our unit on sound and light will be completed. April will find us exploring the features of the earth. Earth Day is April 22. A special celebration is scheduled after school from 3-5 pm. Stay tuned for more information.
We will also look at the sources and uses of water as well as the water cycle. Our song about the water cycle is to the tune of “Oh My Darling Clementine”, Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation all around. Accumulation, Evaporation, The water cycle goes round and round.
SOCIAL STUDIES – Mrs. Machniak
The first grade students will be learning about the care and keeping of our earth from an individual, familial and school perspective. Following the Earth unit we will look at Time, Technology and Change (a history unit) on how families and schools have changed over the past 100 + years. We will finish the year with an economics unit called Jobs People Do… where we look at jobs, food production, movement of goods and people, and basic money with wants and needs.
COMPUTER – Mrs. Still
In the final quarter, the First Grade students will be introduced to PowerPoint. They will create a short slide show using Auto Layout, format text size and color, learn how to insert clip art to add graphics to the slides, and apply a slide transition. The students will continue using the skills learned earlier by saving their presentation in the student “Z” drive.
SPANISH – Mrs. Machniak
The first grade will be finishing animals and food items in March. They will continue to learn vocabulary for clothing and will finish the year with a study of Mexico (general vocabulary, location, cultures, and literature).
RELIGION – Mrs. Wisniewski
Our religious education learning will continue to concentrate on the Faith Concepts of Christianity. We have been studying the Stations of the Cross. With Easter rapidly approaching, the students will learn more about the 40 day long Easter Celebration. As a community outreach project, students have created bookmarks to give to the Senior Sisters. First Graders are continually working on the “I Care” rules.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION – Mrs. Knape
Co-ordination, balance, endurance, and motor skills continue to be developed through our activities. Jumping rope and Bean Bag Tag are two favorites. Warm, sunny days will allow us to take PE outside. Learning the skills and rules of kickball will help to develop eye/leg co-ordination, team building, and sportsmanship.
ART – Mrs. Machniak
It was wonderful to see everyone at the open house with their families. The first grade class continues with the element of form. They have worked with noodle sculptures as an introduction to sculpture. We will continue with sculpture as form until break. Artists we will be introduced to include H. Moore and the Greek/Minoan culture.
The first grade will be working with pattern in April. They will begin with weaving and look at different weavings from different cultures through the ages.
We will be finishing the year with the principles of repetition and movement.
Students will be introduced to A. Warhol, and K. Hokusai.
MUSIC – Mrs. Wisniewski
First graders are continuing to learn rhythm, melody, harmony and qualities of music through singing and creative play. Also being presented is information about the music staff and basic notes to introduce students to reading music. Students are being introduced to John Towner Williams as part of this upcoming quarter’s “Composer of the Month.”
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