Mrs. Bonica’s First Grade Blog- 9/15/2014
Hi Parents,
It was so nice getting to talk to all of you on Wednesday and I look forward to a great year, working together for our children, yours and temporarily mine. (At least I don’t have to pay for college.) They are very enthusiastic about everything and I just love them.Here are a few things you need to know about this week.
Picture Day –Wednesday Sept. 17th
Children will wear their white polo shirts as we will have mass. Team Day- Thursday Sept. 18th The children may wear their favorite team shirts and we will have a Pep Rally at 2:30 for our fall teams.
School Families-Thursday 9/18 We will meet our new school families and do a short activity.
Friday Sept. 19th- 12:00 dismissal- WASC accreditation meeting
Homework: We will begin homework this week. There will be a Reading Log stapled to the inside of the folder that should be left there all week. It will be removed next Monday and a new one inserted. Each child should spend about 15 min. reading and then the name and date of what was read should be written each night since we check it the next morning. If it is not written in, then it counts as not doing the homework. There will be a math or spelling item of homework in the folder to be done for the next morning. Please make sure that your child has written their name on their paper.
Spelling: Each week we will have some short vowel words and some sight words to learn along with a sentence or two for dictation. We will have a spelling test on these 15 words and sentence on Friday morning. The new words will be in the folder each Monday to begin practicing. I would like the children to write each word 3 times each on Monday night and Wednesday night and to take a written practice test at home, given by you on Thursday, signed and returned to me on Friday morning in the folders. I will include some paper for practicing on the nights that written practice is for homework.
We will get a new Smile chart on Monday morning. Please encourage your child to do their best each day. If you could, it would be helpful if you send in a few little treats for our prize box so that the children will have some choices. Thanks!
Religion: the Blessed Trinity, the Sign of the Cross, Noah and the Ark
Reading- I continue to like this new series and there is a great deal to it. I am screening the children this week. We will be working on decoding of short vowel words and comprehension of what they read. We will learn what the word noun refers to and how to add details to things that we write. We will work in our Reader’s Notebook and take a weekly assessment test on Friday. We will read some stories alone and with a partner.
Math: We will do more number comparisons comparing size and >,<
and =. Please help your child develop an understanding of what a calendar tells us.
*******Water Bottles*******
Since it is so hot please send your child with a water bottle that is easy for them to recognize. On Thursdays we will go right from Library to P.E. and they will bring their water bottle with them to the Library. They will then take it from there to PE and the plastic water bottles are hard to identify. They can also refill a water bottle during the day if they need to. Thanks for your help with this!
I get some really great “material” from my first graders. This week it was DeAngelo, our new to SMS first grader who I will quote. I gave him a compliment because he seemed to know a lot about what we were talking about in Religion. I said, “DeAngelo, I am so proud of you, how do you know so much about religion?” He replied, “Easy, I have the Bible app on my Ipad!” I will have to keep up with technology, I can see that!
Another day he warmed my heart when he came up to me and said “I am really getting into Jesus, Mrs. Bonica.” That is great, DeAngelo, because that is what we are here for! Welcome to Saint Mary’s.
and
God Bless
Mrs. Eileen Bonica