Welcome First Graders!

Welcome to the first day of first grade! It's going to be a great year and I can't wait to meet all of your precious little ones!

There will be a blue folder coming home with your child after the first day of school. This folder is VERY important at our school.

Please make sure you go through all of the information in the folder as soon as possible. Please return any important forms that need to come back to myself or the office. Important forms include health, transportation, and technology. These need to be back as soon as possible.

This folder will go home with your child every night (homework and important information from myself and/or the office will be in there) and needs to come back to school with them every day. It is an important and easy way to keep everything in order.

Also, please send in the necessary supplies as soon as possible as we will be using them from the very first day of school. :)

Please remember that your child needs to bring a snack that is on the approved snack list. If it is not on the snack list, your child will not be allowed to eat it.

If your child will be buying lunch, please add money on their online account or send a baggie or envelope with the money inside and their name and my name on it. Milk money should also be sent in the same way.

Please refrain from sending your child to school in flip flops or shoes with no backs. This makes recess and fire drills more dangerous to them and other children.

I look forward to the year ahead and I will provide more information as the week goes on and things get a little more settled for you and your family!

Alyssa Marrano

Unit 6

Hello families,

Unit six, our last and final reading unit is coming to an end next week with our last story, Sand Castle. Your child will be tested on the following words next week:

been
gone
other
bear
birds
Earth
table
ever
goes
laugh
only
across
air
enough
eyes
circle
grew
leave
toward

Please study these with your child and have them prepared for next week.

We will continue doing spelling until the last full week of school but will no longer be using our hard cover reading books and comprehension journals after next week.

Thank you so much for all of your help throughout the year keeping your child on track in school.

Ms. Marrano

Unit 5 High Frequency Words

It's that time again! The end of another 5 weeks of school. We are ending Unit 5 in reading next week and your child will be tested on the Unit 5 High Frequency Words. In case you have misplaced the green sheet with the words on it, the following is the list of words they will need to know in 10 seconds or less. Thank you for all that you do to help your child learn and be a successful student!

mother
try
always
father
love
ball
head
never
should
shout
better
children
or
round
along
early
nothing
thought
animals
beautiful
from
ground
places

Please remember to return the play slip if you will be attending our Earth Day Play by Friday, April 11 so we can make sure there is enough room in the classroom for you to enjoy all of our hard work!

Also, if you have not completed and returned your child's costume for the play please have that completed and sent in as soon as possible.

Lastly, in the next few weeks your child will be completing all end of the year testing such as MAP Tests, Reading Benchmarking, and Writing Samples. Please make sure they are at school on time and that they have a healthy breakfast before they come to school so they can focus and show their potential!

I look forward to all of the fun that is in store for us in the last 7 weeks of school!

Quarter 3 is On it's Way Out!

Hi families,

Quarter 3 is almost over which means Spring Break and 9 more weeks of school! I can't believe we are at this point already. This year has been a whirlwind and has gone by so quickly!

Next week we will be testing Quarter 3 words. Here is the list of words to study for next week!

over
write
ride
room
don't
sleep
said
much
that
love
one
paper
with
rain
five
door
sky
their
what
down
but
here
going
our
three

Please study and have a great weekend!

Miss Marrano

Week of 10/21/13

Hi families,

Just a reminder your child is being tested on their Quarter 1 words this week because the end of the quarter is Friday, October 25.

These words were in the open house folders given to you at the beginning of the year.  These are words that are imperative for your child to know.  The more they know, the better reader they will become.  These are 100 of the most commonly seen words in texts that are appropriate for a first grader.  Some of the words are a review from what they learned in Kindergarten.

Also, Friday will be our show and tell day.  Your child can bring something in to show the class.  Please make sure it is school appropriate and please refrain from sending your child with any expensive electronics.  I would like to make sure that none of them are broken or lost.  Please leave those at home.

Next week will be a short and busy week.  On Wednesday, October 30th the Orland Park Fire Department will be bringing their Fire Safety Trailer.  Each class will get to go through the trailer and learn about fire safety at home.  This goes along with October being fire safety month.

On Thursday, October 31 we will be having our Fall Carnival.  Please let me know if your child should not be wearing a costume.  Also, if your child does not have a costume but would like to wear one, please let me know so we can make sure your child has one to wear.  Our carnival time is from 8:50-9:20.  They will get to wear their costume for this 30 minute block and then will be changing out of them to have their regular class time.

Please remember that your child will be taking their spelling test on Thursday instead of Friday because Friday, November 1 is a Teacher's Institute and the children will not be in attendance.

That is all for now.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions!

Happy Long Weekend!

Hello families!

I hope you are all enjoying your child's time in first grade.  I thank you all for being so involved in your child's education and being so open to communicate with me whenever needed.

Your child was tested on their unit 1 high frequency words this week.  Please take note of any that do not have a plus sign next to it.  If it does not have a plus sign, your child could not read that word.  Please practice and reinforce at home. These words are very important to your child's success with reading.

Please remember that the homework sent home is due the next day.  It is important that the skills are being reinforced at home after they are taught at school.  The end of the quarter is near and we will be wrapping up chapter 3 at the end of the week next week.

Spelling lists and three times each will be sent home tomorrow because of the short week.  I want your child to have enough time to practice their spelling words.

I hope you all have a great long weekend! And as always, please let me know if you have any questions!

Great Start!

We had a great start to the school year!  Boy, have we been busy!  We have been making class books, reviewing our kindergarten words from last year as well as our letter sounds, and we also got to make a few fun crafts!

This week we are beginning our core subjects and we will be sticking more closely to our schedule.  Please remind your child how important it is to listen, focus, and complete our work.

We began the math series on Thursday last week.  Please expect your child to have a sheet of math homework every night.  I do need all homework to come in completed the next day.  If it becomes a problem, your child will be asked to stay in during their second recess to complete it.  Homework is an essential part of learning and review.  We need to ensure that our children are remembering what they are learning in school.

Our math program is very rigorous and scheduled.  We begin each day by completing a Daily Common Core Review.  We do this page together and each one of these pages reviews skills that your child has learned previously and may not always go with what we are learning in that particular lesson.  These pages are important to refresh their memory of skills they have already learned.  After the Daily Common Core Review, we watch an introduction video for the lesson.  In this video, they will walk through a typical problem that they will be seeing throughout the lesson.  After this video, we complete the lesson pages.  We do the front page together (this is the teaching part) and then we typically will move straight to the back which is the problem solving part.  Problem solving is a BIG part of the common core.  This page is read to them by myself and I also talk them through the problems as well.  We like to talk through these together.  I sometimes will have the children work them out on their own as this is a skill that they will need when they begin taking more assessments that are aligned to the common core.  Inquiry and problem solving skills are a big push.  After the problem solving page, we move to the inside.  Depending on the lesson, we will do the guided practice together and they will complete the independent practice on their own, or they will be able to do both pages on their own.  Some lessons do however, require us to work through all of the problems together.  After the lesson we will complete the quick check.  The Quick Check is important and it shows me what skills each child is doing well with as well as what skills that child still needs to work on.  The Quick Check is read to them but they are required to choose the correct answers on their own.

We also began our reading series today.  Every Monday we will go through the oral vocabulary, high-frequency words, and the spelling words and patterns for the week.  Then we read our weekly story, retell the story, and complete a vocabulary Fill-In the blank activity and a spelling sentence activity.  For now, we will be completing the Fill-In and the spelling sentences together.  However, the fourth week of the series they will be using their books and completing these on their own.  It is important for them to not only become familiar enough with the vocabulary to be able to fill in the blanks but they are also taught the skills to use their books to find familiar phrases, sentences, and words to help them figure it out.  Writing sentences with words are also important.  They will be expected to use all 10 words (they may use more than one spelling word in each sentence) and the sentences need to be 5 words or longer.  They will also be graded on their ability to use and frequency of punctuation and capitalization.

Your child will receive a list of words to study over the five weeks at the beginning of each reading unit.

On Mondays, your child will bring home the weekly spelling list and have to write their spelling words three times each for homework and return it to school the next day.

On Thursdays, your child will bring home their reading book and their comprehension journal.  They will need to read the weekly story to you, have you sign the reading slip, and fill out a page in the comprehension journal to go along with the story.  Please return all three (comprehension journal, reading slip, and reading book) to school on Friday.

On Wednesdays, your child will bring home a story to read and answer questions about.  Please return these to school on Thursday.

Spelling tests are on Friday mornings, first thing.

Lastly, we will be beginning The Daily 5 in the classroom tomorrow.  For those families that have been a part of District 135 for kindergarten will be familiar with it.  This program will allow each students' needs to be met in different ways.  They will be Working on Writing, Reading to Someone, Reading to Self, Working on Words, and Listening to Reading.  These stations will allow me to individualize your child's learning and to focus on the skills they need most.  This also teaches them independence and responsibility.

I know that this is a lot of information so if you have ANY questions, please do not hesitate to ask!