Dear Parents,
You will be able to access your child's report card online through Powerschool by the afternoon of April 4th.
This is the time of year when you can really see the results of all the hard work the children have been doing throughout the year. Things start to come together and kids begin to be able to work more independently and apply the skills that we've been learning and practicing throughout the year. Of course, as the year progresses, expectations increase. The grades on the report card are reflective of those increased expectations. The benchmarks change for each term, therefore your child’s performance level may change. It is also important to know that while the standards clearly state common learning goals for all first graders, we regularly extend and provide extra support to meet the needs of all children.
With the second report card we find it is most helpful to give parents an idea of what most first-graders can do, and where support is helpful…
SOCIAL SKILLS AND WORK HABITS…As we enter the final trimester, there are increased expectations for applying what we know and following routines, procedures and directions with reduced teacher support and increased independence. As stated with the first report card, the related skills of listening attentively and following directions can be challenging for some first-graders. Within this grading system, an “S” (for sometimes) indicates that a particular skill is challenging, or that a student does not yet apply a skill independently or consistently. Supporting certain school expectations at home can help children acquire more independence both there and at school. For instance, setting up a home routine for managing nightly reading, returning library books, wearing sneakers on P.E. days, etc. Encouraging responsibility for these routines builds a child’s ability to follow sets of directions and models systems of organization. Asking them to be responsible for increasingly complex multi-step tasks will also support this goal.
READING…Children began the year at many different levels and their current levels remain varied, however they have all grown tremendously as readers and they should be proud of their progress. When reading with your child, you should notice that they have several strategies that they can apply at a point of difficulty. Kids’ first strategy is usually to sound out the unknown word. Phonics is a very important skill, however if that doesn’t work they should be able to try other things. Is there a little word within the unknown word? (yesterday) We have worked with root words, suffixes (playing, leader…) and prefixes (untied, redo) as well. We are practicing reading past an unknown word and using context clues to figure it out. Children will sometimes stop at an unknown word and when other strategies don’t work, they get stuck. When reading at home, encourage your child to read past an unknown word, then think and reread. As independent use of strategies increase, we read, read, and reread, to improve fluency. You will hear this progress as your child begins to read in phrases and with improved expression as opposed to flat, word-by-word oral reading.
The most important, and often most challenging aspect of reading is comprehension. Strong readers constantly self-monitor while they read. They ask themselves “Does that look and sound right?” and “Does that make sense?” “Do I understand what is happening in the story?” In class the children take a “picture walk”, make predictions and build a sense of story before they read. They check those predictions while reading and, if necessary, change their thinking. One of the main ways that we assess comprehension is by asking the children to retell what they have read. A story retell should include setting, characters, a detailed sequential plot, and conclusion. We also ask kids to tell about their favorite part of the story and ask them to share a connection (to their own lives or with another book) to what they have read. You can provide practice with this skill while reading with your child at home. You can further support comprehension skills by talking about the author’s message or “big idea” as we do when we read together in class.
Although your child is much more able to read to you, please don’t ever stop reading aloud to him/her! The books that you choose to read to your child will usually be above their current reading level. This will expose them to different genres, more sophisticated language structures and new vocabulary. You’ll be modeling expressive, fluent reading and helping to instill the lifelong love of reading.
WRITING… We’re sure that you’ve noticed the difference in your child’s writing skills. We've been working on using an organized story structure so our narrative writing pieces (stories) contain a good beginning, detailed middle and clear end. We're working hard to add details and describing words in our pieces. Students are starting to include words that tell order (Ex: first, then, next, after that, finally...) in their stories. We've introduced opinion writing where the author states his/her opinion, gives reasons for that opinion (at least 3) and closes by stating his/her opinion again. As the length and complexity of our writing increases, a shift in focus from mechanics to content may be noted in less accuracy with capitalization and punctuation. (Ex: When kids were only writing 1 or 2 sentences it was easy to attend to beginning capitals and ending punctuation. They write much more now, and those skills are more likely to be overlooked.) This temporary shift may be reflected in the performance level indicated on the report card. This is developmentally typical and should not cause concern.
WORD WORK / PHONICS… We have been working hard on spelling skills as well. Although invented spelling is still encouraged, there are many spelling patterns and skills that we have practiced and expect to see reflected in their spelling. They are applying word family skills ( “If I know day then I can spell play.”), consonant digraphs (ch, sh, th, wh) and consonant blends (bl, br, str, gr, sn, fr, fl…) We are studying long vowel patterns (silent e and common vowel teams such as ai, ee, ea, oa... ) and beginning to use short vowels with increased accuracy. Children should not be including extra letters that do not represent sounds in the word. At this point in the year, children are spelling high frequency words accurately or using the word wall to locate and copy these words as they write. 2nd grade words are also being introduced for those who are ready for the challenge.
MATH…. In the 1st trimester we worked to develop number sense and spent a lot of time on compassing (adding) and decomposing (pulling apart) numbers within 10. Now we're applying our place value skills to start to add, subtract and compare with larger numbers. Each day we also work with to apply our math skill in story problems. We are using the Read, Draw, Write strategy to solve the problem and show our thinking. You can get more information about math topics on math page of this website. You’ve heard it before, but it’s worth repeating…please continue to provide regular practice with the important skills of telling time, on the hour and half hour (coming soon!), counting mixed coins and addition/subtraction facts.
Here are the math benchmarks for 1st graders in March....
Addition facts-all sums to 5, and the following facts to 10: +0; +1; doubles and combinations of 10
Subtraction facts- within 5; -1; -0; - half (EX: 4-2, 6-3) and -whole (Ex: 9-9), subtracting from 10
Identifies names and values of coins- pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters
We hope the report cards are helpful in understanding your child's strengths and areas of focus at school. Again, celebrate your child’s successes and encourage them in areas that still require extra practice and support.
Thank you for your continued support throughout the year!
Sincerely,
The First Grade Teachers
You will be able to access your child's report card online through Powerschool by the afternoon of April 4th.
This is the time of year when you can really see the results of all the hard work the children have been doing throughout the year. Things start to come together and kids begin to be able to work more independently and apply the skills that we've been learning and practicing throughout the year. Of course, as the year progresses, expectations increase. The grades on the report card are reflective of those increased expectations. The benchmarks change for each term, therefore your child’s performance level may change. It is also important to know that while the standards clearly state common learning goals for all first graders, we regularly extend and provide extra support to meet the needs of all children.
With the second report card we find it is most helpful to give parents an idea of what most first-graders can do, and where support is helpful…
SOCIAL SKILLS AND WORK HABITS…As we enter the final trimester, there are increased expectations for applying what we know and following routines, procedures and directions with reduced teacher support and increased independence. As stated with the first report card, the related skills of listening attentively and following directions can be challenging for some first-graders. Within this grading system, an “S” (for sometimes) indicates that a particular skill is challenging, or that a student does not yet apply a skill independently or consistently. Supporting certain school expectations at home can help children acquire more independence both there and at school. For instance, setting up a home routine for managing nightly reading, returning library books, wearing sneakers on P.E. days, etc. Encouraging responsibility for these routines builds a child’s ability to follow sets of directions and models systems of organization. Asking them to be responsible for increasingly complex multi-step tasks will also support this goal.
READING…Children began the year at many different levels and their current levels remain varied, however they have all grown tremendously as readers and they should be proud of their progress. When reading with your child, you should notice that they have several strategies that they can apply at a point of difficulty. Kids’ first strategy is usually to sound out the unknown word. Phonics is a very important skill, however if that doesn’t work they should be able to try other things. Is there a little word within the unknown word? (yesterday) We have worked with root words, suffixes (playing, leader…) and prefixes (untied, redo) as well. We are practicing reading past an unknown word and using context clues to figure it out. Children will sometimes stop at an unknown word and when other strategies don’t work, they get stuck. When reading at home, encourage your child to read past an unknown word, then think and reread. As independent use of strategies increase, we read, read, and reread, to improve fluency. You will hear this progress as your child begins to read in phrases and with improved expression as opposed to flat, word-by-word oral reading.
The most important, and often most challenging aspect of reading is comprehension. Strong readers constantly self-monitor while they read. They ask themselves “Does that look and sound right?” and “Does that make sense?” “Do I understand what is happening in the story?” In class the children take a “picture walk”, make predictions and build a sense of story before they read. They check those predictions while reading and, if necessary, change their thinking. One of the main ways that we assess comprehension is by asking the children to retell what they have read. A story retell should include setting, characters, a detailed sequential plot, and conclusion. We also ask kids to tell about their favorite part of the story and ask them to share a connection (to their own lives or with another book) to what they have read. You can provide practice with this skill while reading with your child at home. You can further support comprehension skills by talking about the author’s message or “big idea” as we do when we read together in class.
Although your child is much more able to read to you, please don’t ever stop reading aloud to him/her! The books that you choose to read to your child will usually be above their current reading level. This will expose them to different genres, more sophisticated language structures and new vocabulary. You’ll be modeling expressive, fluent reading and helping to instill the lifelong love of reading.
WRITING… We’re sure that you’ve noticed the difference in your child’s writing skills. We've been working on using an organized story structure so our narrative writing pieces (stories) contain a good beginning, detailed middle and clear end. We're working hard to add details and describing words in our pieces. Students are starting to include words that tell order (Ex: first, then, next, after that, finally...) in their stories. We've introduced opinion writing where the author states his/her opinion, gives reasons for that opinion (at least 3) and closes by stating his/her opinion again. As the length and complexity of our writing increases, a shift in focus from mechanics to content may be noted in less accuracy with capitalization and punctuation. (Ex: When kids were only writing 1 or 2 sentences it was easy to attend to beginning capitals and ending punctuation. They write much more now, and those skills are more likely to be overlooked.) This temporary shift may be reflected in the performance level indicated on the report card. This is developmentally typical and should not cause concern.
WORD WORK / PHONICS… We have been working hard on spelling skills as well. Although invented spelling is still encouraged, there are many spelling patterns and skills that we have practiced and expect to see reflected in their spelling. They are applying word family skills ( “If I know day then I can spell play.”), consonant digraphs (ch, sh, th, wh) and consonant blends (bl, br, str, gr, sn, fr, fl…) We are studying long vowel patterns (silent e and common vowel teams such as ai, ee, ea, oa... ) and beginning to use short vowels with increased accuracy. Children should not be including extra letters that do not represent sounds in the word. At this point in the year, children are spelling high frequency words accurately or using the word wall to locate and copy these words as they write. 2nd grade words are also being introduced for those who are ready for the challenge.
MATH…. In the 1st trimester we worked to develop number sense and spent a lot of time on compassing (adding) and decomposing (pulling apart) numbers within 10. Now we're applying our place value skills to start to add, subtract and compare with larger numbers. Each day we also work with to apply our math skill in story problems. We are using the Read, Draw, Write strategy to solve the problem and show our thinking. You can get more information about math topics on math page of this website. You’ve heard it before, but it’s worth repeating…please continue to provide regular practice with the important skills of telling time, on the hour and half hour (coming soon!), counting mixed coins and addition/subtraction facts.
Here are the math benchmarks for 1st graders in March....
Addition facts-all sums to 5, and the following facts to 10: +0; +1; doubles and combinations of 10
Subtraction facts- within 5; -1; -0; - half (EX: 4-2, 6-3) and -whole (Ex: 9-9), subtracting from 10
Identifies names and values of coins- pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters
We hope the report cards are helpful in understanding your child's strengths and areas of focus at school. Again, celebrate your child’s successes and encourage them in areas that still require extra practice and support.
Thank you for your continued support throughout the year!
Sincerely,
The First Grade Teachers