Adventures in 1st Grade

This evening, while I was recovering from another bout of Phillies Phever, I decided to try and narrate a book from our Harcourt collection and put it on my blog. While you are reading along, use your mouse to track the print with the pointer.  Ready to read along?  Please click on the link below.  Let me know if this worked on your computer and if you enjoyed this and you would like me to narrate other stories.

Dad, Beth and the Pens

This week we will continue discussing power and authority in Social Studies.  Who has power (can make us do something) in our lives?  Of those people, who has the authority (the right) to use that power (parents) and who uses power without authority (bullies)?

In Language Arts we are learning to identify words with the digraph “th”, words with initial blends “s” and “p” and our story words.  We will also be using our  story words in a sentence both orally and written.  For Reading we will be working on noting details in a story and we will be working on fluency by reading with expression.  Writing will concentrate on mechanics of a sentence, capitals at the beginning, punctuation at the end – with a special emphasis on the question mark, spacing between words and sounding out words to spell the sounds we hear.

In Math, we will continue working with 2 dimensional shapes, identifying shapes, describing shapes and discussing what shapes can make other shapes.

Our computers seem to be up and running and I will be working on having the students work on earobics and starfall during center time.  You can access these sites at home:  www.starfall.com and  www.earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html

If your child is absent and has access to a computer, you can go on the Harcourt website and read the stories that he or she misses.  If you look on the side of this page at parent resources, you will see a link for Harcourt Storytown with the username and password listed.  Mondays we usually read the Getting Started Story and work on the other selections on Tuesday through Friday.

Questions or comments?  Please let me know!!

Dave Ostheimer

As promised, here are some pictures that I took last week.

I also promised some information about Junie B. Jones at Borders.  She will be arriving around 6:00 and I know that there will be some children and teachers from other classes.  I am not sure if I will be able to make it due to other family obligations.

Finally, Friday is the last day to order from the new Scholastic Book list.  You can order easily on-line using the info that came home with your child.  If you would like that info again, please email me.

Reports cards should be in your mailbox Monday or Tuesday.  Please remember that your student’s grades are relative to where a student should be according to the Delaware State Standards.  Grades are not A, B, C etc and an EP is not meant to take the place of an A, an MP a B, etc.  An EP means that the student’s work and achievement is consistently above 1st grade levels, an MP means that a student is consistently performing at a 1st grade level.  NP means that the student is not quite at a 1st grade level yet and BP means that the student is  not achieving at a 1st grade level and require a lot of assistance in the classroom.

Unless noted, a BP is not a reflection of a student’s effort in the classroom. Grades are usually not a reflection on effort (although lack of effort may keep a student from reaching a particular level of achievement).  Effort can be reflected in a student’s comments.  Parent teacher conferences are not scheduled until after the 2nd Marking Period but I am available before school, after school or during my planning period by appointment (I have school, grade level and family commitments that need to be scheduled around).  A telephone conference is also an option.

Junie B. Jones will be visiting our local Borders book store on Thursday.  My family and I will try to attend and I know that many of our 1st grade teachers are also planning on attending.  More info will follow.

Have a great week (and I hope to have some new pictures up later this week!)

Dave Ostheimer

On Monday Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, we will be taking our assessment for our 1st two themes in our Harcourt Reading series. Some of the skills we have learned are: short a, short i and short o words, words with -all, plural words, naming and telling parts of a sentence (old school: subject and predicate), story elements: characters, setting, beginning, middle and end and contractions: did not to didn’t, etc.

In Math we are starting with geometry. We will be discussing shapes and how they relate to each other (1 hexagon = 2 trapezoids = 3 rhombuses = 6 triangles). We will continue with story problems (Mrs. Ostheimer said Mr. Ostheimer has to eat 9 vegetables. Some have to be peas and some carrots. How many of each does Mr. Ostheimer have to eat to equal 9 vegetables? 1 pea and 8 carrots: 1+8=9 or 2 peas and 7 carrots: 2+7=9, etc.

In Writing we will be illustrating our Fall writing: What I like to do in the Fall and we will continue to write in our journals.

In Science we will continue our Weather observations and in Social Studies we will continue to talk about rules, consequences and fairness in the classroom, the school, and society as a whole and we will have a unit on Fire Safety.

******* Wednesday is picture day. Please return the envelope that was sent home with your child even if you are not ordering pictures. This information is used to make sure that your child’s photo ends up in the proper class for the yearbook.

Thursday and Friday there is no school for children as the teachers have in-service days.

Questions or comments? Please email me or call the school and leave a message.

Thank you for your support.

Dave Ostheimer