THIS MONTH IN FIRST GRADE

October has already been a very productive time for the First Grade Students. In Reading and Language Arts many new skills are being introduced. The children are being challenged to decode new words with the short and long vowel sounds. They are recognizing consonant patterns like double consonants and consonant blends. They have begun to recognize and write different types of sentences. This has helped them to be more confident and excited about their early attempts at reading. It has also helped them with their vocabulary in other subjects.

In Math lessons, the students are solving word problems and beginning to work on addition. They have just begun to use and enjoy Math Centers to practice these skills independently and with each other. The link at the end of this web page provides some games and activities for practice and challenge at home. It compliments our lessons because it is provided by the same company that prints our math books.

The students are very excited to participate and lead in faith sharing. When they sing they sound terrific!! Two First Grade students will be leading the whole school in morning prayer over the intercom each morning for one week. In their Religion lessons they are learning about the Catholic faith and listening to God’s word through Bible stories. They will take part in The Living Rosary with the rest of the student body and learn about Mary.

This month we will learn and share about pumpkins. Mrs. Farrell helped them to decorate two pumpkins for the community competition. They turned out great!

An extra focus on fire safety will take place in Social Studies. We will have an educator from the city of Joliet present a lesson on recycling. Another visitor will be with us to talk about bike safety. At the end of the month a visit to the Joliet Area Historical Museum will introduce and enrich our November lessons on native Americans.

We have begun to put a spelling word list in our student planners at the beginning of each week. We are using this to review words we know and to practice for Spelling Test format.

Our school days are moving quickly but as the children have learned the routines they are getting more accomplished. Learning is fun!

The home support is wonderful and so helpful. Thank you parents for everything you do! Your support is what makes St. Mary Nativity such a great place to be.