Martin Luther King Day! No School on Monday January 21, 2013

Place Value!

Learning about PLACE VALUE is an important skill at this time in first grade.  Enjoy the songs that help our children learn about PLACE VALUE!

If writing and recognizing numbers in the teens is still a hard skill for your first graders, this is a great video to help your child out!  

Parts of Speech! Nouns and Verbs

We have had a fun time learning about NOUNS!  Listen to the following song off of YouTube that we listen to as we we are learning about NOUNS!

  

A VERB is a word it's an action word, if you can do it, then you do it, if you do it, it's a VERB!

Why do we believe Raz-kids is such an awesome tool for your children?  

Students improve their reading skills by: Listening to books read for modeling fluency Listening to books with pronunciation and vocabulary support  Reading to practice their own fluency Recording their reading Checking comprehension with quizzes and running records Your child is exposed to many books at exactly the correct reading level.  We are so excited to see so many of the children using Raz-kids consistently.  Remember "The more you read the better you get"                  We are excited to see all of you on Tuesday!   Can't believe vacation is over so quickly!

Number Sense

     
     This is a fun math number sense game to play at home.  Your child should be able to count starting at any given number between 0-100.   The numbers in the teens are the some of the more difficult ones for first graders to figure out.  You can play this on a white board, a chalk board, or a piece of paper.  Remember always keep learning fun.    

                                                    5,____, 7  

                                 3, 4,  ____

                                 ____, 3, 4

                                 8, 9, _____
                                 10, _____, 12
                                  13, 14, _____
                                  _____, 18, 19
                                  _____, 16, 17
                                  18, _____, 20
                                   _____, 10, 11
                                   21,_____, 23
                                  _____, 31, 32
                                  44, 45,_____ 
     Make up your own. Thank you as always for you continued  practice on first grade skills at home.  Remember the more you practice the better you get.
     Continue also having your child practice counting fluently to 100 even though we count higher.  Fluency is VERY important in first grade.  The more you child counts fluently, the easier and more fluent addition and subtraction facts become.  Recognizing numbers fluently from 0-100 continues to help with our understanding of place value.  Show your child the following numbers and have him/her as quickly as possible state the given number:
5     17     1     4     18     14     12     15     2     4     6     10     12     11     1     13     19     3     20     5     1     9     5     16     13     10

For fun when you are watching the Broncos or any of the other sports teams, have your child say the numbers on the jerseys as quickly as possible.  
Learning doesn't have to be 

"just paper pencil"  
Learning can be found in everything that you do with your child!

Remember "fluency" is the key.  The quicker a child knows the answer without having to stop and think, the sooner your child becomes proficient at more difficult skills.  Fluency is  an important building block for developing number sense!  Xtramath is also a great way for your child to work on addition fluency!  The skills Xtramath helps your children become more and more fluent with basic facts and also continues to be a stepping stone for  for all first grade math skills involving addition and subtraction!  
     Thanks for your continued support!      

Segmentation Practice/Nonsense Words Practice

     Here is a skill your child needs to be  proficient at when working on reading and spelling.  This skill is called segmentation.  Have your child practice this game and show you how we work on segmenting words at school.  
     Tell your child the word and have your child break down the sounds he/she hears in the word.  Your child will make the "sounds heard" not spell the word.  We use our hands in class to show the movement of the word and the sounds that we hear as we segment the word.  Practicing this skill will help your child become a better speller also, because beginning spellers focus on the sounds heard.  This is a great skill to practice before your child comes back to school after the Christmas Vacation.  It's easy to play in the car when you are driving or while your child is helping you make dinner in the evening. Have fun!  
1. at /a/ /t/         2. in /i/ /n/ 
3. see /s/ /E/       4. go /g/ /O/ 
5. odd /o/ /d/      6. cow /c/ /ow/ 
7. am /a/ /m/      8. itch /i/ /ch/ 
9. ham /h/ /a/ /m/    10. jet /j/ /e/ /t/
11. big /b/ /i/ /g/       12. rod /r/ /o/ /d/                                              13. puff /p/ /u/ /f/     14. sky /s/ /k/ /I/                                             15. rake /r/ /A/ /k/    16.  sack /s/ /a/ /k/                                           17. key /k/ /E/           18. free /f/ /r/ /E/                                             19. like /l/ /I/ /k/       20. joke /j/ /O/ /k/

    

 First graders should also be able to read "nonsense words" to show their understanding of phonics.
Have your child practice sounding out the following  nonsense words to see how well your child is applying the learned phonics skills.  Have your child sound at the words and if possible read the nonsense word as a complete word.  We often times in the classroom call these Dr. Seuss words.
lib          fiz          jav          len          loj
jav         paj         sif           zet          bek
len         pok         cos         tuk          suj
loj          zet          ib           mo          bon
mitr        weml     nif          vor          qim


     Make up your own "nonsense words" and have your child figure them out!  Being able to read nonsense words helps a child become a better reading.