First Things First

First Grade Newsletter January 27, 2014

O give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among
the nation what He has done. Psalm 105:1
Important Dates!
2/3 Empathy Month Chapel with the Covenant Players (8:45 to 9:30 in the auditorium)! 2/3 Parent Workshop with the Covenant Players (2:30 to 3:30 in Matsukawa Place)! 2/11 100th Day of School Celebration (12:00 dismissalPlease look for an information letter sent home about 100s day later this week.)! 2/17, 2/18 Winter Break (No school for students)! On Monday, the students will take a pre-test over the 7 spelling words. If they can spell all of them correctly (or get just one wrong), they will receive a challenge spelling list to study for the week. As part of daily homework, the students will receive a spelling Tic-Tac-Toe. There are 9 activities in the Tic-Tac-Toe for practicing spelling. Each week, the students must complete at least 3 of the 9 activities and have a parent sign that activitys box. We hope that through focused spelling practice, the rst graders will feel more condent as they write!!

Language Arts!
This week, we will begin spelling and will learn our weekly spelling routines. We will also enjoy reading books about snow and doing some creative projects related to snow! If only it would actually snow! !

Important Notes!
February is Empathy Month in the elementary division! Starting on February 3 & 4, we will have special guests, The Covenant Players, help us to kick off our time of learning about and developing our empathy skills. Each of the elementary grades will have a special time of learning and fun with the Covenant Players."On Monday, February 3!8:45-9:30 a.m.!there will be a special chapel with the Covenant Players and parents are invited to come. There will be a special workshop for parents by the Covenant Players on Monday, February 3 from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in Matsukawa Place. We hope that we will all learn more about empathy and be more equipped to follow Christ's commandment in Matthew 22:39 to "Love [our] neighbor as [ourself]"."! New Blog Post! Check out the blog (www.makingiteducational1.edublogs.org) for some pictures of our super fun science time with high school science teacher, Mrs. Erwin!!

Math!
We will nish our unit on place value and begin our next unit on geometry. We will begin by learning about open and closed gures and how to count the sides and corners of shapes. !

Bible

! This week, we will begin our unit on Joshua and the Israelites settling the Promised Land. We will learn some well-known stories such as Joshua and the battle of Jericho. We look forward to seeing Gods power in the life of Joshua!!

Spelling

! Beginning this week, the rst graders will have weekly spelling words. Each week, the spelling words will all have a common spelling chunk, such as at, ore, ip, etc. This week, all the spelling words will have the chunk at. !
#1

Thank you,!
Miss Julie Johnson and Mrs. Janet Ekstrand!