Mrs. Donaghho's Class

Life in First Grade

This week we will read about animals in the cold and the seasons as we learn about the short a sound and begin formal spelling instruction. We will have our first spelling test this Friday and begin working in our spelling journals. We will also learn about editing sentences, writing a class story, main ideas and details in reading and plural nouns. We will finish a chapter in math on how to represent and recognize numbers on a ten-frame. In social studies, we will continue to learn about our world and our country as we study maps. We will also continue learning about Thanksgiving. In science we will learn more about animal groups. In religion, we will learn about St. Elizabeth as we celebrate her feast day. We will also learn about how God watches over us and how Jesus healed and helped people.

Please practice this week’s high frequency words:

animal, fall, full, bird, flower, see, cold, look of

Please continue to review prior weeks‘ first grade high frequency words

Formal spelling begins this week. The children will do spelling homework on Monday and Thursday. A spelling journal will be sent home on Monday. The children can choose the activities they would like to do for a total of four points or more. The directions are on the inside of the journal. Spelling words to be used for spelling homework:

an, at, can, cat, had, man, catch, add, match, sap

Please stop by the classroom to sign-up to donate items or serve and clean-up at our Thanksgiving celebration on Monday, 11-23-09 at 11 a.m.

Kindergarten Skills to Review at Home

Review all skills sent home by Ms. Kathy in end of the year packet.

All children should be able to tie their shoes upon entering first grade. Please practice over the summer.

Write first and last name neatly

Write all letters neatly

Know all letters and letter sounds (vowels included—long and short)

Count and write numbers to 30

Know high frequency words ( see website and summer packet)

Practice reading word family words attached

Write neatly and use two finger spacing when writing words in sentences

Know phone number and address

The Pledge of Allegiance

First Grade Skills to Practice:

Write numbers to 100

Math facts

Know coins, their names and values

Count by 2 to 20, by 5 and 10 to 100

Know these basic prayers: Our Father, Hail Mary, Angel of God, Glory Be, Grace

Read every day or read to your child every day. Ask the who, what, when, where, why and how of the story. Ask your child who are the characters, what is the setting, what is the problem and how was it solved, what was the story about and what was your favorite part.

Begin to practice first grade high frequency words.

Practice reading at starfall.com

Check out the learning links at the bottom left hand side of my webpage.