Hello Parents! First grade is a big and exciting year for your little one. There are many new concepts introduced and taught in this grade, especially in reading and writing.

This year your child will be spending a lot of time learning to read independently by implementing reading strategies to decode words and understand story structure. It is my goal that by the end of first grade they will become strong and confident readers who learn to enjoy reading. In order to achieve these goals I use a reading framework called Daily 5 to help my students become those strong and confident readers who develop an enjoyment for reading. 

Daily 5 consists of five DAILY lessons in the areas of comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and vocabulary where I explicitly teach and model strategies for students to use and practice. After each lesson my students will get to choose one of five centers to pracitce in: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Word Work, Work on Writing, and Listen to Reading. In addition to these learning centers, I will be conferencing weekly with each student listening to them read and assisting them in their strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, I will be forming groups based on their abilities, these groups are flexible. Daily 5 provides an environment that promotes a love and ownership of reading while allowing each child to grow to become independent and confident readers.

Your child will also be spending much time learning to become a thoughtful and confident writer through the use of many writing lessons, including the use of the Six Traits of Writing. These lessons will help them grow into a writer who has a "story" or "message" to share.

Writer's Workshop will be performed three to four times a week. Each lesson is about 10 minutes and provides a specific writing strategy that is taught and modeled for my students. My students then get 30 minutes to free write in their own writing journal to be able to practice and implement writing strategies. While students write I walk around and assist in the development of thoughts and encourage my students in any way needed. It is so amazing to see how much first graders grow in both their reading and writing!

Grammar, Phonics, and Language skills come from Daily Oral Language books and Houghton Mifflin first grade curriculum basal.

Sight words are selected weekly and practiced daily through whole group chanting and writing of words, games, and other writing activities. These words are used in all writing activities throughout the day.