Royal Reader!

This week, another Royal Reader surprised us and read the book, "Pumpkin Soup" by Helen Cooper. The students enjoyed the beautiful illustrations and the rhythm of this book! Thank you for coming in to read to us!

Royal Reader!

We were surprised by a Royal Reader last Friday, when Mrs. Matthews came in to read, "I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato" by Lauren Child. The students were very thrilled to learn some new, exciting words for ordinary fruits and vegetables!

Library Resources

The Arlington Heights Memorial Library website offers fantastic reading opportunities! Below are two of my favorites:

Online Tumble Books
1. Visit the library website www.ahml.info
2. Click on the orange circle for "Kids' World"
3. Click on the words "Books & other stuff"
4. Under the category "Online Books" click "Tumblebook Library"
5. Click on the red circle that says "Story books"

(You must go through this process, as it is a site that the library subscribes to!)

Read the Books (Book recommendations)
1. Visit the library website www.ahml.info
2. Click on the orange circle for "Kids' World"
3. Click on the words "Books & other stuff"
4. Under the category "Online Books" click "Read the Books"
5. On this page, you can look up books alphabetically or by subject, and recommendations will come up for all grade and reading levels!

Have fun exploring!

Royal Reader!

This week brought our first Royal Reader of the year! Dr. Jares surprised us and read us his favorite book, "A Fine, Fine School" by Sharon Creech. During the story, the students stopped to discuss and make predictions about what the principal in the story was going to do next. He loved school so much, that he decided it would be a fantastic idea to have school on weekends, holidays, and through summer vacation! Hopefully Dr. Jares didn't get any bright ideas!! Thank you for coming in to read to us. We can't wait to see who the next Royal Reader could be!

Questions about homework?

I've received a few questions this week about homework. As we are easing into the routines of first grade, homework is very light for the first few weeks. Our math homework will begin next week, and our spelling and reading homework will begin September 20th. If you are looking for things to do between now and then, you can visit everydaymathonline.com with your child's user name and password you received at curriculum night, where they can play math games. You can read to your child, and have them read to you. If you have trouble finding books at their appropriate level, you can take a family "field trip" to the library. To practice writing, you could have your child write a letter to a friend or family member and mail it- receiving a return letter will be a great motivator to write more! You could also give them a prompt to write to, like "What is your favorite season?" or "What is your favorite thing about first grade?" and remind them to develop their writing, by giving two or three reasons explaining why they feel the way they do. I hope this information helps clear up any confusion over beginning of the year homework! Please let me know if you need any other suggestions!

Math games

This week, we learned two new math games, Monster Squeeze and the Penny Dice Game. If you would like to practice these games at home, you can find Monster Squeeze in the games section of everydaymathonline.com. To play the Penny Dice game, place 20 pennies in a "bank" between the players. One partner rolls a die, and takes that number of pennies from the bank. Then, the other partner does the same. This continues until the bank is empty, however, the exact number or less needs to be rolled to take the final pennies from the bank. For example, if there are 4 pennies in the bank, and a partner rolls a 5, they may not take any pennies from the bank- they must roll a 4 or less. Once the bank is empty, the player with the most pennies wins!

Curriculum Night tonight!

I am looking forward to seeing all parents at Curriculum Night tonight, where I will be discussing our subject areas and all of the details of our first grade classroom. My presentation will begin in our classroom at 6:45, and I will wrap things up in time for us to attend the PTA meeting in the Gym at 7:30. See you there!