~ First Grade Parent's Handbook ~
(Pick a topic below)
Brandon Valley Mission Statement
Responce to Intervention (RtI Flex Groups)
Responding to Errors in Reading
Brandon Valley School District
Mission Statement
“We will prepare our students to be life long learners and productive citizens in a global society through the creation of learning environments that result in success.”
Belief Statements
*We believe in the cooperation efforts of the students, educational staff, parents, guardians, and community for successful education.
*We believe in preparing a safe, nurturing, and stimulation environment which promotes mutual respect and trust.
*We believe in the acceptance of and respect for the unique physical, social, emotional, and intellectual needs of all individuals.
*We believe in the continual growth of knowledge, self-respect, life skills, citizenship, and global awareness to promote life long learning.
1. Everyone has the right to live safely. Aggression or inappropriate behaviors will not be tolerated. Examples of this would be hitting, pinching, pushing, kicking, running in the halls, etc.
2. Everyone has the right to learn. Any behavior that distracts a student from leaning will not be tolerated. Examples of this would be disrupting others by talking out of turn, walking around the classroom, or simply not paying attention.
3. Everyone has the responsibility to be polite. Each student is accountable for maintaining a positive classroom environment. Polite actions and language will be encouraged at all times.
4. Everyone has the responsibility to be honest. Honesty provides harmony in the classroom and helps students build their own sense of honor and self-worth. Anyone can make a mistake in judgment, but no one should compound the problem by lying or cheating.
5. Everyone has the responsibility to use time wisely. When students are late getting their work done, they rob themselves and their classmates of valuable learning time.
|
Your Child’s Potential |
|
K |
ids at this age are terrified of being left out. They are competitive, somewhat awkward in social interactions and exhibit short fuses emotionally; however, their attention span begins to increase. They are beginning to be more selective in distinguishing relevant information from an array. They want to imitate adult role models, so be careful your child doesn’t pick up some of your bad habits. Children this age form intense love bonds with a “best friend.” Many kids form this bond with their teachers, too.
|
What They Will Learn |
|
R |
eady or not, here comes reading! might well be this year’s motto, since reading is a primary focus. Try not to be alarmed if your child moves at a pace you consider too slow. Parents are frantic about reading, but unless there is a learning disability, all children do learn to read in their own time. Reading will be taught using an integrated language arts series that uses children’s literature, utilizing a combination of techniques: phonics (sounding out words letter by letter); sight word recognition (words that appear over and over in text); picture clues (mastering words by examining the nearby drawing or photo); and context clues (does it make sense).
Your child may be encouraged to use “inventive” spelling—it sounds right but will look unconventional (“ezy” for “easy”), though some teachers use tests to guide children to spell correctly. Another buzzword your may hear is “writing process,” the task of brainstorming a topic, writing a story, getting feedback, rewriting it, and then publishing it.
Math skills, too, will mushroom as he/she learns to count well beyond 30. There will be changes in the structure of the day—no naps, less free play, perhaps none. Desks replace tables, and your child will be held responsible for his/her own things.
|
The Teacher’s Expectations |
|
A |
sampling of skills taught: Find the main idea in a paragraph, recognize cause/effect relationships, predict the outcome of a situation, and write stories. Compare sets of objects using math symbols; read and write numerals (0-100) and number sentences; know the meaning of each digit in two-digit numbers; understand that a single object may represent a group (a dime represents 10 pennies), also add and subtract single digits. Gather information; graph it (pile up blocks to show ratio of kids who prefer dogs to those who prefer cats) and draw conclusion; learn units of measure; tell time to the hour and half hour. Study simple social concepts (holidays, our nation and flag). Care for and learn about needs of animals and plants; discover by experimentation that objects have certain properties (weight, color, texture, etc.).
|
Ways You Can Help |
|
A |
t home, provide your child a quiet and well supplied place to work. Discuss concepts of time with your child. Move beyond merely telling time by posing questions: “If we leave now and it take 30 minutes to get to Grandpa’s, what time will we arrive?” Obtain a library card for your child, in his/her own name. Visit the library often to check out books. At the grocery store, have him/her tell you the prices of items. Encourage your child to read when he/she wants, not when you think he/she should. Allow your child ample time (5 seconds) to sound out a word, before providing the word. Ask him/her to predict what will happen; then look for information as he/she reads. Help your child write letters and numbers periodically to increase their handwriting skills.
The Sonday System (Learn to Read) is a supplemental program we are using with students to help them read. This system is a multisensory, structured, sequential, and systematic approach to teach reading. The Sonday System is a complete phonics-based reading program which continually builds on previous concepts. New material is introduced, practiced, reviewed, and then new material is introduced again to build on the previous concept. The Sonday System is designed to teach students through their sense of sight, hearing, and touch. The students are receiving instruction in small groups of 4-6 students. Students receive instruction three days a week for 30 minutes. In small groups, we will do a lot of dictation of sounds, words, phrases, and sentences. We will use many flashcards. After three lessons, there is a mastery check which shows if the students have mastered the concepts before we move on. The Sonday System allows students to quickly experience success as readers, which enables them to become more independent and confident readers!
(RtI Flex Groups)
"Response to Intervention is the practice of providing high-quality instruction and interventions matched to student needs, monitoring progress frequently to make decisions about changes in instruction or goals, and applying child response data to important educational decisions." (NASDSE, 2005) Students receive this intervention three times a week for 30 minutes. The groups range anywhere from 4-15 students depending on the student’s needs.
August/September: Unit 1- Families and Neighbors
· Lesson 1- Our Family
· Lesson 2- Families Together
· Lesson 3- Our School
· Lesson 4- Our Neighbors
· Lesson 5- America is Special
October/November: Unit 3- Life Long Ago
· Lesson 1- Families Long Ago
· Lesson 2- The First Americans
· Lesson 3- Coming to America
· Lesson 4- The Pilgrims
· Lesson 5- People Keep America Free
December/January: Unit 4- All About Work
· Lesson 1- All About Money
· Lesson 2- Needs and Wants
· Lesson 3- Work and Jobs
· Lesson 4- All About Goods
February/March: Unit 5- Our Government
· Lesson 1- A Call for Freedom
· Lesson 2- A Plan for Our Country
· Lesson 3- All About Laws
· Lesson 4- What Can Citizens Do?
· Lesson 5- Our Leaders
· Lesson 6- Symbols of Our Country
April/May: Unit 2- All About Earth
· Lesson 1- From City to Farm
· Lesson 2- People Change the Land
· Lesson 3- Looking at Earth
· Lesson 4- Learning about Earth
· Lesson 5- Our World
August/September: Weather and Water
October/November: Animals and Habitats
December: Space
January: Magnets and Technology
February: Shadows, Light Sources, and Natural Resources
March/April: Plants
May: Rocks
First Grade Reading/Language Arts Curriculum
Robert Bennis Elementary First Grade uses the Harcourt Storytown Reading Series which incorporates phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, reading, grammar, and writing into the curriculum. The Storytown series is filled with a variety of literature. Nonfiction that supports reading includes news articles, biographies, research, and more. Fiction stories include wonderful narratives, poems, plays, and fantasy. The curriculum offers materials tailored to each student’s reading level. You can go online at:
www.harcourtschool.com/storytown for support.
Accelerated Reader is a computerized reading program that your student will begin sometime this year. Books are leveled and can be found in our school’s library, public library, and also your child’s classroom. Book are leveled from 0.5 (Pre-1) and up.
Once in the program, students then read (once or twice) a book of their choice at their level. When they are confident that they understand the book, they will take a comprehensive test on their classroom computer. Parents can be of great help if they first ask their child to retell the story and/or ask a few questions about the story. Most 1st grade tests will have five questions, and are worth .5 points. In first grade, we do not have point goals, this will start in 2nd grade. Students should strive to earn 80-100% on their tests. As students progress, their teacher may modify their reading range.
You may access a list of AR tests our school has by going to http://www.BrandonValley.k12.sd.us/RBE/students/arlists.htm . Click on one of the three buttons to list books by author, title, or level.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The math series we are using is Houghton Mufflin. The math series has hands-on activities with each lesson. To help students transition into first grade we will do a back-to-school section as a warm up. We will also have a beginning, middle, and end of the year test. These are some of the topics we will be covering this year in math:
*Number Concepts *Addition *Subtraction *Data and Graphing
*Plane and Solid Shapes *Spatial Sense and Patterns *Fractions and Probability
*Place Value to 100 *Order and Compare Numbers *Number Patterns *Two Digit Addition and Subtraction
*Time and Calendar *Using Money *Length and Weight *Capacity and Temperature
This is a list of the words that your child learned last year in Kindergarten. Please practice them with your child. They should be able to read these words, as well as spell them. This list is so very important because by knowing these words students will more readily become better readers and writers. Thank you for your part in helping your child to become a successful first grader!
|
my |
can |
it |
|
like |
you |
big |
|
the |
who |
get |
|
I |
here |
what |
|
to |
come |
in |
|
he |
up |
is |
|
a |
we |
at |
|
go |
little |
said |
|
do |
want |
look |
|
two |
this |
am |
|
that |
me |
but |
|
for |
where |
not |
|
the |
she |
are |
|
one |
down |
have |
Responding to Errors in Reading
Based on the way most of us were taught to read, we have told the child to “sound it out” when he/she comes to an unknown word. While phonics is an important part of reading, reading for meaning in the primary goal. To produce independent readers, who monitor and correct themselves as they read, the following prompts are recommended before saying “sound it out”.
*Give your child wait time of 5-10 seconds. See what they attempt to do themselves.
*”What would make sense there?”
*”What do you think the word could be?”
*”Use the picture to help you figure out what it could be.”
*”Go back to the beginning and try that again.”
*”Skip over it and read to the end of the sentence (or paragraph). Now what do you think?”
*”Put in a word that would make sense there.”
*”You read that words before on another page. See if you can find it.”
*”Look at how that word begins. Start it out and keep reading.”
*” Tell your child the word.
Most important, focus on what your child is doing well and attempting to do. Remain loving and supportive. When your child is having difficulty and trying to work out the trouble spots, comments such as the following are suggested:
*“Good for you. I like the way you tried to work that out.”
*“That was a good try. Yes, that word would make sense there.”
*I like the way you went back to the beginning of the sentence and tried that again. That’s what good readers do.”
*You are becoming a good reader. I’m proud of you.”