First Grade Information

Information about First Grade

Birthdays:  Our celebration of birthdays is simple. We sing happy birthday and if the birthday student wants to bring in a special snack to share with the class, that is great!

Book Reports:        These are done during free time or special reading time - at school.

Curriculum:  We use the same Scott-Foresman and SRA Reading curriculum which is used by all of the elementary grades. This aids with continuity. Our Social Studies and Science are based on the Core Knowledge curriculum. Mrs. Crumb will teach Social Studies while I will teach Science. (See the Curriculum for units we will study.) We will be doing phonics and spelling. The two will be closely intertwined...we plan to have seriously good readers/spellers at the end of the year.

Enrichment: We will continue with many different enrichment activities and if there are any special gifts or information that you have that you would like to share with the class, please let us know. We really appreciate parent input.

Field Trips:  It is our goal to take a field trip once a month.  Some of the field trips we are planning at this time are UNC botanical gardens, the musical of Junie B. Jones, Carnivore Preservation Trust, the Morehead Planetarium, Farm visits and Marbles Museum.  These are among some we have done in the past. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please let us know. We love having lots of chaperones for our field trips.

Homework: We will plan to send home the following week's homework on Friday so that it gives you more options about when you do the homework - as long as it is done by Friday morning.

Journals: As you will notice, we write in our journals every day.

Report Cards: These will be coming to you at the end of October.  We will have a conference at that time to go over the report cards. This will be a great time for you to learn how your child is progressing. We will also have progress reports half way through each quarter. However, if at any time before this you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact either of us by email or phone or we can set up an appointment to discuss your concerns.

Snacks:  We have snack once a day.  Each child should provide their own snack. Extra      snack foods are gratefully accepted for those who forget to bring theirs.

Volunteers:  Many of you have already volunteered in different capacities, and that is so greatly valued. We really enjoy having volunteers for recess duty as that allows us more time planning/grading/etc. This time is from 11:10-11:40 every day. It is also very helpful to have extra help during our literacy time to assist with reading or writing activities in small groups. There are many other opportunities for volunteer work as well.