1st Grade

Tuesday: Mass, Music

Wednesday: Mass, Library, Liturgical Music*

Thursday: Mass, Fr. Sam Visits,* Little Sprouts**

Friday: Mass, Art

*denotes afternoon specials

**denotes seasonal specials

October 30 - Trunk or Treat 🎃

October 31 - Halloween 🎃

November 1 - All Saint's Day 🌼

November 2 - All Soul's mass in cemetery 5pm ⛪

November 3 - E-Learning due to voting on campus 📩

November 6 - First Friday adoration 🔆

November 20 - Field Trip to Science Central 🔭

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

+ Thank you Mrs. McKay and all those who sent in materials for the class party!

+ Safe environment training information is in the teacher note

+ Spelling tests start next week! List is below and was sent home

+ IF YOU ARE EVEN CONSIDERING THE POSSIBILITY OF DRIVING FOR FIELD TRIPS, PLEASE FILL OUT PAPERWORK ASAP. I know this sounds early, but it takes almost a week for the new background check to get processed and I don't want anyone to miss out on the opportunity should they want to participate!

TAKE HOME FOLDERS

+ Sign in for IXL (keep in folder)

Use this link to sign in: www.ixl.com/signin/stlouisacademy

+ Completed papers from this week (stay at home)

+ Sight word lists (practice often, return daily)

Hello!

I enjoyed getting to meet with all of you this week during parent teacher conferences! Again, please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. Parents are the first teachers of their children and hearing your home experiences helps me to provide them with what they need at school!

This week, we got to experience the solar system in a fun way by making our own model for the bulletin board and stargazing in the classroom. We extended understanding of the Mass readings by doing an armor of God activity in the classroom.

Next week, we will be starting a new phonics unit. Make sure to keep reviewing and practicing skills that have already been learned so students can build those connections and continue to make them faster and more automatic in their brain. We will be finishing our space unit so will have some tests over that later next week as well.

🚸 We will be doing Safe Environment Training in November. Please see previously sent Dojo message for "opt out" link if you do not want your student to participate. (We read "The Swimsuit Lesson" by Jon Holsten and Scott Freeman and lightly discuss the topics in the book.) 🚸

Spelling Tests

Spelling tests might look a little different than you are used to... With our new program, the words do not all share a phonics theme such as "all long vowels" or "all short vowels." Instead, they are spiral reviews of things that we learned in past units. Essentially, spelling tests for unit 3 will include words from unit 1 and 2; tests from unit 4 will include words from 1, 2, and/or 3; unit 5 will include words from unit 1, 2, 3, and/or 4; and so on.

This past week's main content:

Math: Addition strategies and 1 step word problems

Social Studies: Timelines of space travel

Writing: Opinion writing

Science: Patterns in the sky: moon phases

Phonics: End of unit assessments

Reading: Comprehension of nonfiction

The past week's main interventions:

1. Balancing equations

2. Opinion writing

3. Reading comprehension

4. Reading and writing sight words

I hope you grow in faith, love, and gratitude for all the blessings the Lord has granted you this week.

With joy,

Mrs. Newman

Research shows that students who read for 20 minutes a day or more are exposed to about 1.8 million words each year! This exposure helps students read and write better, learn new vocabulary, build empathy, and improve mental health... Not to mention, they get second-hand exposure to exciting adventures, historical events, and innumerable other tales!

Please do not send toys to school. Students are not allowed to have them out during the day even if they bring them. We also have the opportunity to bring them on special occasions as a reward for good class behavior or for special celebrations and activities. If students bring in toys regularly, these occasions will not feel as special.

Email: enewman@stlouisacademy.org
Website: stlouisacademy.org
School Address: 15529 Lincoln Highway East | New Haven, IN
Phone: (260) 557-8665

While most first graders will not learn standard multiplication, the songs below can be helpful tools for students who are learning to skip count. As another benefit, becoming familiar with skip counting and these songs at an earlier age can help with math growth in the future, so I decided to include them here as tools for anyone who might want them. Happy humming!