1st Grade Newsletter

October 1st - Dental Van Visit - See our Dental Van section of the newsletter for more information

October 1st - PTO Meeting, 5:30 PM, Media Center

October 2nd - Community Carnival, WHS

October 8th - Math Night, 6 - 7 PM, Cafeteria

October 9th - Leaf it to the Champions - STEP Exhibition of Learning

October 14th - 1st grade field trip

October 15th - Wildcat Walk

October 16th - NO SCHOOL

October 22nd - Trunk or Treat 5:30 to 7 pm

October 28th - Fall Picture Day

October 30th - Character Dress Up Day

November 2nd - CogAT™ screening begins

📁Please check your child’s take-home folder each night and initial their behavior card.

🧥Please remember to wear appropriate shoes for the playground. As the weather begins cooling off, please send a jacket with your child.

📕Please read with your 1st grader each night and complete the Monthly Reading Log. Make this a fun, special time for you and your little one to cuddle up and share a story!

Notice of COGAT testing for Grade 1 Parents/Guardians:

Each year, first grade students in all WCPS schools participate in the administration of the Cognitive Abilities Test™ (CogAT). Beginning the week of November 2, 2026 2024 - November 20, 2026, your student will be participating in the administration of this test. The specific dates for each class are TBD.

The CogAT™ measures each student’s level and pattern of verbal, quantitative (symbolic), and nonverbal (figural) abstract thinking and reasoning abilities. These abilities reflect the overall efficiency of the cognitive processes and strategies that enable students to learn new tasks and solve problems. We have allotted 1 hour for each of the three sections. Usually, each section takes about 50 minutes for students to complete. The only item students will need is a fully charged chromebook to complete the testing. Students should be well rested and have eaten a good breakfast in order to be ready to do their best on the test. Once you receive the exact dates, please be on time for school during this week. Please let us know in advance if your child will be absent during any of the testing sessions.

The purpose of CogAT™ screening is to inform staff of students’ areas of strength and weakness. CogAT™ results enable teachers to personalize learning experiences in the classroom. CogAT™ helps teachers evaluate how a student’s thinking and reasoning ability aligns with his/her performance in school and on other performance or skills-based assessments. Verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal abilities are closely related to a student’s success in school and specific subject areas.

CogAT™ is one screening tool used to assess areas of talent and inform possible placement in and adaptation of school-based academic programs such as GATE and Magnet. Code of Maryland Regulation 13A.04.07 § .02 requires school systems to screen all students for gifted and talented services by using multiple measures of aptitude, performance, and potential. CogAT™ is the preferred aptitude measure in use across most Maryland school districts.

Once testing is completed throughout the county, each family will receive a CogAT™ score report, from the WCPS Office of Advanced Programs https://www.wcpsmd.com/departments/advanced-programs This report will be sent to the home address/email. Please update your home address and email with our front office staff. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the GATE teacher, Heidi Strite, at strithei@wcps.k12.md.us or 301-766-8415.

Thank you,

First Grade Team and Mrs. Strite, GATE Teacher

The students will:

• Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson
• Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details
• Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events
• Practice sounds, blending and segmenting words, decoding one-syllable words and recognizing common and irregular words

The students will:

• Add and subtract within 10
• Organize and represent data
• Interpret data representations to ask and answer questions

Unit 1: Civics

• Community and leadership (understanding rules, leaders and responsibilities all help us shape and demonstrate our citizenship)

• Civic Engagement (understanding citizens have a positive impact on their community by being civically engaged)

This Month in ELA Knowledge:

• Students will study CKLA Unit 2, The Human Body. In this informational unit, students will learn reading skills such as asking & answering questions about key ideas in a text, retelling the main topic & key details, making connections between ideas, & using illustrations to describe main ideas.
• Big Ideas: 1. The body is a network of systems comprised of organs that work together to perform vital jobs. 2. There are many parts & functions related to the skeletal, muscular, digestive, circulatory, & nervous systems. 3. Germs can cause disease, some activities will help stop the spread of germs. 4. The five keys of good health are: eat well, exercise, sleep, keep clean, & have regular checkups.

This Month in ELA Skills:

• Students will continue to read the “Snap Shots” reader with purpose & understanding. Unit 2 Skills will focus on five vowel sounds & the most common spelling for each sound. Students learn to read & write words with separated digraphs (such as a and e in cake). The unit also includes grammar lessons on nouns (including proper nouns) as well as practice with new Tricky Words.

Students will study Addition & Subtraction Story Problems. In this unit, students solve new types of story problems within 10 using the relationship between addition & subtraction. They develop an understanding of the meaning of the equal sign & connect story problems to equations. There are several types of structures students will study: add to & take from, put together & take apart, & compare.

Don't forget about Math Night on October 8th at 6 pm!

We will begin our Earth Space Science Unit! We are excited to study the sun, moon, & stars. We will observe the sky, record data, analyze what we have collected, and interpret the data to describe patterns in the sky. Students will begin to understand that patterns in the sky can be predicted (such as the sun/moon rising in the east and setting in the west.)