April 18, 2024

Dear first grade families,

More sunshine, some fun science creations, and another visit from Clean Rivers Education! These are a few of the highlights from this week.  Students used an assortment of materials, (cotton balls, paper plates, cups, pipe cleaners, and lots of tape) to design an animal-inspired solution to a problem.  Our problems ranged from a messy pet dish to keeping stuffies from falling off the bed.  We also had a Storytelling session with Clean Rivers Education and learned about the macroinvertebrates who live in Portland’s rivers and streams. 

Health Unit

We will soon be starting our next health unit, Growth and Development / Violence Prevention.  This unit teaches about recognizing, reporting and refusing bullying; safe and unsafe touch; safety rules; and basic understanding of male and female body parts.  There are two opt out lessons, Understanding Our Bodies: The Basics and The Circle of Life, in this unit.  If you would like to opt your child out of those two lessons, another activity will be provided for your child while the lessons are being taught.  The Opt out letter provides more information.  Please return the form and/or reachout by email if you plan to opt your child out.  

Helpful Links

April Homework can be found here. 

Volunteer opportunities can be found here. 

What we are learning next week :

• Phonics skills: long u vowel teams ew (chew), ue (blue), and ui (suit)
• High frequency words: favorite, brother, room, new, knew
• Comprehension skills: main idea and details; problem and solution; moral or lesson in a fable 
• Mentor texts: In honor of Earth Day and Arab heritage, mentor texts will include Just a Worm by Marie Boyd and Lost and Found Cat by Amy Clarice Shrodes and Doug Kuntz.
• Writing: Nonfiction research writing continues. Students will organize facts for a first chapter. 
• Math: adding and subtracting tens and ones
• Social Studies: Students will learn about maps and create a map of the neighborhood. 

Dates to note

• May 3: Class portraits
• May 17: First grade field trip to She Persisted – permission slips will be sent home next week

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child, please feel free to reach out.  Have a great week!

Best,

Nicole

April 11, 2024

Dear first grade families,

What a beautiful spring week! Students have all been buzzing about softball and baseball, which has been fun to hear about. At school this week we are wrapping up our final Cinderella inspired stories and opinion writing. Students have also started creating some animal inspired inventions, and worked on the challenging skill of telling time. As a quick reminder, report cards will be mailed out after tomorrow. 

Upcoming Field Trip

Save the data for May 17th. First grade will be going to see She Persisted at the Newmark Theatre. It is put on by Oregon Children’s Theater. More details and permission slips will be coming soon.

Helpful Links

April Homework can be found here. 

Volunteer opportunities can be found here.

What we are learning next week :

• Phonics skills: oo as in school and reviewing vowel teams 
• Comprehension skills: main idea and details, story map
• Mentor texts: In honor of Arab Heritage month, mentor texts will include Big Red Lollipop by Rakhusana Kahn and Mama in Congress by Adam Tlaib, Miranda Paul, and Rashida Tlaib.
• High frequency words: they’ve, have, work, really, wrote
• Writing: Nonfiction research writing begins with lessons focusing on the elements of nonfiction and note taking.
• Math: review telling time and place value;  unit assessment
• Science: We will conclude Parts, Patterns, and Solutions. Students take on the engineering and design process by building & improving a solution to a problem. 

Dates to note

• April 13: Spring Community Cares, 9 to noon
• April 17: PTA fundraiser at Nico’s ice cream
• May 17: First grade field trip to She Persisted

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child, please feel free to reach out.  Have a great week!

Best,

Nicole

April 4, 2024

Dear first grade families,

I hope you all had a nice spring break. It’s been a busy first week back at school with spirit week and assessing for report cards.  Students learned about biomimicry in science, wrote opinion pieces about The Rough-Faced Girl, worked on comparing and contrasting with the mentor text Same, Same, Different, and compared numbers in math.  Remember, there is no school Friday, as it’s a teacher planning day for report cards. 

Book from home

Next week we will wrap up opinion writing with “book reviews”.   Students are invited to bring a book from home to use for this project.  I’ll have books available at school as well for first graders to choose from.  Any book brought from home  should be at your child’s independent reading level and something that has already been read.  Please bring these books in on Monday. 

Clothing Drive

The PTA Clothing Drive goes April 3-10.  Thank you to families who have already donated.  Click here for more information.

Helpful Links

April Homework can be found here. 

Volunteer opportunities can be found here. 

What we are learning next week (after Spring Break):

• Phonics skills: long i digraphs ie and igh (i.e. pie and night) and silent letters kn and wr
• Comprehension skills: main idea and details
• Mentor texts: Bigfoot Cinderrrrrellla by Tony Johnston, and Malala’s Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai, and The Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammad 
• Grammar skill: personal pronouns
• High frequency words: together, become, write, night, walk
• Writing: Opinion writing focusing on a favorite book
• Math: Week 23; telling time to the hour and half hour
• Science: Continuing with biomimicry, students will choose a problem and plan possible solutions using ideas inspired from nature. 

Dates to note

• April 3-10: PTA Clothing Drive (see link above for more details)
• April 4: Last day of the third quarter; report cards mailed home after 4/12

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child, please feel free to reach out.  Have a great week!

Best,

Nicole Hunt

March 21, 2024

Dear first grade families,

We are nearly there!  Spring break is just a day away.  This week, first graders enjoyed time in the garden looking for signs of spring and learning about seeds.  In class, we read books about neurodiversity and continued exploring place value and opinion writing.  We practiced a lockdown drill and a fire drill this week as well.  On Friday, students will celebrate their safe, responsible, and respectful behavior with a Cougar Paw celebration. First graders will have a “watch party” together, then participate in the K-2 Dance Party.  It should be a fun way to end the week! 

Spirit Week and Clothing Drive

The week after Spring Break is also spring Spirit Week. Here is the information:

CLASS SPIRIT WEEK COMPETITION IS BACK THIS YEAR! Thursday, April 4 is Pajama and Sock Day! Bring donations of socks or underwear – or a printout of an Amazon wish list receipt – to support the Drive and show your class spirit. The class with the largest haul will earn a popcorn party and priority parking for their teacher. 

The PTA Clothing Drive goes April 3-10. Click here for more information.

Helpful Links

March Homework can be found here. 

Volunteer opportunities can be found here. 

What we are learning next week (after Spring Break):

• Phonics skills: long o digraphs oa, oe and ow (i.e. boat, toe, snow)
• Comprehension skills: compare and contrast and retell
• Mentor texts: The Rough Faced Girl by Rafe Martin, Bigfoot Cinderrrrrellla by Tony Johnston, and Same, Same but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecky-Shaw
• Grammar skill: personal pronouns
• High frequency words: carry, above, own, good
• Writing: Opinion writing focusing on character and key events
• Math: Week 22; Comparing Numbers. 
• Science: Engineering design process and thinking about solutions inspired by animals 

Dates to note

March 25-29th: Spring Break

April 1-4: Spring Spirit Week

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child, please feel free to reach out.  Have a great week!

Best,

Nicole Hunt

March 14, 2024

Dear first grade families,

The week after daylight savings is always a challenging one.  Students, families, and teachers are all adjusting to waking up earlier and perhaps trying to maintain an evening & bedtime routine while it is still light outside.  The sunny days have been excellent for keeping our energy up and our recesses active.  During class this week, students enjoyed reading several versions of Cinderella, thinking about how animal physical features help them survive, and working with counting  patterns. 

Yesterday, first graders had a practice lockdown with the support of Ms. L and another PPS support person.  Beverly Cleary will be having a lockdown drill sometime before Spring Break. I want to discourage others from telling the specific day, as that often greatly raises anxiety. Feel free to reach out to Ms. L if your child is having a lot of big feelings around drills. Thanks for your support!

Math Books

The workbooks that go with our curriculum are being sent home with students, as the pages we are going to use in class have already been torn out. The pages that are left include explanations for families, as well as practice pages that we will not be completing in class. I thought these might be helpful, as they demonstrate how students are learning at school. The pages could also serve as extra practice to support students who might want a little more math support. This is completely optional, so do with them what you want. Feel free to complete the pages that correspond to the lesson we are on (lesson 20 this week), use them to play “school”, or recycle them if they are not for you. Feel free to reach out if you have questions!

Helpful Links

March Homework can be found here. 

Volunteer opportunities can be found here. 

What we are learning next week:

• Phonics skills: long e digraphs ea and ee (i.e. eat, Jeep)
• Comprehension skills: character traits and theme –  This week’s mentor texts will include Interstellar Cinderella by Deborah Underwood. In honor of Women’s History Month AND Neurodiversity week, we will also be reading The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin  by Julia Finley Mosca and Ben and Emma’s Big Hit by Gavin Newsom. 
• Grammar skill: using commas in a list
• High frequency words: nothing, special, over, live, draw
• Writing: Opinion writing conitines, with a focus on book characters and character traits.  We will finish an opinion piece on Cinderella from our familiar Cinderella stories, and then students will write about Cinderella from Interstellar Cinderella.
• Math: Understanding Tens and Ones; challenge options will include adding multiples of 10 to a 2-digit number and working with place value & 3-digit numbers. 
• Science: Continued look at animal adaptations that help them survive and exploring examples of biomimicry (engineering solutions to human problems by copying ideas found in nature)

Dates to note

March 25-29th: Spring Break

April 1-4: Spring Spirit Week

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child, please feel free to reach out.  Have a great week!

Best,

Nicole Hunt

March 7, 2024

Dear first grade families,  

I hope you are all doing well. Students have enjoyed outside recess with this sunny, yet cold, weather. This week students did a great job thinking about syllable types, reading multisyllabic words, writing paragraphs about the main idea and details of a text, and beginning work with place value. 

Heart Challenge winners!

Ms. Hunt’s class won the Heart Challenge! Our class gave more money to the Heart Association during the Heart Challenge. As a prize, students will get to enjoy a Friday dance party tomorrow. Thanks for your work parents in helping get donations for this worthy cause! 

Helpful Links

March Homework can be found here. 

Volunteer opportunities can be found here. 

What we are learning next week:

• Phonics skills: long a digraphs ai and ay (i.e. chain, stay)
• Comprehension skills: asking questions and story mapping.  Next week, we’ll start a unit centered around various versions of Cinderella.  We plan to include multicultural and alternate point of view texts.  This week’s mentor texts will include Glass, Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella by Paul Fleishman.  In honor of Women’s History Month, we will also be reading Little People, Big Dreams: Wilma Rudolph by Isabel Sanchez Vegra and Girl Running: Bobbi Gobb and the Boston Marathon by Annette Bay Pimentel this week. 
• High frequency words: pretty, done, old, give, way
• Writing: We are going to begin opinion writing next week. Students will write opinions related to books and book characters.  We will begin writing an opinion piece about a character from Cinderella.
• Math: Counting to 120; challenge options will include skip counting, ten more / ten less, and adding multiples of 10 to a 2-digit number.
• Science: Exploration of how animals use body parts for survival, including a closer look at bird beaks. 

Dates to note

• March 25-29th: Spring Break
• April 1-4: Spring Spirit Week

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If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child, please feel free to reach out.  Have a great week!

Best,

February 29, 2024

Dear first grade families,  

This week we celebrated the 100th Day of School and first grade writing!  Thank you if you attended the Author Share today.  If you were unable to attend, you will be able to see your first graders narrative work when it comes home in their folder soon.  We also had Gardening class this week.  Students made and tasted Cauliflower Popcorn. Here is the recipe if you would like to make it at home! 

Helpful Links

March Homework is out and will be sent home with students today or tomorrow. You can also find it here. 

Volunteer opportunities can be found here. It has been so helpful to have an extra adult in the room for reading and math! This really helps me support learners at their level. 

What we are learning next week:

• Phonics skills: -ed, syllable types, plural s 
• Comprehension skills: Theme, character, problem and solution.  Mentor texts include Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena & more African fables. 
• High frequency words: some, brother, more, make, circle
• Writing: Paragraph writing with a main idea, 3 supporting details, and a conclusion.
• Math: Understanding Tens
• Science: Exploring patterns to match animal babies and parents

Dates to note

• March 25-29th: Spring Break

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child, please feel free to reach out.  Have a great week!

Best,

February 22, 2024

Dear first grade families,  

This week, first graders have been working on their personal narrative stories and thinking about reading them aloud at the Author Share to be held next Thursday, Feb. 29th.  We’re also wrapping up our second math unit and enjoying a week learning about graphs and data.  First graders are also having fun with some new recess equipment and pretty good luck with the weather this week! 

Buddies

School-wide buddies didn’t work out this year as they did last year, so Ms. Lee and I decided to have buddies. First graders from my class will be paired up with a buddy or two from her fourth grade class. We plan to meet Friday afternoons once or twice a month, beginning tomorrow. We put a lot of thought and effort into buddy pairs and hope this will be a fun and positive way to build community and friendship. 

Author’s Share

The author’s share is in one week, February 29th, 12:15-1:15 pm. Students have been working hard to get narratives ready. Remember, please limit guests to 2 per student. If no one is able to attend for your student, please let me know and I will arrange for a staff member to cheer them on. 

Helpful Links

February Homework can be found here. 

Volunteer opportunities can be found here. 

What we are learning next week:

• Phonics skills: er, ir, ur (i.e. her, shirt, curl)
• Comprehension skills: Compare and contrast, main idea and key details, and theme. Our primary mentor texts will focus on African folklore, including Anansi The Spider: A tale from the Ashanti by Gerald McDermott and The Lion and The Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. 
• High frequency words: would, could, should, new, few
• Writing: This week students will focus on writing a retell in paragraph form with an opening, 3 key details, and a closing. Plus, they will be getting ready for the Author’s Share on Thursday!
• Math: Review Unit 2 Numbers Within 20: Addition and Subtraction and Representing Data, and Unit Assessment
• Science: Parts, Patterns, and Solutions:  Students will identify animal body parts and describe how animals are similar and different. Guiding questions are: How do we tell animals apart?, and How does a baby animal compare to its parent? 

Dates to note

• February 29th: Author’s Share
• March 25-29th: Spring Break

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child, please feel free to reach out.  Have a great week!

Best,

Nicole Hunt

February 15, 2024

Dear first grade families,  

This has been a wild week in first grade. Between illnesses among both teachers and students plus Valentine’s Day, we have all been using our life skill of flexibility. Students had a great time passing out Valentine’s and celebrating together. Thanks for your support at home with the boxes and cards. A special THANK YOU to Stacey Valenzuala for bringing class treats!

Author’s Share

Save the date for February 29th, 12:15-1:15 pm. Students will be ready to read their narrative stories. Please limit guests to 2 per student due to space restrictions. If you are unable to come, feel free to send someone else in your place. If no one is able to attend for your student, let me know and I will arrange for a staff member to cheer them on. 

Coats Please

Please send your student to school with a rain coat every day. I suggest keeping one in their backpack or locker as a backup. We will go outside unless it is pouring.  Your student might also want a cozy sweatshirt since our classroom can be chilly somedays. 

Invites Reminder

As a reminder, students can pass out party invites in class if they are being passed out to the whole class. If they are only for some, we ask that these be distributed outside of school hours. On the playground before or after school could be a good option. You can also find contact information in the PTA Directory.

NWCT 

I don’t typically pass along a lot of activity information, but I thought I would share this one. There is a family arts festival February 24 & 25 put on by the NWCT. If you’re interested, learn more here. You can get free tickets with the code SpotlightSCHOOL.

Helpful Links

February Homework can be found here. 

Volunteer opportunities can be found here. 

What we are learning next week:

• Phonics skills: ar (i.e. car, art)
• Comprehension skills: Main idea and details, written in paragraph form and biography notes. Our primary mentor texts will be Justice Rising: 12 Amazing Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement by Katheryn Russel-Brown and Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes.
• Grammar skill: compound and complex sentences, reviewing proper nouns, and ending punctuation
• High frequency words: again, above, before, home, house
• Writing: Personal Narrative: copying personal narratives into final drafts 
• Math: Collect and Compare Data
• Science: Patterns, Parts, and Solution continues with a focus on baby and parent patterns in animals

Dates to note

• February 19th (President’s Day): regular school day
• February 29th: Author’s Share

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child, please feel free to reach out.  Have a great week!

Best,

February 8, 2024

Dear first grade families,  

It’s been nice to have a regular week of school. This week students have enjoyed learning how animals stay safe from predators, writing more narratives, and beginning our science unit with a cute video of a dog and ducks. We also read books in honor of African American History including I’m From by Gary R. Gray and The Yellow Bike by Craig Robinson.

Yearbooks

2023-24 Yearbooks are available for purchase from Jostens.com.  They must be ordered by February 19th for a guaranteed order.  The school will order a few extras, but may run out.  So if you want one, please order one from Jostens.  

February Homework

February Homework can be found here. 

Valentine’s Day 💝

If you need a reminder about Valentine’s Cards or Valentine’s Boxes click here. 

Classroom Volunteers

Volunteer opportunities can be found here. I added another math spot on Wednesdays. 

High Frequency Word List

A handful of families have asked about spelling expectations for first graders. Students are learning new spelling patterns and high frequency words every week.  One of the goals for this year is to use conventional spelling for common first grade words.  You can print this high frequency word list for home writing practice.  Students can refer to it when writing for fun at home, or you may want to initiate a more structured plan for practicing reading and spelling these words.  

What we are learning next week:

• Phonics skills: or, ore (i.e. chore, horn)
• Comprehension skills: Main idea and details, written in paragraph form. Our primary mentor text will be Our Story Starts in Africa by Patrice Lawrence.
• Grammar skill: compound and complex sentences
• High frequency words: our, once, or, why, just
• Writing: Personal Narrative: choosing a favorite narrative and preparing to publish. Author’s share date coming soon! 
• Math: Word Problems to 20
• Science: Patterns, Parts, and Solution continues with a focus on how animal parents and offspring behave to help babies survive. 

Dates to note

• February 14th: Please bring Valentine’s Boxes and cards. 
• February 19th (President’s Day): regular school day

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child, please feel free to reach out.  Have a great week!

Best,

Nicole