CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS
- November 25th: Alumni Kickball, Thanksgiving Lunch and Early Dismissal at 12:30 (No Aftercare)
- November 26th-30th: Thanksgiving Break!
- December 1st: Classes Resume at Normal Time
- December 11th- Early Childhood Winter Family night (more info to come)
What an exciting week we had in first grade! From learning new word patterns to meeting a real-life hero, our days were filled with fun and discovery. We were thrilled to see our first snowflakes of the season and had a great time “catching” flakes on sleeves, mittens and, yes, even our tongues!
In phonics, we focused on words with -an and -am. We practiced reading, spelling, and writing words like ham, jam, can, and fan. Everyone did a great job noticing how these word families help us become stronger readers and writers. We also kept up with our Piggy & Gerald reading challenge. Students are reading lots of books and sharing their favorites with friends. It’s so exciting to see everyone’s love of reading grow each day.
One of the highlights of our week was getting to meet Lieutenant Luke, a real veteran who came to visit our class. He told us about adventures on a submarine and what life was like underwater for THREE years! The students listened carefully, and asked thoughtful questions, and most importantly, learned about bravery and serving our country. We showed our appreciation by making heartfelt thank you cards! In addition, we had another visitor-an alumni. He talked about learning differences and strategies to overcome his challenges.
In our deep dive, we moved naturally from learning basic map skills to exploring important U.S. symbols. After practicing how to read maps and locate where we live, students were excited to discover what these places represent. This made it the perfect moment to introduce national symbols like the American flag, the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, and the Bald Eagle. To bring this learning together, the students created a booklet featuring each symbol and added a fact and illustration, helping them solidify their understanding and take pride in their growing knowledge of America. Make sure to check out the booklets which came home today!
In math, we continued to practice addition and subtraction facts, and were introduced to something new-doubles plus one! We learned that if we know a doubles fact, like 4+4, we can use it to solve 4+5 by just adding one more. The class worked hard on implementing this strategy and used dice and a deck of cards to help us remember our facts.
We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Karen & Danielle
