Dear Parent/Guardian:

                We are already in the second semester of 1^st grade, and before we know it, school will be out.  Here are just a few reminders to make the second part of 1^st grade just as successful as the first:

• Students should arrive on time each morning and take advantage of the free breakfast provided by the school to students arriving before 7:35 am. (School starts promptly @7:50)
• Please send your child to school prepared each morning with any necessary materials i.e. pencils, erasers, etc in order to make the day more productive.  I have had a few parents send in supplies (which was greatly appreciated), but there are only a few students who come in prepared who don’t have to waste time looking for a pencil to write with.  I have exhausted my supply of pencils and we are in need of the following supplies: pencils, erasers, glue sticks, crayons and crayons.  In addition, please provide your child with a set of headphones because the children are on the computer daily; and when we go to the computer lab on Thursday, it is hard to hear inside the lab with everyone’s computers going.
• Please check your child’s folder each day and initial daily in order to keep the lines of communication open.  If your child comes home on red, they will have a note stating why which needs to be signed by the parent and returned the next day.
• Also parents please don’t allow your child to bring toys to school because it causes distractions.
• Please remind your child about the importance of following school and class rules.  Also encourage them to use their words when they have a disagreement with someone instead of hitting to solve their problem.  

Curriculum

1. Reading – Benchmark 3 begins February 1^st – (word recognition, fluency, story elements – characters, setting, problem, and solution)
2. Language arts – past tense and present tense, subject-verb agreement; review proper nouns, nouns, singular and plural words, antonyms (opposites), synonyms (same or almost the same), capitalization, punctuation.
3. Math – odd and even numbers, dividing groups of objects, place value, 2 digit addition; counting money, adding using the method of counting on ( say the biggest number and count onto the big number with the smaller number (9+4 – you say 9 and count on 4; 9..10..11..12..13)
4. Science – Upcoming – Learning about how magnets attract to certain objects and how the same poles on a magnet repel each other.
5. Social Studies- Upcoming – Learning about the accomplishments of famous African Americans.
6. Health – personal hygiene and proper nutrition.

Upcoming Events

*Black History projects ^h

Awards Day – January 25, 2010

*March – Gold medallions will be presented to students who reach their goal of 2.9 in  reading on the Success Maker program

*April – CRCT

Please feel free to contact me with any concerns @770 306-3510 or email me at chestnuts@fultonschools.org 

                                                                                                                                               Mrs. Chestnut