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W E L C O M E T O F I R S T G R A D E 2013 - 2014 Immaculate Conception School Annandale, New Jersey. W E L C O M E T O F I R S T G R A D E.
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WELCOMETO FIRSTGRADE 2013 - 2014 Immaculate Conception School Annandale, New Jersey
WELCOMETO FIRSTGRADE We can’t wait to meet you in just a few short months. We hope you have a really great summer vacation. You worked so hard in kindergarten and now you’re officially a first grader! Hooray for you! In order to be ready in September, this packet is filled with activities for you to do over the summer. Please follow directions carefully and return the packet to your first grade teacher during the first few days of school in September! , Mrs. DelGaizo and Mrs. Pepperman
Parents, if your first grader is not already doing so, please make sure, prior to entering first grade in September, your child can dress himself or herself, including buckling a belt, buttoning buttons, zipping zippers (including coat zippers), and tying shoes…yes, tying shoes! Also, the bathrooms are no longer in your child’s classroom. Please make sure your child can go to the bathroom by himself or herself, can wipe himself or herself, can clean his or her hands, and clean up after himself or herself (put paper towels in garbage)! In the “big school” we do this by ourselves right from the beginning of the year! It is imperative that your child work on these personal grooming and hygiene skills over the summer so he or she is ready for our wonderful first grade adventure as he or she steps into school on the first day! We are so excited to meet you and get started on our journey! Mrs. DelGaizo and Mrs. Pepperman
Prayers to Know BEFORE You Come to First Grade The Sign of the Cross In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. (Your child should also know hand gestures that accompany prayer.) The Our Father Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven; Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen ICS Afternoon Prayer Be our shining light, O, Lord; During the rest of this day, and all through the night; Show us the good that surrounds us, so that we might praise you; Protect us from all dangers, so that we might give you thanks; Through Jesus, who is Lord forever and ever. Amen.
Summer Reading It is important that your first grader continue to practice reading over the summer! Please encourage your child to read at his or her “end of kindergarten” reading level, for at least ten minutes a day. Additionally, you are encouraged to read to your child for ten to fifteen minutes a day (or at least in place of his or her ten minutes of reading!) When your child reads independently, it reinforces the decoding process and adds to his or her “reading vocabulary.” When you read to your child, it aids and models the decoding process and adds to his or her “listening and reading vocabularies”. Consider providing your first grader with a variety of reading experiences. Books are wonderful and very entertaining, however, also consider providing magazines, computer generated reading opportunities, and even non-traditional opportunities, such as road and retailer signs on trips, and cereal boxes found right in your kitchen!
Math • The summertime is the perfect time for you to review skills s/he already learned! Think about papers that have come home from kindergarten, or even skills that your kindergarten teacher recommended your child practice! Those are the skills you should be reviewing for the majority of the summer. • If you can’t think of any, (and even if you can) consider this. Like kindergarten, first grade is a building block year. We introduce and practice the skills that your child will need to understand more complex skills in the future. We teach the tools of math. In order for your child to have strong, reliable tools it’s important that these building block skills are mastered before we add new ones. • How can you help? Over the summer make sure your child can identify and write numbers (1-20) automatically (without prompting) . Here are some suggestions for accomplishing this task: • Invite your child to write numbers using sidewalk chalk, water and a paintbrush on the driveway, or a finger in the sand, (or in shaving cream). • Have your child build numbers using cookie dough or jello cubes. Maybe your child can eat the numbers s/he forms correctly!?! • Additionally, make sure your child understands the value of each number. Here are some ways you can do this: • Pick a number of the day. Have your child point out whenever he sees that quantity of something. For example, if the number of the day is 5, your child may see five ducks in a pond, or notice that five peas fall on the floor at dinnertime. Have him/her point this out! • Each day put a secret number of items in a container. Have your child count them. You may even have him/her keep a journal each week and compare the value of the items counted each day. (Which had the most? Which had the least? Put them in order from least to greatest/greatest to least.) • How easily can your child identify basic shapes, like circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles? • Have him/her point out these shapes when s/he finds them in the real world, or show him/her family photos, and have him/her pick shapes out in the photos. • Have him/her draw a picture entirely out of a particular shape. Have him/her draw the same picture using a different shape. Explore which was easier/more difficult. • Keep a “shape scrapbook”. Collect media (photos, drawing, pictures) of each shape and scrapbook them on the same page or section of your book.
Journaling Expressing himself or herself in writing will permit your first grader to apply encoding skills, which partner with decoding skills in the acquisition of language and language skills. The kindergarten teachers worked very hard to teach your children how to hold a pencil correctly and form letters correctly. Please follow through at home, and make sure your child is holding his or her pencil correctly as he or she writes in the journal! Please encourage your reflect on each week and pick one thing to write about and illustrate. Journal entries need be one or two sentences. Remind your child to write neatly and use a capital letter and an endmark (. !). For the final entry please have your child tell his or her first grade teacher about himself or herself. Please do not wait until the end of the summer, or even August to catch up. This sounds easy to us, but is very difficult for most new first graders.
Week Ten Tell your new teacher about you!
