It is hard to believe that our first graders have completed the first semester at Rockdale Elementary School.
In spite of the unusual start to the school year, the students have adjusted well to our safety precautions.
The year began with reviewing school rules, creating classroom social contracts and learning to become responsible for our own behavior.
Each class spent time reviewing letters, sounds, and sight words, but now our students are focused on the process of learning to read.
First grade is an exciting year that will show so much growth. Students start out knowing basic sight words, but become reading machines by the time they head to second grade.
First grade is also when students are introduced to the Accelerated Reading Program.
Once students can read books independently, they are able to earn points by taking quizzes on their library books and books they have read with their teacher.
The most important thing you can do to help your child is to practice reading every night at home. By meeting their reading goal, students will be able to attend Accelerated Reading parties at the end of each six weeks. This is such a motivator for beginning readers.
We will also honor our top readers at the end of the year. We cannot wait to see who will have the most Accelerated Reading points.
Although reading is a very important part of first grade, our students still focus on math, science, social studies and writing.
We learn about place value, skip counting, addition, subtraction, and money.
Much of this is learned through activities and games in the classroom, but parents can help by practicing weekly math facts at home. Our students have also participated in several science experiments this year.
We enjoyed making homemade playdough and exploring rocks.
Even though we have to social distance, the school will provide students with an opportunity to safely shop for family gifts in the “Santa Shop” on Dec. 16-17. This is a great opportunity for first graders to learn about financial literacy and how to manage money.
We are disappointed that we will not be able to attend field trips or perform our annual Texas Program for parents, but we are so thankful for the opportunity to teach the children.
We appreciate the support and cooperation of our community, parents and students as we work hard to provide the best education possible for all first graders.
Lorrie Birkhead, Jenae Byrd, Sharon McDaniel, Macy Montalvo, Hannah Noel, Valarie Willingham and Julia Wulff contributed to this report.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.