Special Day: This week Wednesday is the first of our Wacky Wednesdays to celebrate reading month for March. 

Devotions and Prayer – This week we will continue with Lent and Easter devotions – focusing on the last 40 days of Jesus’ life. Later in Lent, we’ll be reading about different symbols and collecting them in eggs to create a set of “Resurrection Eggs.” 

Bible – We’ll be finishing our mini-unit about Psalms and Proverbs. Highlights of this unit:
✼  The Book of Psalms is a collection of poetry written by God’s people.
✼  King David wrote many of the psalms.
✼  God’s people wrote psalms to offer adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication.
✼  The Book of Proverbs contains wise sayings and words of advice.
✼  Solomon wrote many of the proverbs.
✼  Proverbs tell us about our relationship with God, others, and ourselves. 

Patterns of Power (Grammar) – Our focus this week is on action verbs.

Writing Workshop -We continue writing opinions. We are working hard on developing our ideas and adding more details. Instead of saying, “I like that dog because it is cute” our goal is to add more and say something like, “I like that dog because it has cute ears and a nice nose.”We’ll also be looking over the goals for the unit and reading some mentor texts written by other 1st graders.

Math – Our work in Chapter 5 continues working on place value and teen numbers. We’ll work on making 10 for an addition strategy and will keep practicing our addition and subtraction facts through 10. One thing that you can practice with your child at home is counting from one decade number into the next. Here’s an example… 27, 28, 29, _____. Knowing which decade number comes next is very helpful in this unit. 

Phonics – This week we’ll be working on digraph blends like phr which makes the sound “fr.” We’ll also be working more on knowing when to use K or CK.

Reading Workshop– This week we’ll be working on asking questions to help us figure out what is going on in a text. This week we’ll be working in non-fiction narrative books to see how the graphics and pictures can give us clues about what we’ll be reading about.  We’ll be doing this in a book called Recess at 40 Below.

Social Studies/Science – This week we have our last light and sound activity. Then we’ll begin our unit on places. We will explore themes of location, place, region, and human/environment interaction. We will use a variety of tools (Google Earth being one of them!) to learn familiar and new vocabulary: maps, globes, compass rose, aerial perspective, absolute and relative location. We will also try our hand at addressing envelopes for our mail carrier to read!  Later in the unit, we will discuss and explore how often we interact with God’s creation and how we modify or adapt to our environment.

Remember to Check the Virtual Lost and Found: Please CLICK HERE to view photos of lost and found items. If you see something that belongs to your child, please email Laura at lszotko@grcs.org and the item will be sent home with your child. Feel free to call the office at 616.574.6500 to ask about missing items. 

Dates to Note:

Wednesday, March 17, 2021: No school for K — 8 students.

• Please note that preschool will be in session and preschool students will attend on this day.

March is Reading Month and we are Wild About Reading!  We will have Wacky Wednesdays to celebrate.

• March 3:  Read Your Shirt Day (wear a shirt with words)
• March 10:  Clash Day (wear mismatched clothes)
• March 24:  Team Day (wear Eagle gear or your favorite team jersey)
• March 31:  Shades Day (bring your favorite sunglasses for reading!)

GRC_IQ_March_2021_menu

Devotions and Prayer – This week we will start our Lent and Easter devotions – focusing on the last 40 days of Jesus’ life. Later in Lent, we’ll be reading about different symbols and collecting them in eggs to create a set of “Resurrection Eggs.” 

Bible – This week we will be working on a unit about Psalms and Proverbs. Highlights of this unit:
✼  The Book of Psalms is a collection of poetry written by God’s people.
✼  King David wrote many of the psalms.
✼  God’s people wrote psalms to offer adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication.
✼  The Book of Proverbs contains wise sayings and words of advice.
✼  Solomon wrote many of the proverbs.
✼  Proverbs tell us about our relationship with God, others, and ourselves. 

Patterns of Power (Grammar) – Our focus this week is on verb-subject agreement and then will move to action verbs.

Writing Workshop -We continue writing opinions. We are working hard on developing our ideas and adding more details. Instead of saying, “I like that dog because it is cute” our goal is to add more and say something like, “I like that dog because it has cute ears and a nice nose.”We’ll also be looking over the goals for the unit and reading some mentor texts written by other 1st graders.

Math – This week we will finish up our place value unit and take the assessment. Then, we’ll begin Chapter 5 which continues working on place value and teen numbers. We’ll work on making 10 for an addition strategy and will keep practicing our addition and subtraction facts through 10. One thing that you can practice with your child at home is counting from one decade number into the next. Here’s an example… 27, 28, 29, _____. Knowing which decade number comes next is very helpful in this unit. 

Phonics – This week we’ll be working on MCW list 12. We’ll also continue working on words with vowel pairs. You may remember learning the saying, “when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” We’ll learn how to prove words that follow this pattern.

Reading Workshop– This week we’ll be working on asking questions to help us figure out what is going on in a text. This week we’ll be working in non-fiction narrative books to see how the graphics and pictures can give us clues about what we’ll be reading about. 

Social Studies/Science – We will wrap up our unit on light and sound this week. Here are some highlights of this unit: Sounds are made when something vibrates. Sounds can be loud or soft, and high or low. We use sound and light to communicate. A shadow is made when something blocks the light. 

Remember to Check the Virtual Lost and Found: Please CLICK HERE to view photos of lost and found items. If you see something that belongs to your child, please email Laura at lszotko@grcs.org and the item will be sent home with your child. Feel free to call the office at 616.574.6500 to ask about missing items. 

Wednesday, March 17, 2021: No school for K — 8 students.

• Please note that preschool will be in session and preschool students will attend on this day.

Dear Parents,

We had so much fun celebrating the 101st day of 1st grade! Check out the link to our photos by going to the photos page of the blog. Password grcs.