First Grade News
May 2016
May flowers are blooming and so are your children. Please remind them that school
is not out yet! We need everyone to continue doing their best work until the very last
day. We still have more to learn to prepare for second grade 
READING/LANGUAGE ARTS
The beginning of May will find first graders focusing on informational texts once again. As
students are engaged in reading informational texts they will be using text features (table of
contents, index, etc.) to locate important information and key details. We’ll also look at how to
determine the author’s main point as well as what reasons the author gives to support his/her
point. Students will continue to work on identifying the main topic of an informational text and
retelling key details. Students will be asked to determine the similarities and differences
between two texts on the same topic.
WRITING
In May we will once again be writing informational pieces where the children will supply a
topic, develop a table of contents, write some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of
closure. At the end of May our students will write opinion pieces where a topic is named, opinions
are stated, and closure is provided. First graders will be expected to edit these pieces by adding
appropriate details and combining information. They will need to use the correct verb tense,
conjunctions (e.g. and, but, so, or, because), correct capitalization and punctuation, and use
feedback from their peers.
SCIENCE
During science, we will continue learning about the many ways people affect the
environment and the importance of taking care of the environment. Students will be looking at
how people waste resources and what happens to our trash. They will also be identifying jobs in
our community and the impact these jobs have on the environment. Our classes will be learning
about ways to conserve the natural resources of water, land, and electricity. Students will
investigate ways we can protect the environment as we meet our basic needs for fresh air,
healthy food, clean water, and safe shelter. This will include ways the children can help, such as
recycling and cleaning up trash.
SOCIAL STUDIES
We will begin the month of May describing the economic choices people make by
identifying goods and services provided in our community. Our first graders will then have the
opportunity to design a community and choose the goods and services to include in that
community. Students will also explore the many ways technology affects the way people live, work,
and play by describing how tools and products impact their lives and the lives of those around
them. We will spend some time examining how people earn money by working at a job. Our
students will describe the skills and abilities that workers use to earn money at a job, and discuss
differences and similarities between jobs that pay and jobs that do not pay. Next, we will explore
how transportation and communication link goods and messages between people and places.
Students will discover where food, toys, and other goods come from and the many ways they can
be shipped to and from different locations. When studying communication, our first graders will
identify how writing letters, sending emails, and talking on the phone connects people through the
movement of ideas and messages.
MATH
Our first graders will focus on several mathematical concepts during the months of May
and June. We’ll begin with a study of geometry and the attributes that define two-dimensional
shapes such as triangles, squares and rectangles as well as three-dimensional shapes like cubes
and rectangular prisms. Students will draw shapes and practice sorting pattern blocks by their
defining attributes. Next, first graders will explore the concept of composite shapes and how
they may be created by using other two-dimensional figures such as hexagons, triangles, and
other four sided shapes. We will identify and describe how three-dimensional shapes are used to
create new shapes and build composite rectangular prisms with connecting cubes. As we near the
middle of the May, we will investigate how whole shapes may be partitioned into equal shares
including halves and fourths. As students divide shapes into equal parts, they will recognize that,
in doing so, they create smaller shapes. This will become more evident as they compose whole
rectangles from four equal shares and partition a rectangle into fourths to create new shapes.
IMPORTANT DATES
May 30 Memorial Day - No school
The First Grade Team