First Grade: February 9-13, 2026
Dear First Grade Families,
Welcome back to school! The Mid-Winter break has made for reinvigorated students and teachers ready for more learning and the springtime. Thank you for joining us for our Lunar New Year celebration where students celebrated the return of spring and proudly shared speech and song in Mandarin.
In the classroom, students have come back to their Language Arts block rooted in English fairy tales. Before the break, they worked toward mastery of the glued sounds “am” and “an.” Students found it interesting to observe how the vowel sound changed when “glued” or “welded” to a nasal consonant sound. This sound chunk has unlocked a lot of words for learners beyond CVC words, such as sand and clamp. In addition to practicing phonics with teacher-provided examples, students enjoy manipulating Bananagrams tiles to come up with their own. Nonsense words are often included to help improve learners’ accuracy and automaticity in reading. Dr. Seuss books are a wonderful resource for such words! “Have you a Zans to open your cans? You should.”
Well past the midpoint of the school year now, students are demonstrating giant leaps in their confidence in so many ways. Their increasingly dignified comportment as they transition between classes, sit respectfully during focused learning, and eat a good lunch is telling of their growth. (Naturally, there is plenty of age-appropriate silliness in between!) Not only that, but students are standing taller when they think of how well they are doing. Wearing a heart-melting smile, a student was recently sharing that they are better at handwork than they thought and how they liked it better now since they are “actually good at it!” As the year goes on, this confidence will be tested and made even stronger with further opportunities to perform in front of an audience, especially in their class play. More details on that special event are coming soon!
Outdoors, the children have been enjoying rotating around different spots on campus for recess. Drawn to a deep puddle in a rarely explored area, they played in their “pool” before noticing a tunnel through the bushes! Many journeys through the tunnel were succeeded by stops at the pool, with two students even taking on the important role of lifeguard. This type of open-ended play, so healthy for the children's development, emerges on a regular basis in our school environment where creativity, minimal media exposure, and time in nature create fertile ground for those young imaginations.
Announcements & Reminders:
Please ensure your child has a seasonally appropriate change of clothes. A pair of socks is one of the most frequently needed items!
Parent Conferences are scheduled for March 12 and 13. Please sign up for a conference slot here. I look forward to meeting with each of you and discussing your child’s progress.
March 7: Community Work Day
March 12: Teacher-Parent Conferences (Half-day)
March 13: Teacher-Parent Conferences (No School)
March 18–19: Picture Day - Class photos will be taken, along with a makeup opportunity for students who missed photos in the fall.
Warmly,
Ki Michelle
