The new culture we are studying in Social Studies is Australia.  The children will learn about Australian animals, sports, holidays, schools, and Australia’s location.  We will focus on geography skills as well as introducing the children to a new way of life in another part of our world.

Since the children are studying Australia, we are also going to learn about an Australian children’s author, Mem Fox.  Her books contain Australian animal characters as well as lingo used in Australia.  It is an excellent way to integrate Social Studies and reading together. 

In math the children have begun to work with the combinations of 10, such as 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 4+6, and 5+5.  To reinforce this at home you can play a game. Get 10 objects (pennies, buttons, cheerios, etc.) and put an amount in the bag.  Ask the children if they can figure out how many are in the bag by comparing how many are not in the bag.  You will see if they use their combinations of 10 to figure it out.  Have fun!!

Just as a reminder, please continue to sign their reading logs and math fact sheets nightly.  Thank you for your continued support.

                                                          The First Grade Team