Greetings to all. My name is Mrs. Slay. I'm a first grade teacher at East Elementary. I've been teaching first grade for the past twelve years. I think it is an amazing grade to teach!

First grade is a very busy year. Your child will learn to read and write stories this year. Parental support at home makes a world of difference. The most important thing you can do is to listen to your child read each day. When he/she is finished reading the story have him/her retell you the story trying to include all the important details in the order they happened in the story. This will help to improve reading comprehension.

Your child will also have high frequency words and spelling words to learn each week. Please help your child practice these at home. high frequency words are sight words that your child should be able to read quickly. In class we also discuss the definitions of each sight word.

In math we will start the year learning about 2D shapes using pattern blocks, counting a set of 20 objects, skip counting by tens to 100, illustrating and solving simple word problems and building patterns.

I am thrilled to be helping your child learn so much this school year!