Welcome to First Grade

We had a great first day here in first grade, getting to know all our new classmates and seeing familiar faces from kindergarten. Students brought their stuffed animals from home and shared them with the class. We talked a lot about procedures and rules today. Our Mary Castle Expectations are


Be Respectful
Be Responsible
Be Safe
Be Caring
Be a Peaceful Problem Solver


Students are learning more about these expectations in their special area class times this week. We will start regular specials on Thursday, which will be library day. Please have your child wear gym shoes on Mondays for physical education.


Today we read the book Chrysanthemum. We also started a chapter book for read aloud from the Magic Tree House series, The Day of the Dragon King. This book is very relevant to our school, as well as our teacher and principal. We will find out later why Ms. Smelser chose it to read first. We also read lots of poems and sing songs during read aloud time.


This afternoon we had math centers and were able to play with lots of different types of manipulatives and games. Here is a picture of one activity we could have chosen to do.