Welcome to First Grade!

Dear Families,

Welcome! My name is Ms. Hoelzel and I am ecstatic to be teaching you this year! To
start off, I will tell you about myself so you have a better idea of who I am. This is my
first year teaching 1st grade and I couldn’t be more excited! When I first realized I had a
passion for teaching and helping children learn and grow, I was just a teenager. I began
having a strong interest in making learning activities for who I babysat and loved doing
it. That is when I decided to go to Raritan Valley Community College and get my
degree in Education. From there, I finished my degree in Education at the College of
New Jersey! Some of my favorite things to do is be outside in the sun and being around
friends and family! I cannot wait to learn about each and every one of you!

I strongly believe that learning should be a fun experience for students, and that is
exactly how I intend the learning environment to be in my classroom. Students will be
learning math, reading, writing, and lots more! We will do all different kinds of fun
activities and play with our friends! Some exciting things that I have planned for us
include two field trips this year! One in winter, will be to The Liberty Science Center in
Hudson County and another in spring where we will be going to the Turtle Back Zoo
located in Essex County! Another fun activity I will be doing with my students is every
month I will be putting the children into groups where not only will we be making our
own team names but we will be participating in fun Jeopardy games about the subjects
we have learned that month! Each child from that group will be rewarded with a prize
from the prize box! But, do not worry for each student will get multiple chances to win
from my prize box!
 To give a brief overview of some areas of content students will be focusing on,
here is a list of a couple areas of content students will be learning this year! For math,
you could expect students to be working on lessons such as solving simple math/word
problems, recognizing shapes and how many sides they have, being able to count
money, etc. In regards to what students are going to be working on with their reading
skills is to retell stories, working on reading fluency, learning comprehension, and
more. As well as learning how to write fluently and know proper punctuation, learning
descriptive words, writing with detail, etc. Students will be able to feel a sense of
community as they will be learning lessons in groups, partners or independently. What
is most important is that students are able to have fun learning and in a way that is
accommodating to all different learning styles!

Supplies needed

- Pencils
- Markers
- Pens (any color works except for red!)
- Colored Pencils
- Crayons
- Erasers
- Glue sticks
- Scissors
- Notebook

Now, if any family cannot afford this must, please reach out to me through my email,
grace.hoelzel@gmail.com and I will help as best as I can! Also, with that, if anyone can
donate folders, notebooks, pencils, or any coloring rolls in bulk or to our classroom
feel free to do so! This year will be filled with so much love, laughter, and fun but most
importantly LEARNING!

Sincerely,

Ms. Hoelzel