Welcome to First Grade!

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome to an exciting new school year! We are the first-grade teaching team at Emerson Elementary, and we are thrilled to have your child in our classes this year. First grade is an incredible time of growth, discovery, and learning, and we are excited to partner with you to support your child’s academic and personal development.

What to Expect in First Grade

This year, your child will build essential skills in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies while developing independence, confidence, and a love for learning. Mesa Public Schools’ learning milestones for first grade focus on:

📚 English Language Arts

• Recognizing sentence structure, phonics skills, and sight words

• Reading grade-level texts with fluency and comprehension

• Writing opinions, informative pieces, and narrative stories

🔢 Mathematics

• Understanding place value and counting to 120

• Learning addition and subtraction strategies within 20

• Telling time, measuring lengths, and recognizing shapes

🌍 Science & Social Studies

• Exploring weather, plants, animals, and simple physical science concepts

• Learning about our community, geography, and historical events

📝 Social & Emotional Learning

• Practicing kindness, cooperation, and problem-solving

• Developing independence and responsibility

Communication & Partnership

We believe a strong home-school connection is key to a successful year. We will keep you informed through newsletters, emails, and class updates. Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions or concerns.

We are looking forward to a fantastic year filled with learning, growth, and fun. Thank you for your support—we can’t wait to see all that your child will accomplish this year!

Warmly,
The First Grade Team
Emerson Elementary