Aug. 29-Sept. 3, 2016

Specials

Monday - 6 (PE)

Tuesday - 1 (Art)

Wednesday - 2 (STEM)

Thursday - 3 (Technology)

Friday - 4 (Music)

Upcoming Events & Reminders
August 29 - 1st Grade Curriculum Night. 
September 5 - NO SCHOOL!
September 6 - PTA Family Night @ Chick Fil A in the mall
September 8 - Jon Agee Author Visit 
September 9-26 - PTA Bumblebee Fundraiser
September 14 - Field Trip to Evan's Orchard (More info soon!)
September 19-23 - Bookfair. 
September 21 - All Pro Dad's Breakfast 6:30-7:15am
September 22 - Tentative Grandparents Day Lunch
October 4 - PTA family Night @ Burger - Fi!

Useful Links
First Grade Curriculum Night: Click here to RSVP! :)

 Sign up for Remind texts with this link! 

Wish List items:

*magnetic tape (it looks like a tape dispenser but the tape is magnetic!)

Teacher's App of the Week

Here is a "teacher recommended" app that will help your first grader practice a skill that we are working on this week. 

Franklin's Friends of Ten is a free app that will help your first grader practice the ways to make 10 in a fun, engaging way!

Don't worry - IT'S FREE!!!

I'll be introducing this to the class sometime this week, too! :)

Kid-Friendly Objectives
I can choose a topic.
I can read, write, and identify short i words.
I can use capital letters.
I can retell a story.
I can make 10 in many ways.

Week in Review
Now that the official business is out of the way, let's get to the FUN STUFF!

We did it: our first 5 day week of first grade. Are you feeling it? I know I did come Saturday morning! We made SO much progress towards making our way into our normal routines. Here's a glimpse into our classroom. :)

We want to become better writers. Real authors practice writing every day - and we want to be real authors! One of our daily 5 choices is Work on Writing. The best part of Work on Writing is that it doesn't have to be done at your desk!

We also continued to practice Read to Self. We made it to OVER 15 MINUTES IN STAMINA!!!!!

We were able to make our Daily 5 choices (between work on writing and read to self) for the first time on Friday!

In Writer's Workshop, we learned the three steps to writing a story:

1. Choose a topic.

Here we are gluing our heart maps into the middle of our writing journals. We use these heart maps to keep our favorite topics close to our hearts!

2. Draw a picture. Kali was drawing a beautiful picture of a field trip she took in Kindergarten!

Step 3: Write it out! (We practiced this but we'll get more into it next week). 

We got our spelling dictionaries as one step to practicing COPS. Capitalization, Organization, Punctuation and Spelling are important to keep our writing from breaking the law!

Our vocabulary word to piggyback on respect from last week was kindness. Here are some of the texts we read to help us understand it more clearly.

Lily learned that sometimes, "Today wasn't a good day. Tomorrow will be better." 

We learned everyone has an invisible bucket above their heads! Huh?!?! Ask your first grader for more details :)

Here are some of the notes that were OVERFLOWING our class bucket.

This book introduced our first grade project. We each decorated a quilt square to show how we can be kind. It will be hanging up soon!

We learned the first two choices for Math Centers. These two girls are working on putting together a hundreds chart puzzle to help them practice counting to 120.

Groups at my table worked on ways to make 6, 7, and 8 with ten frames, cubes, and rekenreks.

(This shows 4+2=6).

Sometimes Mrs. Carney takes the picture too soon...

All of the kids wanted me to pass along how to make a rekenrek at home. They LOVED it!

-foam sheet

-2 pipe cleaners

-10 blue pony beads

-10 red pony beads

Put 5 of each color on each pipe cleaner. Poke it through the foam board, secure to the back. 

by the end of the week, we were cracking up at Spill the Beans!

(2+4 = 6)

Thank you SO much for all of your kind feedback on the blog. I hope it helps you have a clear picture of what we are working on each week in the classroom. Your first graders take so much pride in their work and learning and it is my pleasure to share it with you each week. :) 

Have a great week!!

Week of Aug. 22 - Aug. 29

Specials

Monday - 1 (Art)

Tuesday - 2 (STEM)

Wednesday - 3 (Technology)

Thursday - 4 (Library)

Friday - 5 (Music)

Upcoming Events & Reminders
August 24 - Our class will be taking the Reading portion of MAP at 8am on this date. Rest up on Tuesday night! :)
August 29 - 1st Grade Curriculum Night. 
September 5 - NO SCHOOL!

September 6 - PTA Family Night @ Chick Fil A in the mall
September 8 - Jon Agee Author Visit (You'll be receiving information regarding this in your blue folder)
September 14 - Field Trip to Evan's Orchard (More info soon!)
September 19-23 - Bookfair. Grandparents' Lunch will be during this week, too! Dates TBD
October 4 - PTA family Night @ Burger - Fi!

Useful Links
First Grade Curriculum Night: Click here to RSVP! :)

 Sign up for Remind texts with this link! 

Also, please consider completing the picture permission slip for me to include pictures of your child working hard in our classroom!

Wish List items:

*magnetic tape (it looks like a tape dispenser but the tape is magnetic!)

Kid-Friendly Objectives
I can write to tell a story.
I can read, write, and identify short o words.
I can check my sentences using COPS.
I can ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
I can make a number in many ways.

Week in Review
What another fun week in first grade! This week, we did a little bit of review in phonics! We started off with a review of short a word families (-at, -an, -am, -ap, -ag). 

We passed posters around our tables in a relay to see who could come up with the most words!

We warmed up our storytelling muscles with Show and Share this week. Your first graders practiced Speaking and Listening skills like introducing themselves, telling a story with details, and asking and answering questions about the stories they heard.

After each story, we had the opportunity to write about something we remembered hearing...on whiteboards!

 We learned the first option for Daily 5 this week: Read to Self.

 We learned the three ways to read a book because we keep the same books in our boxes for a whole week.

We practiced Read to Self every day to build our stamina. Our goal is to make it to 15 minutes and we are already up to 4:30!

We practiced the importance of think time with some more Think, Pair, Share. We are becoming experts at taking turns to speak. 

We practiced subtilizing in math this week to become more fluent with number recognition. We practiced finding numbers within number patterns, seeing a number and adding 1 more, and seeing a number and adding 2 more.

These two were using the masterful technique of "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to determine who goes first in the game...and who gets to write on the TABLE! 

 We celebrated a birthday girl with ice cream! :)

Our first grade vocabulary word was respect. We studied books like:

All of these texts helped us to have meaningful conversations about what is kindness and how we can show it to others. 

To help us gain a visual, I cut out a plain, simple heart. Everyone in the classroom had the opportunity to crumple, rip, stomp, do anything they want. Afterwards, I asked the class to help me make it look the way it did before we crumpled it. Obviously, we were unsuccessful. This is exactly what it is like in the classroom whenever others use mean or hateful language to another friend. We talked about how every time we use a mean word to another person, it causes a wrinkle in their heart. We can try to smooth it out and it will get a little bit better, but the damage will always be there. This is the heart we signed and hang in our classroom to remind us every day that "It's OK to be different."

Here are a few of our friends showing us which rule they believe is the most important at school!

Have a great week!!