Saturday, August 30, 2014

Trucking Along...

We have had a very productive week in first grade.  We have been learning about  our center rotations.  The students in my first grade class work in small groups for most of the day.  These groups change frequently throughout the school year in order for us to provide the best education possible to your child.  Our classroom is extremely blessed in that during our reading rotations we have three teachers in the classroom giving small group instruction to your child.  Each group rotates to five different stations as followsMrs. Hogan's reading group, Mrs. Dusenberg's Phonics Group, Mrs. Gosnell's Language Group, Computers/Promethean Reading, Choice Reading (Read to Self, Read to Someone, or Listen to Reading.  This week we have practiced our rotations so that the students know what it looks like and sounds like to enter each one of these groups.  The following are some pictures of our work:

Making our names with Wikki Sticks.

Making our names with Wikki Sticks.

Making our names with Wikki Sticks.

Language work with Mrs. Gosnell.

Working on phonics with Mrs. Dusenberg.

Reading on Raz-Kids.

Reading on Raz-Kids.

Spelling our names with Wikki Sticks.

Spelling our names with Wikki Sticks.

Spelling our names with Wikki Sticks.

Practicing "read to someone."

Practicing "read to someone."

Practicing "read to someone."

Practicing "listen to reading."

Practicing "read to someone."

Practicing "listen to reading."


During math the students are also involved in rotations.  The students go to all of the following rotations everyday:  Mrs. Hogan's Introduction of New Math Concepts, Mrs. Dusenberg's Guided Math Practice, Mr. E's Math Games Rotation, Computer/Promethean Math.    We are currently working on our calendar skills.  In addition, we are reviewing the numbers 0-9, ordering sets from smallest to largest, graphing pictographs, and matching numbers to sets.  The students are also learning the steps in the problem solving process.  Sorry I have no pictures to share of our math rotations.  :(

This week we have also started our writer's workshop.  The writing workshop always begins with a mini-lesson, where I teach the students a writing skill.  I then model the skill and allow the students to engage in the writing skill as well.  Afterwards, the students are sent to their writing tables to begin writing their stories.  Some days students will be asked to work in small writing groups, other times I meet individually and work one-on-one with your child to help him/her develop their writing. 

In our first writing unit, Small Moments, the students are encouraged to write about small moments in their lives.  They will begin to focus on the details of their writing, including showing a character's small actions, dialogue, and internal thinking.  The students will produce lots and lots of small moment stories.  They will eventually begin to work more independently throughout the writing process.  They will choose an idea, plan their writing, write and revise their writing.

Writing our first of many small moment stories.

Writing the first of many small moment stories.

Writing the first of many small moment stories.

This week we also began science.  Our first unit is on living and nonliving things.  The students have been sorting pictures of living and nonliving things.  They have also learned what living things need to survive.

Important Reminders:  

I want to remind you that when papers come home sometimes they may be partially finished.  It is always a good idea to work on finishing the assignments at home.  However, they only need to be returned if the teacher has marked finish and return on the sheet.  Please be sure to send  the homework sheet back each day signed as well as the math homework sheet so that I can check your child's homework.  In addition, please clean out your child's homework folder each night.

As part of our new security measures at the school, the building will be locked from 8-3:00 p.m. everyday.   In order to gain access to the building, please ring the door bell.  A secretary will then ask what you need and let you into the building.

Thank you for making this an awesome start to the school year.  I look forward to continuing to work with you this school year.  First grade is great and I am so blessed to be a part of your child's school experience.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Getting Acquainted

The students are quickly getting acquainted to first grade.  One of my adorable firsties said today that he LOVED school and that he wished he could stay here all day!!!!  How sweet is that!!??  I love the enthusiasm of the students in first grade.  All of them so eager to learn and earn your praise.  I just know we are going to have a f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s year! 

Today in your child's blue folder you will notice many papers.  Most of these pages are from morning work.  This work is placed on their desk first thing in the morning so that I can take attendance and lunch count and get the day started.  If the page is incomplete, that is okay.  You may take the time to complete it at home with your child.  If I want a page to be completed and returned to school, I will mark that on the paper.  Do not worry about returning unfinished work, unless I have asked that you do so.  Typically work that I needs to be completed we will do in the classroom.  Sometimes, pages like the morning work, may come home partially finished and that is okay.  You will also notice a large packet in your child's blue folder that pertains to our daily 5 phonics.  We use a program called Fundations to teach phonics to the students in the primary grades.  In first grade, we feel as if the students come in ready for unit 3 in Fundations.  I have given you information that pertains to unit 1 this week in your child's folder.  Next week, I will send home information regarding unit 2.  The following week, you will receive information regarding unit 3.  I just didn't want to bombard you with too much information at once.  If we feel that your child could still benefit from the information from unit 1 and 2, they will receive this instruction during our regularly scheduled RTI time that takes place first thing in the morning. 

Next week, we will continue to learning the rules and procedures in our classroom.  We are currently learning about our reading and math rotations.  This takes some time to get into place, because the students have to do this work independently.  Once the students are ready, we will begin our rotations.  I have added some pictures of our class at recess and during read to self.  We are currently working towards building our independent reading time to 12 minutes so that we can begin our daily 5 stations.  We'll talk more about daily 5 in the coming weeks.  Enjoy your weekend.  Hopefully I'll see you at the new Riley Field for the first football game.  Remember the game starts at 8p.m. tonight due to the heat.  P-I-N-T-O-S!!!!!  GO PINTOS!!!!


















Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Classroom Reveal

I cannot even believe that it is that time of the year again.  Teachers worked so diligently to get their classrooms ready for their new bunch of kiddies.  I, along with all of my wonderful co-workers, have devoted countless hours to preparing our rooms and lessons for the 2014-2015 school year.  Each brand new year is so very exciting.  Much like your children that hopefully are excited about their back-to-school shopping, teachers get excited about decorating our rooms for the new school year.  We too get excited about all of the new supplies we pick up for our kiddies.  {My bank account certainly doesn’t get excited about this SmileIt’s like Christmas morning when I open up all of the orders I placed waaaay back in May {it doesn’t actually seem that long ago!}.  I carefully unwrap each item and find it a permanent home in my classroom.  I am so thrilled with how my room turned out this year.  I hope you all feel like my classroom is an extension of home.  It certainly has a homey feel/appeal to me.  We had a great turn out for open house, but for those of you who were unable to attend, let me share with you what our classroom looks like.

The school year has gotten off to a great start.  Thank you to everyone who has returned the open house documents.  If you haven’t had a chance to do that, please do so by the end of the week.  In addition, this week we will begin homework.  Please be on the lookout in the blue homework folder for an assignment sheet.  Complete any homework for the evening and return the form in the folder the following  day.  Homework will be posted on the blog under the homework tab.