Another busy week is down in the books! The firsties have been working very diligently to build their stamina in reading, writing, and math.
Stamina is the
fancy word we use to describe
how long we can work independently. It is very important that the students are able to build their stamina to 12-15 minutes. Why? Because while the students are working independently, the teacher is working with guided reading, writing, and math groups.
Last week on the blog, I spent a lot of time discussing
read to self. The students have built up their read to self stamina to 12 minutes! I am so proud of their hard work. This week I want to talk a little about
read to someone. The students learned this week that some of the time, they will be asked to go read to someone. When this is one of the rotations, the students will choose someone in their reading group to read with. The students sit
EEKK (elbow to elbow, knee to knee, book in the middle so they both can see)! This week, the kids learned how to choose a book to read with our partner and how to read together. The first way I teach the kids to do read to self is called
I read, you read. This is where partner 1 reads a sentence from their book and partner 2 reads the sentence after partner 1. We talk a lot about how our books fit our needs and it is important to follow along and read with our
reading finger so that our partner can see the words we are reading.
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| Read to Someone |
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| Read to Someone |
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| Read to Someone |
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| Read to Someone |
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| Read to Someone |
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| Read to Someone |
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| Read to Someone |
The students also got the chance to practice going to
listen to reading this week. They are learning how to take care of our cd players and the ipods. We will continue to practice
listen to reading next week.
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| Listening to a book on an iPod. |
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| Listen to reading |
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| Listen to Reading |
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| Listen to Reading |
The students have also been learning about our
writer's workshop. The
writer's workshop begins with a mini-lesson. This is where I teach the whole class a writing skill. Then, the students go off and work independently or in small strategy groups with a teacher. So far in the workshop the students are learning the basics of writing narratives (stories about things that we have done or things that have happened to us). The students learned to think of something that has happened to them, sketch it across their three pages, and then write the words that match their pictures. We've also learned that when we think we are finished writing, we've really only just begun. This is the very basics of the writing process. The students are learning to go back through their piece and add to their pictures and words when they think they are finished writing. Of course as the year goes on students will be asked to revise and edit their work, but we aren't quite their yet. :)
This week the students have also learned about guided math groups. Math will begin with our calendar meeting. We conduct calendar on our Promethean board.
After calendar, I teach a mini-lesson to the whole class over the new concept for the day. Afterwards, the students will rotate through four different stations: guided practice with Mrs. Hogan, Math Fluency, Math Games, and Computer Math. Guided math practice gives the student more practice with the skill we learned during the mini-lesson. We also review daily the concepts that have been taught previously throughout the year. Fluency is where the students will practice their math facts. Math games will be a center set up with games that review previously taught skills. Computer math will allow the students to work on Moby Max (you'll hear more about this soon), or StarfallMORE math. This will also be the time that one student plays a math game on the Promethean Board. WHEW! The kids have been so busy and I'm so thrilled with the progress they have made. Next week, we plan to have all rotations up and running.
Don't forget this a 4 day weekend for your child. Also, a quick reminder that I have signed up for Remind. This is a safe way to send text messages to your phone or emails to you with important reminders. Signing up is quick and easy. If you sign up, you will receive all the important date reminders that I text out for my class. Of course all these dates will be listed on our class newsletters, the blog, and our Facebook page. The Remind text messages are just one more way to ensure you don't miss any important dates and happenings in the classroom. Below is the information on how to sign up.
I also sent home our first Scholastic book order forms today. These will be due back next Friday, September 11th. You can use our class code of
GW2T9 or you can fill out the order form and send it to school with the money. Scholastic offers great books at a remarkable price. This is a great way to build your book collection at home for your child. Every order you make gives your child's class bonus points. I use these bonus points to purchase
new books for our classroom library!
*NO SCHOOL 9/7 Labor Day
*NO SCHOOL 9/8 Professional Development Day for Teachers/Staff
*9/11 Scholastic Orders are due. You can order online by using our class code: GW2T9 or by filling out the order form and sending it to school with the money for the order.
*9/12 PTO golf tournament. We still need teams. Sign up and help out your local elementary school.
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