~Upcoming Field Trip~

This coming Monday, October 3rd will mark our first grade field trip to The Peach Tree Farm.  As a reminder we will leave school at approximately 8:30 a.m. so that we can arrive at The Peach Tree Farm by 9:40 a.m.  If you are a parent volunteer that is chaperoning this field trip, please arrive at the school by 8:00 a.m. so that I can go over the rules and give you a list of children that will be in your group once we arrive at the farm.  Please remember that because of the large group of children we have this year, no parents/guardians will be able to ride the school bus with us to The Peach Tree Farm.  You must drive yourself to the farm at meet us there.  Directions to the farm are listed at the end of this post.  Once we arrive at the farm your child will go through six different stations:  We will read books inside the tepee; go through the straw maze; go on a hayride; visit the bunnies at bunnyville, feed the goats throughout the property, and go into the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins (parents you get a pumpkin too!).  We will eat lunch on the picnic tables at The Peach Tree Farm before loading the buses at 12:45 to leave.  We should arrive back at school at approximately 2:00 pm.  Please remember that if you are wanting to leave with your child after the field trip, you will have to sign your child out.  You can find me after lunch to do so if you need too.  Below are a few pictures from The Peach Tree Farm from previous visits there.  It is a beautiful place and the kids always really enjoy it.  Please check the weather for the day and dress your child appropriately.  Also, tennis shoes must be worn on the day of the trip.  I will send a reminder letter home later this week about field trip so please be on the lookout for it! :)

Learning About Our Country

We have been learning about citizenship during our social studies block.  This began with learning about rules and laws and rights and responsibilities.  Then, we began learning about the symbols in our nation that signify freedom.  We learned about the Statue of Liberty, the Pledge of Allegiance and the American flag.  We dissected the Pledge of Allegiance and discussed the meaning of each line of the pledge.  The students then made their own pledge book to take home.  Today we learned about the Constitution of the United States.  We read "We the Kids" by David Catrow which is the preamble to the Constitution.  We also watched the following School House Rock video called "The Preamble."  

We ended out unit by making flag cookies out of graham crackers, icing, Twizzlers, and sprinkles.  Who doesn't like sprinkles right???!!!!  I  hear they tasted great too which was an added bonus!

Flexible Seating

As noted in my parent handbook, my classroom is beginning its journey into a flexible seating classroom.  Flexible seating is perfect for student-centered classrooms where the students are responsible for making their own choices.  Studies show that when students are given choices, they take ownership over their own learning, are more independent, and productivity increases.  All very great reasons to give flexible seating a try.  Students all begin the day at a start spot.  Once class begins and the students are working, they are given free choice to choose their own good fit seat.  We talked extensively at the beginning of the year what a good fit seat looks like.  Students that are sitting at a good fit seat, use the seat appropriately and work the whole time.  We also discussed that if you are having difficulty focusing at a spot, you have the right to find a new spot where you can do your best work.  In addition, any teacher has the right to move a student if they are not making good choices in the seat or completing their work.  So far this year, the kids have free choice during reading and math.  This week, we are going to add in free choice during writing as well.  They have been doing a great job with all the seating options and I am so happy that I invested in many of these options for my little ones.  I went in this weekend to take a picture of each seating option so I could share them with you.  Below you will see all the amazing options we have in our classroom for places to sit and work.  I hope your kids have been loving the choices they have in the classroom!

Beach Chairs

Rocking Chair

Stools

Couch

Yoga Balls

Stool

Soft Seat

Scoop Rockers

Lapdesks

Bean Bags

Traditional Desk and Chair

Pillows

Getting into the Swing of Things

The students are doing a great job learning the procedures and rules of the classroom.  Last week on the blog I described the reading rotations that your child will rotate through during our reading block.  This week, the kids actually began reading rotations.  I was super impressed!  They did a great job! We will always start our rotations out as a whole group on the rug.  This is where we complete our phonemic awareness activities, listening comprehension, and where we read our big books together. Afterwards, we break into our groups.  The students had their first week of guided reading.  This is a rotation where the kids come work with teacher.  I will give them a book that we will work on reading together.  This is the time that I can differentiate instruction and meet your child's specific needs.  Below are some pictures of us during our rotations.

Reading with our whisper phones.  The kids loved them!

Guided Reading

Reading with our whisper phones.

Playing a reading game on our Promethean Board.

Word Work:  The kids are spelling their high frequency/word wall words with Wikki Sticks.

Our math group is set up very similar to our reading block.  We begin with whole group instruction and then the students break up into small groups.  Once again, this is so that I can meet each child's individual needs.  The rotations for math are work with the teacher, math games, math fluency, and computer math.  Below I have added some pictures of my kids working during math rotations.

Making a bar graph.

Making a bar graph.

Working on our number sense.  Rolling the dice and building the towers to contain that number of cubes.

Working on our number sense.  Spin and Color.

Working on our number sense.  Spin and color the number.

Math on the computer.  Currently, we are using Starfall Math.

Working on the Promethean board playing a math number recognition game.

Making a bar graph.

 This week our student teacher Miss Clevenger began teaching social studies.  We are learning about rules and laws and our rights and responsibilities.  The students did a great job discussing the rules they have to follow at home and school and laws that everyone has to follow.  We watched some learning videos on Brain Pop and read an emergent reader on the topic (that should have went home this week).  The students also read cards that contained different rights and responsibilities and then they sorted them on the pocket chart.  On Friday, the students had to write about one right and one responsibility they have as a citizen.

Just a reminder that next week is a short 3 day week.  There is no school on Monday, September 5th and Tuesday, September 6th.  Also, all Scholastic orders have been submitted.  I will let you know when they arrive and they will go home with your child.  Have a great weekend!