Updates, Constitution Day, Storytelling, Living & Nonliving Collage

I have completely updated the blog pages.  If you look at the sidebar of the blog, there are various pages:  About the Teacher, Academic Updates, Homework, Schedule, Policies, Field Trip, Links and Resources for Parents and Teachers, and Student Links.  If you click on any of these pages it will take you to another page in our blog.  I update the Academic Updates page on a weekly basis.  Up until this point, I haven't done that.   It is now updated for news for the upcoming week, including important dates for you to remember.  The Homework page is updated every Monday.  If you ever forget the homework for the night or misplace your homework schedule you can find information pertaining to the homework for the current week on this page.  The Schedule page has been updated with our most current class schedule.  The Policies and Field Trip pages have also been updated with the most current information.  Please check these pages out and remember to check back weekly for homework and academic updates.

Pete the Cat has made it to our class.  I introduced the kids to this awesome literary character this week.  Well...let's face it....99% of my kids had already heard of Pete!!  We worked on color recognition this week with Pete the Cat:  I love my White Shoes.  The kids had fun listening to Pete the Cat Rockin in my School Shoes.  Pete taught us about subtraction this week also with Pete the Cat's Four Groovy Buttons.  Please check out Pete here.  You can see all the Pete the Cat books on this website, plus download music, videos, activities and more.

We also learned about The Constitution of the United States of America, The Pledge of Allegiance, and the United States Flag.  Constitution/Citizenship Day was observed on Tuesday, September 17th.  We used the book The Pledge of Allegiance to learn about the pledge. The students learned what each line of the pledge means.  They then created their own book about the pledge.  We also read a poem called The Flag that taught us about The United States Flag.

We read We the Kids by David Catrow to teach us about the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States and listened to The Preamble Song by School House Rock.  You can check it below.  I LOVE School House Rock and use it to help teach many concepts in my classroom.

This week in writing the students learned how all writer's have a partner to help make their writing better.  Grown-up writers call these helpers editors.  The first thing I teach the students to do with their partners is storytelling.  Simply put, writers share their plan for their writing with their partners.  Their partners then ask them questions about their plan and the writers then retell their plan adding more information.  This is the first step in adding more details to our narrative pieces.  I have been so impressed with the students stamina for writing.  They really think of themselves of authors.  I love teaching students to be the authors of their life stories.  Who knows....maybe one day one of my firsties will become a published author.  Anything is possible!!!!  Hopefully they will dedicate their first book to their first grade teacher.  ;)

This week we also finished our first science unit on Living and Nonliving.  We culminated our learning by creating living and non-living collages.  Students browsed through magazines to find pictures of living and nonliving things for their collages.

Homework FYI

Today's math homework was not sent home.  We revisited the work we done yesterday as a class, therefore tonight's ONLY homework will be to read a book to someone at home.

Thank you!

What's Your Story?

We are well underway in our writer's workshop.  Students are learning how to condense their stories down to tell about a "small moment."  We often like to write about our entire day, giving little details along the way.  I am teaching the students how to zoom into one moment and add all the details of that moment into their writing.  I call these "seed" stories.  We discussed the idea of "watermelon" vs. "seed" stories."  "Watermelon" stories are those large stories that need to be broken down.  For example, I could tell you "all about first grade" or I could write about "playing with my friends."  These stories are quite large and can be broken down into "seed" stories.  "Seed" stories tell about one particular part of our whole "watermelon."  For example, instead of writing about first grade, I could pull out one particular "seed" and write about "the time we walked to the Multipurpose room to take our school pictures.  This way I can specifically zoom in on one moment and write about the beginning, middle, and end of that moment.  I decided to teach this analogy to story writing that I'd bring in an actual watermelon and let the students see the difference between the watermelon and the seed.  Below are pictures of our fun watermelon exploration.

Can you see my "seed?"

Here's my "seed" story....

The How's and Why's of Dismissal

I hope you had a wonderful week.  Our week was short but busy!  I completed a reading assessment for each of the students in my class.  This assessment will help me match texts to your child’s reading skill/level.  I would like to take the time in this post to  let you know about our dismissal process in first  grade at CES.  Children in school get home in a variety of ways.  Some ride the bus, some go to a daycare, some are picked up by someone, and others walk.  In order to help this process run smoothly and to ensure that each child gets home in the way that the parents have intended we have a check in system that we use in first grade.  Obviously the classroom teacher cannot take all of their bus riders, walkers, car riders, and daycare kids out at the same time everyday.  Therefore, each teacher in first grade is responsible for some form of transportation.  We have three teachers taking out bus riders and two teachers taking out walkers, car riders, and day care kids.  Shortly before dismissal, the students in first grade are sent to their assigned dismissal classroom.  That teacher then checks off each child as they arrive in their classroom.  We ensure that every child is where they need to be before we exit the building.  Then, once we get to the buses, the students are checked off as they get on their bus.  This ensures for a second time that the students got to where they needed to be at the end of the day.  The students that go out front as walkers, car riders, and that go to a daycare stay in their line order.  As the teacher makes their way to your child she will ask him/her do you see who you go home with.  In addition, we make sure that we see you too.  If your child see’s their ride, we check them off.  If they don’t they wait until they do and they let us know.  This way we know how every child gets home daily and we know that they are going home in the way that you intended.  If you did not send us a note or let us know who can pick your kid up and someone different comes than we have expected we will call you to make sure that it is okay if your child goes home with whomever has come to get them.  We will not send your child home with someone we do not have permission to send them home with.  I want to thank all of our parents for being so understanding with this process.  I understand that sometimes we come out the doors and you may be standing right there and you need to wait for a little bit until we get to your child.  Please know that we do our best to ensure the safety of your child when they are in our hands at school.  If you have any questions regarding our dismissal policy, please do not hesitate to ask.  I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have.  Also thank you to all the parents that do a great job of keeping me informed of any transportations changes.  I appreciate all the hard work you do as well to make sure that your child gets home in the proper manner.

What's Happening??!!

I have to apologize for my less than frequent posts.  I normally try to get a post up weekly.  I will most definitely be trying to get back into the routine of posting weekly ASAP!!  As a quick reminder, I will use this blog as an informational guide to our classroom, posting pictures, activities, and information on a weekly basis.  In addition, the homework assigned each week is added to the blog weekly.  I post the homework as a way for parents to see what has been assigned in case the homework schedule has been lost.

The previous weeks in the classroom I have done a lot of assessments in all academic areas.  You might be wondering why so many tests?  These tests give me a baseline for your child.  They let me know what academic skills/information your child retained from Kindergarten and also gives me a guide for my instruction.  All instruction in my class is meaningful for your child.  This means that I teach lessons based on what your child needs in the classroom at that specific time.  Your child plays an active role in the assessment process.  Each child in my class has a Data Binder in their desk.  They track their results of their assessments and create goals based on their data.  Currently, the data your child has tracked has been the following:  Reading Stamina, Letter Naming Fluency, Letter Sound Fluency, Sight Word Fluency.  This week, the students will add their Developmental Reading Assessment Level to their data binders.  Reading Stamina is just that....how long can your child read to themselves.  The Developmental Reading Assessment is a reading assessment that your child will take three times during the school year.  This tests provides the teacher with the independent reading level of your child.  This helps me match texts to your child so that they are reading "good fit books."

The students are learning about the writing process in writer's workshop.  Our current unit focuses on writing narratives.  Below you will see an anchor chart made with the class that explains the steps we are currently using to write a narrative piece.  As this unit progresses, I will introduce editing and revising.  I will also post later with more specific information regarding our writer's workshop. 

These are our writing toolboxes.  Each toolbox contains pens, date stamps, and spacemen for writing. The baskets contain the students' writing folders and there is an area where the students' can choose their writing paper.

This is our class anchor chart on "How to Write a Narrative Story."