We're Awake, Alert, Alive, Enthusiastic

Week Three was Fantastic! We have been SO busy! Here is a quick update of what has been going on in our classroom!

We started our reading series and read our first story The Hat. We also started a couple of reading groups to get everyone reading some books at their own levels. Last week we began Daily 5 and launched Read to Self. The students have been reading steadily for 9-12 minutes which is AMAZING! This week we launched Read to Partner. We will continue to work on this next week and then add in writing! We also completed a writing project about our favorite hats, created an at book, and talked about sequencing. We took our first spelling test and comprehension test today!

In math we have been comparing and ordering numbers. We played a new game called Top-It and raced to put our number cards in order with a Beat the Clock activity. We also practiced making tally marks with dice rolls, rock, paper, scissors, and coin flips. We discussed the importance of calendars, and wrote the numbers 5 and 6. The highlight of math this week was when we made our bodies into tally marks and practiced being human tallies!

In health we talked about how to be safe at home. If your family doesn’t have a meeting place for emergencies, I suggest you talk about one as a family. We started our Air and Weather unit in science and did some air explorations. To see some pictures of this, check out our photobucket site! We also read the book I Like Me and talked about how we are all special. To go along with our story we created miniature paper people that looked like us for a bulletin board. We also met Mrs. Thomas, Big Woods Social Worker and she shared a song with us called Awake, Alert, Alive, Enthusiastic. The song was a big hit and the kids love to sing along while I play the keyboard.

Next week will be a big week with Homecoming Dress Up days! I am sure we will continue to have excellent behavior and line basics even with the dress up days next week! Have an enjoyable weekend!

Let's Do The Alphabet Boogie!

What a great week in 1st grade! Here are some highlights of our week this week!

1. We finished reviewing all our letters of the alphabet and to celebrate had a big party on Friday. We did alphabet races, BINGO, play dough words, the alphabet boogie (click here to see it play), and much more.


2. We started our math curriculum. This week we played Monster Squeeze, the Penny Dice Game, and Bunny Hop to review our numbers. We also practiced writing 1 and 2, talked about one more and one less, and practiced counting by 10’s, 5’s, and 2’s!


3. We made hot air balloons with our hopes and dreams for first grade on them, completed a pencil craft, and had some free time on Friday.


4. We learned about the preamble to the constitution, had a special Big Woods buzz, and wore red, white, and blue for constitution day.


5. We had bus evacuation and learned about the danger zone as well as how to evacuate the bus in case of an emergency.


6. We learned the days of the week in sign language and Spanish and played a new game called zoom.

We are going on day 9 of green cards, have had four compliments on our line basics, and overall have demonstrated some great behavior! Thanks for another great week in 1st grade!!

What A Week!!

I don’t know about your child, but I am EXHAUSTED after a great week! We have been so BUSY learning all about 1st grade! It has been an amazing first week of school! Here is a quick summary! Tuesday everyone came to school (and went home) happy and smiling! We had a good day getting to know each other and learning about our school and classroom expectations. We played outside, made a classroom book, and talked about above the line/below the line behaviors. Wednesday we reviewed bus safety and started working on some beginning of the year assessments. Thursday we took the DIBELS test, made time capsules with our 3rd grade buddies (A HUGE hit for both grades), started using the SMART board, and began our alphabet review. Friday we continued the alphabet review, participated in math stations, played The Cold Wind Blows, and had some free time after a long first week! This week we also have learned how to sign the following colors in sign language and say them in Spanish…red, blue, green, white, purple, yellow, orange, black, brown, and pink. We also read some of my favorite stories… Brand New Pencil’s, Brand New Books, 1st Day Hooray, Wemberly Worried, and A Fine Fine School.

To end, I would just like to give some thanks…

1. Thanks to everyone who turned in their forms, money, and labeled school supplies on time! This has been a huge help!
2. Thanks to all of you who taught your children to tie their shoes before 1st grade! I can’t tell you how nice it is to have 19 sets of shoes tied for gym without anyone needing help!
3. Thanks to all the parents who donated supplies to our classroom from my wish list! Your donations are much appreciated!
4. Thanks to all the 1st graders for the hugs and great behavior during the week!
5. And finally a big THANKS for trusting me with your child for the year! We are off to a great start and I look forward to watching your child grow and develop over the year!
   

There is a lot of information about Big Woods in your child’s Friday Folder. Please look over everything and let me know if you have any questions! For all those who have e-mailed me, I will send photobucket info to everyone next week. I am working on organizing it this weekend! Have a great weekend!