Well here we are with so much to share as we get back into the groove in 2014!
I wanted to start off with a big thank you for the class gift that was given to me by my generous First graders and their families. You are all so thoughtful and I truly appreciate the gesture. A night off from cooking and a yummy Bertucci's dinner is in my very near future!
A couple of reminders too...
If you haven't logged into RAZ kids please take some time to do so. If you haven't visited in awhile (because like me you were on a mental break) go back and encourage your child to rack up some more points in the name of reading! It's too good of a resource to not be used!
Also we are continuing to go through many supplies during our Daily 5 rotations. If you have extra holiday (or other) cards, stationary, envelopes, stickers, stamps...anything to enhance the writing center we would be oh so grateful. Also if you have an extra game of Scrabble and are willing to part with it (or the letter tiles) we'd put them right to use in our working with words center.
Now to the meat and potatoes of our first official week back!
Class Behavior
I am really very lucky to have such a great group of kiddos. But everyone can always benefit from visual and verbal reminders about behavior. Intro our new classroom Clip Chart. It's pretty simple; good choices allows for clipping up and not so good choices will have you clipping down, Children can clip up and down throughout the day depending on behavior. Every day children will start on READY TO LEARN. If they stay there all day-all is good and they've done their job! Most kids will stay here on most days and they should be proud of that!!
Social Thinking
Mrs. Goldstein came in for another visit. This time she talked to us about expected and unexpected behavior. We learned that when you demonstrate expected behavior the people around you feel happy and safe. Expected behavior gives people good thoughts (or green thoughts) about you. Unexpected behavior makes the people around you sad, scared, or uncomfortable. People might not want to be around you. They have bad thoughts ( or red thoughts) about you.
Math
We are continuing to work on strategies for accurate counting, addition, and finding multiple combinations for the same number. Children are becoming more fluent with their ability to count on and manipulate numbers. In one of their math activities children were asked to come up with several ways to make 12. When we recorded all of their answers we realized that we could use what we already know to expand our thinking. If you know that 6+6=12, you can decompose 6 to create another equal equation such as 3+3+6=12. So smart!
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| Making combinations for several numbers using "Dot Cards" |
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| Finding equal "Dot Card" combinations |
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| Playing a game of "5 in a Row" in which children flip over 3 cards and find the sum of 2 to cover on their game board. Our First Mystery Reader of the New Year! |
