First Grade in Full Swing

Fall is (slightly) in the year and it feels good! I love this time of year...apples, pumpkins, and first grade in full swing! We have covered a lot of ground this week! Although we continue to work on routines, our daily schedule is in full force. 

Word Play/ Phonics

We are continuing our work on short vowels. We practiced short a word chunks (at, ap, an, am) and short i word chunks (in, it, ig, ip). Please continue to have your child read the words on their weekly list and their ABC papers. It really helps with fluency.

Daily 5

We expanded our Work on Writing choices by creating an anchor chart. I brought in several writing samples from my own home and then we brainstormed a list of things that writers write. They especially loved reading my thank you note to Nana and my grocery list :)

We also started a new Daily 5 choice called Read to Someone. We brainstormed why we would read to someone...and the class came up with 3 great reasons: to become better readers, to understand books better, and to sound better! Then we got right to work building our read to someone stamina.

Writer's Workshop

This week we continued to tell our stories across pages of a booklet. We started using long term partners to help us plan out our stories and then add details to our pages. Partners listened to each other's story plan then asked questions to help with details. We also continued to work on our sentence frame, which is the visual that helps children remember that sentences start with an uppercase letter and end with a period. 

Math

We are continuing our work on simple addition. Children have been playing several games where they have needed to combine numbers to get a total. We also began work on solving simple addition story problems. We've had a lot of conversation around strategy use. I encourage children to use pictures, numbers, and/or words to show their thinking. 

At this point many children are counting all meaning if they are adding 5+6 they are starting at 1 (possibly using pictures or fingers) and counting it all out. Some children are counting on meaning if they are adding 5+6 they are starting with 5 or 6 and counting on from one number. A few children are using known facts meaning if they are solving 5+6 they may state that they know 5+5=10 and since 6 is 1 more than 5, 5+6=11. These strategies are all appropriate. Children will move to more efficient strategy use as they develop a deeper math sense. To help your child continue to ask them how they solved their math work.

Good Fit Books

We did a very funny thing this week...we learned how to pick "Good Fit" books by comparing books to shoes! This might sound silly, but it really makes a lot of sense!! And-it is a very tangible way for children to think about how a book needs to "fit" them in order to be just right.
During PIN I briefly referred to our "I Pick" poster. In my haste to COVER ALL aspects of literacy in our room I think I may have done this concept a disservice. This is an anchor chart we will be referring to ALL.YEAR.LONG!!

Sorry about the poor picture quality...but here is how the method works. Each Friday as part of our Daily 5 children choose new books for their book boxes. The goal is that all these books are a good fit in that they are independent reads. This does not happen naturally. It is a process. First Graders are still trying to find the common ground between what they can read and what they want to read. The really great think about good fit books though is choice and luckily we have plenty of it! 

When children go off to find their new books we put lots of book baskets from our library in front of them. Some of the baskets are leveled. For example after several reading assessments and observations I might guide your child to choose from the "red" bucket or the "yellow" bucket. These leveled buckets match your child's independent reading level. However, we also have lots of other genre based book baskets that children can pick from too. We have favorite authors, favorite characters, fairy tales, mysteries, biographies, non-fiction, rhyming....lots and lots of choices!! 

We take read to self pretty seriously here in Rm 27 and yes those are legs stretching out from under a table. Children are allowed to choose any spot around the room as long as it is a good spot for them to work on reading stamina and keep their brain on their books. The tiniest of corners, under tables, and cradled in between cubbies are favorites! One little guy was going to squeeze himself into the spot behind one of our shelving units until he found it was already inhabited by a spider :)

Of course we did a lot more than read to self this week, but I thought it was important enough for a whole blog post. I hope you did too! On a side note, my husband and I had my son's first ever "Back to School Night" and I have to say it was a little easier on the other side of the room :)

Back to School Night Selfie!!

Getting Into Our Groove

Well, I can confidently say that these first graders have gotten into the groove of school, of routines, and of our daily schedule! It feels really good to have that first week under our belts. I hope your children are sharing a few of the things we do, but in case you get 1 word answers or "I don't knows" read on to find out about our focus this week.

We are continuing to establish expectations by filling our room with class created anchor charts and modeling what to do (and to their utter delight what not to do!) As we continue to build our reading, writing, and math stamina children are strengthening their muscle memory for learning. 

Children use this flow chart to help them navigate the morning routine. I find visuals are always a great way for children to gain independence throughout their day

After reading several stories we came up with these "promises" to create the best learning community we could. We refer to our pledge often!

These are some of the anchor charts that help remind children of  expectations during our literacy block. During "Read to Self" we are building independent reading stamina. So far we are up to 7 minutes!

This week during our literacy block children were introduced to some of our working with words center activities. During centers children rotate through literacy activities while I meet with leveled reading groups.

Children are reading a poem and filling in the missing words at the poem center. I love my Smart Board and so do the kids. This is just 1 of the many ways we utilize this smart technology. 

At the Read Around the Room center children write words from around the room that fit specific clues. Today children were finding names on the word wall that start the same. Notice the star letters in the background? Those are our vowels. We practiced them by doing a little vowel song and dance to the Macarena....remember that song?! Ask your child to demonstrate, then practice along with them ;)

Children are playing a word game called Moose! at the puzzles and games center. They pick a stick and read the word on the stick until someone picks the word Moose! Then all the word sticks get put back in the cup and the game starts all over. It's a fun and silly way to practice reading word family words. 

During math we have begun work on accurate counting strategies, comparing, quantities, and solving simple addition problems. The children have played several games that allow them to explore and practice these skills in tactile ways. We are also beginning strategy work when adding including counting on quickly when adding 1, 2, or 3. These are all skills that we will continue to strengthen. For now we're relying heavily on manipulatives.

Children worked on a class number line. Each child was assigned a number. After writing their number they drew a corresponding picture. We talked about efficient ways to keep track of how many things they drew. Some kids had quite the challenge! Love how organized these came out.

Math partners are playing a game of Compare with cards. They each flip a card and then the person with the biggest number wins. It's pretty similar to another card game played with a deck of cards.

Another version of Compare but with dot cards instead of number cards.

This activity is called Staircases. Children build towers of Unifix cubes from 1 to 12 then put them in order smallest to largest creating a ..... staircase!

A game of Collect 20 in which children roll a dice a collect that many counters. They continue taking turns and adding until they reach 20.

There is our week at a glance! Just a few reminders...PIN night is next Tuesday beginning at 6:30. Online Scholastic orders are due on the 15th. Environmental print homework is also due on the 15th. The first math homework assignment went home. Please aim to complete homework within the week it was assigned.

Thanks!! 

Week 1 and Workshop Fun!

Wow! We have accomplished just so much in the last 4 days!! I'm happy to say that routines are flowing, friendships are being made, and the first of our "workshops" have begun. In our class we follow a workshop model for reading, writing, and math. The model emphasizes the I do, We do, You do philosophy. What this boils down to is that there is a whole lot of teacher modeling, then guided discovery, then finally independent practice. 

We started our week learning about some of the centers that children would be working on weekly. Our first center practice was the poem center. We learned the poem First Grade Cheer. After we sang it together we filled in the missing parts. Then children read it to a friend and illustrated it for their poem notebook. Enjoy!

We also tackled the start of writer's workshop. We started by reading a really cute story called Night Of the Veggie Monster by George McClements, about a boy who hates eating peas so much that as soon one touches his mouth he turns into a veggie monster. It turns out in the end that peas really aren't so bad.

The class really liked it and it helped inspire quite a few small moment stories. Over the next few weeks children will learn to plan out stories, add details, and even begin to self edit. But for now we are learning about using writer's workshop pens and finding our writing folders :)

Our final workshop (for now!) was an introduction to reader's workshop. Our first lesson was to learn that there are 3 ways to read a story. You can read the words, read the pictures, or retell a familiar story. On day 1 we modeled and practiced the first two. The children could not wait to browse our book buckets and practice reading the words and pictures. Reader's workshop will soon evolve into a more independent reading time, but for now it's a chance to get to know and engage with our classroom library. 

Hope you enjoyed just a few of the highlights from our week! Keep checking back!

First Post of the New Year

It was a great (albeit hot) first 2 days. The kids did really well adjusting to the longer day. It can be pretty hard getting back into any routine after the lazy days of summer, but we kept things simple so everyone could ease into the rigor of First Grade :) By day 2 we had already established some pretty important routines like bathroom procedures and where to put your lunch ticket and bus tag. Woo Hoo...success!

The most important thing for me at this point in the year is to establish ourselves as a classroom community. This begins simply by getting to know each others names. Today the morning meeting challenge was to name at least 3 people in our class.
Go ahead and challenge your child to name 3 new friends. Can they name even more??!

We also started learning about some of our classroom expectations. We'll spend more time next week working on class rules, but we did practice "whole body listening."
Ask your child what parts of their body are on and what parts are off during whole body listening.

During math we began to explore our math tools to ready us for math workshop. Children used pattern blocks, Geoblocks, Unifix cubes, and power polygons. I loved walking around and seeing their structures and creations!

 

We also did a little writing. Children worked on their first memory page of the year. As the year goes on we will be writing memory pages after each memorable event. At the end of the year there will be a whole book of their first grade memories. It will also be amazing to see the transformation in their writing from start to finish. Let me tell you...they will be just as impressed as you are!! But for today the expectation was 1 sentence and 5 colors ;)

We also made time for reading! Children were able to explore some of the buckets in our library. This was the beginning of what will turn into a reader's workshop where children will learn a skill or strategy and then have time to practice the skill during independent reading time. For now they are just learning where to find books, how to care for them, and where to return them. Baby steps!! 

This year we are so LUCKY to welcome Dr. Bilsborough to our school. She is an amazing addition! She came and talked to us about her job as principal and of course read the class a story. They were all totally engaged even though it was the end of the day and probably 95 degrees in our classroom! Bring on the fall....

We really had an amazing first 2 days. I hope your kiddos came home excited (albeit tired!) after our first days together. It seems like we have a great group and I'm really excited about the year to come!

Enjoy the long weekend with your family...I plan to!

Getting Ready for the BIG DAY

I've been pretty busy these last few days getting our room ready for the big day! Furniture...check, labels....check, meeting area...check, first graders....check! Of course nothing is quite complete until my new firsties arrive, but in the meanwhile check out a preview of room 27!

Our front door....21 shining stars!

Our word wall that we will fill with over 100 words!!

Our Classroom library....do you like books about animals, or space, fairy tales, or mysteries, famous people, or funny characters? Well we've got that and then some!

Mailboxes...you'll start and end the day here.

Meeting area...we'll spend lots of time here reading stories, solving math problems, sharing our writing, and having great class discussions.

Center stations like poem center, puzzles and games, and read around the room
to name just a few.

My little helper working on a book display.

And finally having lunch at Brother's Market Place after spending a long day helping me in the classroom. This was followed by a very yummy strawberry frappe by the way.

The first few days of school we'll get to know the room really well! You'll learn where you sit, how to make your lunch choice, and where to keep all of your important school work. Until then I hope this gives you an idea of what to expect. The count down is on...see you real soon!! Can't wait :)