Character Assembly and 4th Grade Buddies

We had another fabulous week in 1st grade this week.  On Monday, students took their first reading performance based assessment.  This was a new format for us all, but they did great.  I haven't scored the assessments, but once I do, I will send them home for you to see.   I was excited to put up our class birthday board, finally!  October will be a busy month, with four birthdays!

On Thursday our students met their 4th Grade Buddies!  We are paired with Mr. Seeba's 4th grade class and all of our students have 1 or 2 buddies.  The pairs got to know each other with a Skittles Icebreaker activity.  Then the 4th graders read stories to the 1st graders.  We wrapped up the day with the 1st graders sharing a piece of writing they had written with their buddy.  We plan to get together with the 4th graders at least monthly to do art projects, reading or play games.

On Friday, students attended our first school assembly.  

Students in each class were recognized for demonstrating our Washington Weekly Words.  This month's recipients from our class were as follows:

Expectations: Ella

Beliefs: Hazel

Attitude: Nico

Integrity: David

Our class also had a Character Champion.  This month's Character Champion is Chace.  Chace is recognized for always having a positive attitude at school.  He always comes to school with a smile on his face and ready to work hard.  In fact, when I explain the daily lesson objectives, Chace responds with cheerful "YES" after each objective.  Thank you for spreading positivity in our classroom and at Washington, Chace!

A Peek at Our Week

Reading: We are reading a nonfiction book titled, Time to Sleep and students are learning to utilized text features to find information quickly.  Students have used a variety of graphic organizers to respond to the text.  We will begin guided reading next week!  Expect to see a book or two come home each week for homework.  It will come home in a large Ziploc bag.  Students should read the book aloud to a parent or other adult and return it to school within 2 days.  

Math: We are working with a supplemental curriculum unit titled Bunk Beds and Apple Boxes.  Students are learning how to make combinations with 5 and 10, a prerequisite for fluent addition and subtraction.  Students are also practicing subitizing using a variety of math strategies.

Writing: We will begin writing informational books in writer's workshop.

Science: We are still working on our physical science unit.  This week we will examine other living things by studying a variety of animals.  

Upcoming Reminders:

September 28-October 2: Student of the Week - Colton

Seeds, Stems and Roots Galore!

Happy Friday!  This week flew by for me!  We had lots of laughter and I really feel like we are in the swing of things here in 1st Grade.  Mr. Carlson visited on Thursday and commented that our 1st grade class was fabulous!  They were very participatory and well behaved for his lesson.  Have I told you how much I love my class?  They are awesome!

On to other news...this week the students had their first substitute teacher, well kind of!  I worked on a required math assessment with the students on Thursday morning.  The assessment is 1 on 1, so it is quite difficult to do during the school day.  Mr. Carlson gave the K-2 teachers a 1/2 day sub to complete the assessments.  The students did great and were very respectful towards our guest teacher. I can now rest assured that in the event that I have to be absent, they will be wonderful.

Perhaps you have been wondering if our students will be having weekly spelling tests.  Last year my 1st grade students had weekly spelling tests with sight words and word family words.  I had mixed feelings about the tests because I felt as though the 1st graders already had enough homework and reading to complete without worrying about studying for a test.  Additionally, I wasn't convinced that their word knowledge carried over week by week.  With this being said, I plan to do all of my word study activities in the classroom, without formal spelling tests.  I'm hopeful that I will see similar results without the need for more homework.

A Peek at Our Week

Reading: This week in reading we wrapped up our first Module in the ReadyGEN curriculum.  As indicated in a letter sent home earlier, our 1st grade team at Washington is piloting a new reading curriculum.  The curriculum is new to us teachers as well as to the students.  There are definitely fumbles and bumps along the way, but I can confidently say that this curriculum is providing the students with a some amazing skills that will support them throughout the years.  Students made some adorable Stellaluna bats while they practiced retelling the story.  Each student wrote three sentences about the beginning, middle and end of the story on their bat.  These adorable bats are hanging from our ceiling just as Stellaluna would!  We will take the Performance Based Assessment for the module on Monday and then begin the next unit on Tuesday.

David's bat retelling of Stellaluna.

Math: We had a great time in math working with number stories and a few new math tools.  The students used manipulatives, number lines, 100's charts, and even their fingers (yes, this is okay!) to solve fun number stories about themselves.  They always get a kick out of my silly stories about them losing toys or getting candy bars.  Students also got to explore geoboards for the first time this week and had fun making shapes and designs.

Science: In science student continued with our physical science unit and plants.  This week students were able to work through their first two investigations.  Investigations are projects that require the students to work collaboratively with their science team to explore science.  First students placed bean plants in boxes with small holes.  They are recording daily observations of what may or may not happen to their plant with limited light.  Second they worked together to prepare two root experiments with bean seeds.  The collaboration and discussion that I am observing is so fun to hear!

Looking at the plant parts on real plants!

Upcoming Reminders

• 4th Grade Buddies Activity: Thursday, September 24
• Character Assembly: Friday, September 25
• School Pictures: Friday, September 25

Stamina Galore!

Has your child come home from school talking about Stamina or Daily 5?  Well if they haven't, ask them about how amazing our class is doing!  Each year I introduce Daily 5, a teaching model that allows me to work with students in small groups or even one on one while the other students work independently and quietly.  We use the Daily 5 model for both reading and math in our classroom. When you think of 1st graders, you probably don't think of independent or quiet, but if you could observe our class during Daily 5, you would be amazed!  Students have learned that during Daily 5 they read, listen to reading, write or complete purposeful phonics activities the "whole time."  They are quiet, still, hard working and very independent.  Each year I begin building stamina with my students, one minute at a time.  Our class has already built 15 minutes of stamina, and they know that when we reach 20 minutes, the fun will really begin as I will introduce our classroom iPads, computers and some hands on activities.  For now the excitement is enough to keep us energized!

Anchor Chart from Mr. Carlson's Lesson

A few assessments took place this week.  On Thursday, students completed AIMSweb assessments with the Fargo Public Schools assessment team.  This assessment provides classroom teachers with information about students letter knowledge, phonemic awareness and decoding strategies.  I will use the assessments to better help me instruct students.  Students also were assessed on the kindergarten sight words that they learned last year.  A copy of their assessment was sent home to practice only if they did not know 100% of the words.  Please work with your child on these words at home.  Some fun ideas to try would be making the words with play-dough, clay, beads, shaving cream, or other household objects.  Try to make the practice fun and engaging for your child and limit practice to 10 minute per night.

A Peek at Our Week

Reading: This week in reading we continued to work with Stellaluna.  Students have been practicing identifying story elements (characters, setting and events) as well as exploring complex vocabulary. We also spent time exploring Dragons and Giants, an excerpt from Frog and Toad's Adventures.  Students worked collaboratively with their table pods to respond to questions in their Reader's Notebooks.  They used tables and charts to organize their thoughts and ideas as well as practiced appropriate speaking and listening strategies while working in groups.  In phonics we reviewed the consonants c, p and t as well as the short vowel a.  

We studied illustrations to describe the Bird's Nest.

Writing: In writer's workshop students learned that illustrations play an important role in a story. These illustrations help provide details to the reader.  Students are also working hard to stretch words to spell them.  Revisions will come later in writing.  Right now, the story is the most important piece to student writing.  We had our first author share her story on Friday!  After your child shares his or her story, I will send it home so you can enjoy their piece!  

Math: This week in math students were able to put their tool kits to work.  They used their pennies, dice, number lines, hundreds charts and numeral cards for several activities.  Additionally, students learned three new math games: Bunny Hop, Top It, and Roll and Color.

Learning to play Roll and Color

Upcoming Reminders

• Happy Birthday Connor! (September 14)
  
• Book Order's Due on September 15 (Help our class earn free books!)
• Watch Dog Dad Pizza Night on September 15
• Room Parent Sign-Up is available outside of our classroom
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Our First Full Week

Well we made it!  We survived the first full week of 1st grade and everyone (including myself) left with a smile.  The students were able to dig into our content this week with lessons in reading, writing and math.  They also had their first art and library skills classes.  Mr. Carlson, our principal, and Mrs. Fillipi, our counselor, also visited the classroom for their first lessons of the school year.  Mr. Carlson's lesson focus was student responsibilities, aligned with our school goals and mission statement.  Today students participated in the bus safely lesson with our skilled drivers.  They learned appropriate behavior when riding the bus, general safety and emergency exit procedures.  Below Isaac is demonstrating how hard it is for a bus driver to see children if they stand right in front of the bus.  Isaac was a great volunteer!

Even though we were learning about safety, we had a quick moment to snap a fun photo on the bus!  The students were excited to be way in the back!

Finally students practiced exiting from an emergency exit in the rear of the bus.  My wonderful listeners were a great audience for the guests!  Here Tinah and Coby exit the bus.

A Peek at Our Week

Reading: In reading we are working with our new curriculum, ReadyGEN.  The focus of our lessons has been story events and retelling.  A unique piece of the curriculum is that students are given their own copies of the stories.  The students love holding their own copy of Stellaluna in their hands.  We learned to be detectives and read Stellaluna very carefully, citing text and picture evidence.  The students' learned that this is called "Close Reading."  In phonics, the consonants s, t, and m were reviewed as well as the short vowel a.  We practiced making words with magnets and on white boards.  The students also reviewed the sight words I, a and see.  We worked in the students' reading notebooks by rainbow writing the words and using them in a sentence.

Writing: We began our first unit of writing this week with small moment stories, or personal narratives.  I am so excited to see the students writing across pages with so many wonderful skills already in place.  We reviewed the conventions of capitalization and punctuation.  Students are also working on sounding out words and doing their best to spell.

Math: In math, students were introduced to our daily math routines, calendar and math tools.  Students were given a new math tool daily that they will use for math this school year.  We took some time to explore the math tools which was exciting for the students.  It is so fun to hear the conversations and see collaborative learning taking place!

  

Upcoming Reminders:

• No School on Monday, September 7
• AIMSweb Assessments on Thursday, September 10
• Book Orders Due on Tuesday, September 15
• Room Parent Sign-Up is available outside of our classroom

Until next week,