Sterling's Snippets: 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!