Sterling's Snippets: August 2016

Another year is upon us at Washington Elementary School. This year I was greeted with 21 amazing 1st graders to join my school family. As the eager, excited and talkative students entered the room this morning, they quickly followed directions to complete their morning routines. The room was calm, peaceful and quiet, especially for the first day of school! I encourage parents to drop off outside of the classroom as to not disturb our routine. Extra noise and bodies in the classroom in the morning make it difficult for students to remain calm and quiet. In time, I imagine the first graders will feel comfortable enough to be dropped off outside of the school to walk in independently. I think it is harder on us parents! I too have a first grader and would love to tag along with him (all day) if I could!

Thank you to everyone who purchased an extra supply or two for our classroom! Those extra items help make our classroom run successful and I am beyond grateful for your support.

We started the day with a morning greeting. Each day students will greet one another on the carpet using a catchy jingle, game or activity. If your child doesn't know all of his or her classmates' names, rest assured, within a week or two of greetings, they will! We then jumped right into reading one of my favorite first day of school books titled, First Grade Jitters. We read about a boy named Aidan who is very nervous for school. Lucky for us, I came prepared with my secret "Jitter Juice" recipe! Jitter Juice is said to help those first day of school butterflies fade away! As you can see below, most of our class liked the Jitter Juice!

In the afternoon we took some time to review counting by 1's. We exercised and counted to 100 and then played a simple game called "Fill the Cup." Students worked with a new friend to roll a dice and count manipulatives to fill their cups. I'm going to count this as a huge success because there were no dice flying across the room! This is amazing for the first day of school.

We worked to complete a couple of pages in a First Week of First Grade Booklet. I was able to see some amazing coloring and neat handwriting from these first graders. Students were reminded to use a capital letter to start their sentences, finger spaces between words and to finish with a period at the end.

Finally, we ended they day reading a poem about "Magic Playdough." Each student was given a ball of white playdough. In theory (if my recipe worked), the playdough would change color signifying a great year for our class. Well, it must have been my lucky day because sure enough, all of the playdough magically changed color! I call that a teacher success!

In the coming weeks, you may have questions about first grade. Do not hesitate to stop in, call or email. I check email daily and do my best to respond within 24 hours. Tomorrow, book orders will come home with your child. September offers amazing classroom bonus points. I am able to use the bonus points to grow our classroom library. Your orders help make this possible! Check out the book orders with your child. Instructions will be provided for ordering online, if that is the option you choose.