Sterling's Snippets: First Full Week of 1st Grade

We made it! I always feel proud and amazed after we complete the first full week of school. These firsties did a great job this week. First grade is quite different from kindergarten and doesn't always feel as fun, but I try very hard to excite the students through numerous learning activities throughout the day! Very few tears were shed and positive attitudes were had my all! I feel so blessed and excited to be your children's teacher this year! I will use our classroom blog in place of a traditional newsletter. Please let me know if this format does not work for you. I will print a paper copy of any posts and send them home with your child if you desire.

Counting to 100 with Jack Hartman's Exercises

Milk and Juice break will begin on September 6. If you ordered a drink for your child, it will arrive to our classroom on Tuesday. We will also be receiving the fruit and veggie snack in late September. Book orders will be due on Friday. If you only order from one book order this year, please consider this one! The bonus points available for teachers are excellent and I am looking to beef up our Sports Themed book bin!

If you had a 1st grader in my class in the past, you are probably wondering where the daily homework is. Information regarding homework will come home on September 12. Please note, our homework policy has changed drastically. Children will have minimal weekly homework in the form of a "menu" of choices. I am looking forward to your feedback for future planning of homework options.

A Peek at Our Week

Reading: This week in reading we spent some time exploring back to school mentor texts to aquatint ourselves with the school rules. We read some of my favorites such as Chrysanthemum, Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon, and The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes. We began reviewing letters and sounds as well as the kindergarten sight words. In the coming weeks, a student specific sight word list will be placed in one of the page protectors of your child's G.O. Book. Please study and review the words on this list weekly. I will update the list as your child masters more words.

Writing: We will begin Writer's Workshop next week with some introductory mini-lessons. This past week I was able to observe the students writing and make note of their strengths and some target goals for their individual writing. I was so excited to see the great writers that we have in our classroom!

Math: The first graders were introduced to their Math Interactive Notebooks. These notebooks provide an opportunity for students to practice math skills independently. Our focus skill this week was "I can count and find the missing numbers." Students were also introduced to our Math with Partner strategies. We have played several games to review making 5 and counting by 1's. Students enjoy playing games to practice target skills.

Anthony and Bentley play Fabulous Five Worm

Morgan, Leah, Jocelynn, and Pyper play Make 5

Handwriting: Posture, pencil grip and letter placement were are skills this week in handwriting. We reviewed "Frog Jump Capitals" from kindergarten and were able to get our hands on our new Handwriting workbooks. When working with your children at home, please remind them to start their letters at the top!

Happy Birthday Alexis! We hope you had a fabulous time celebrating at home and school!