Sterling's Snippets: Welcome to 1st Grade!

Greetings 1st grade families! Welcome to a new school year at Washington Elementary School. This is our classroom blog and it will serve as our newsletter this year in 1st grade. It is my hope that the updates and news will allow you to take a peek into our classroom throughout the year. I use this online format rather than a traditional, paper newsletter. I strive to blog on a bi-weekly basis, though on occasion miss a post due to my own busy family. The blog posts are meant to be informal snapshots of the students and their work. Please forgive me if you find a typo or two. I always blog from my couch with two busy boys usually playing at my feet. :)

If you haven't already done so, please sign up for Seesaw! Seesaw is a digital portfolio of your child's learning. I'll post photos and student work that you will be able to view and eventually download. Additionally, later in the year, students will learn to take ownership of their own digital portfolio by adding their own artifacts and narrative. Occasionally I will send reminders through the app, so don't forget to turn on the notifications option. A sign up sheet was in your child's Back to School folder. I will send additional instructions via email as well.

I will place a September calendar in your child's G.O. Book this week. Check out this calendar for monthly updates, field trips, and news. I'll also be compiling the classroom directory soon and will get that into the G.O. Book as well. Watch for the first Scholastic Book Order to come home this week too! Book orders can be placed online using the classroom code or via check payable to Scholastic. I encourage you to order books for your 1st grader. Did you know, each of your orders allows us to purchase new books for our classroom. Scholastic orders are a great way to help support our classroom.

A Peek at our Week

We had a great first two days of school in 1st grade! We spent time getting to know one another and our classroom environment. This year all Fargo elementary schools are working with the same core values: Be Safe, Be Respectful, and Be Responsible. We will spend these next few weeks learning what each of these actions mean in the classroom, hallways, lunchroom, playground and other areas around the school. These values will guide our classroom community.

The room was full of emotions on the first day of school. Luckily, there were no tears for our 1st graders! Just a few "jitters" that we took care of with our Jitter Juice!

We also made friendship trail mix, enjoyed a few math games, danced while counting to 100, and played with Magic Playdough. All in all it was a great first two days.