Here We Are!

Here we are!!  If you don't see pictures of your child, please make sure you sign and return the permission slip for him/her to be on the blog.

We have 19 students in our class and spent the week getting back into the routine of school.  I'm not sure about your child but I'm EXHAUSTED!!

I'm so happy to have you in my class and can't wait to be your teacher this year.

Are YOU Ready?!

At the end of the year I moved to a new classroom on the other side of the school.  I did a lot of the moving and work at the end of the year so I could enjoy summer vacation.

My room has been ready for quite some time and now I'm just waiting on you!  I can't wait to meet each and everyone of you.  We'll have a great year learning and having fun.

Here's what our room looks like!!

Here's the newest addition!  I made a teepee a few years ago but found this on amazon and just love the look of it.  It will be a great reading nook.  You just might find me hanging out in it too.

See you soon.

A Look at Our Week

This week we've listened to many books about names and then have looked more closely at our names.

Students made self portraits and practiced writing their name.  We put them in ABC order.

We also talked about vowels, consonants, and syllables.  Working with the letters in their name, they created a flower.  Here are a few examples.

We began Special Person of the Day this week.  This is where we interview a student and learn more about him/her.  Of course I do all the writing and I joke around with them about how I'm done for the day because I wrote so much.  First grade can be so hard!!  It always gets them laughing.

After we're done writing (I mean, I'm done writing) we reread, talk about how many sentences I wrote, and that they need to be complete thoughts.  Here's Marlee!

And of course, there are times I take a random picture.  Silas wore this hat the other day and asked if I'd take a picture.

Tomorrow's Friday and we have a long weekend!!  

Surviving the FIRST Hot Week!!

Here they are!!

I'm starting the year with 15 smiling, upbeat students.  Even with the heat this week, they're working hard.  We've spent the week getting to know each other, learn our routine, and our schedule.

We've also been outside enjoying the warm weather and making new friends.

Keep checking back to see what we're up to!

More of Our First Week

Meet Grahm!!

Here are the kiddo's self portraits hanging in ABC Order.

We practiced Read to Self again today.  The kiddos have done a great job reading quietly in a comfy spot.  They have learned you can read the words and pictures.  Today, I taught them it's a good book fit if they can retell the story.  I read Wolf! and we completed a chart retelling the story.

I also introduced Writer's Workshop.  I plan on taking this VERY slowly.  We've focused on names this week so I had the kids write and decorate their name.  

I introduced my Rate Your Writing Poster.  Our focus today was making detailed illustrations.  We talked about each picture I drew and I wrote down what they noticed about each one.  

Then they looked at their decorated name and rated their work. Tomorrow they will write an opinion, stating if they like their name or not.

We also worked in our Math Notebooks and showed different ways to write the number 2.

I'm not sure about you but days seem to be a blur and I know I'm exhausted at the end of the day!

Here They Are!!

Here are some pics of what we've been up to!!

Of course I had to take first day pics of the kiddos.  It's amazing to see how much they grow by the end of the year.  I still have more to upload so look back tomorrow.

This is what we've been up to this week.

We read the No David! books and discussed what a Peacemaker and Peacebreaker was.  I gave them cards to sort and we added them to our posters.

We've completed work with our names.  After reading Chrysanthemum, we completed a character map.  Kids also made flowers by looking at how many letters, vowels, and syllables were in their names.

The kids absolutely LOVED the book Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Was Her Name.  Try saying that 3 times fast!!  We counted how many letters in her name and would you believe she had 56 letters?  We wrote our names on Post-Its, counted the number of letters, and graphed.  

Today was the first day of practicing Read to Self.  Kindergarten teachers now introduce this midway through the year so when they come to first they know the expected behavior.  I don't plan on rushing this process but I'm hoping I can begin reading groups a bit earlier this year.  They did a great job!!

Today we began our Special Person of the Day.  Meet Jocelyn!!  She sat in a comfy chair and students asked her questions to get to know her better.  I did the writing, but kiddos helped me with making complete sentences.  We talked about what goes at the beginning and end of sentences.  We also counted the number of words and sentences.  We'll reread her poster tomorrow and learn about another student tomorrow!