Fourth Week Update

Hello Families,

Our first month of school has been so much fun! I am thrilled to see so much growth in the students already. October calendars are ready and will be sent home on Monday. The first grade teachers will be in a meeting Monday morning with our literacy consultant, so we will have our first Guest Teacher! Please remind your child to treat our Guest Teacher with respect. Thank you! :-)

Math
We completed  our topic on comparing numbers. I have corrected both Topic 1 and Topic 2 checks. The first grade team has been working on devleoping a the standard for a M (meets standard), P (partially meets standard), and D (does not meet standard) which is why they have not been sent home yet. They should be coming home next week.

Topic 2 was a bit more challenging. Please continue to use greater than, less than, and between whenever you can in family conversations.

We are now working on adding. We refer to adding as making a number from two parts, We have been working on making 6, 7, 8, and 9 from two parts. Your child should be able to tell you all the ways to make 6, 7, 8, and 9. Example: 6  0+6, 1+5, 2+4, 3+3, 4+2, 5+1, 6+0. Beginning math fact flashcards for these facts will be very helpful! :-)

We are playing Number Top It when we have extra time. This is a version of war. As our math skills grow we will be adding cards together instead of only comparing 1 card at a time. Students are required to say, "I have ____." and " ____ is greater than _____." before they can take the cards. This is helping us develop and use our academic language.

 

Reading Workshop
I am continue to be amazed with the reading stamina of these readers. This week we have been reading for 10-15 minutes, then sharing something from our book with a partner. Then we read for 10-15 more minutes and share something from our book with the class in our reading workshop sharing circle. We are working on reading strategies for decoding words. Ask your child about Eagle Eye, Lips the Fish, and Stretchy Snake. Using all three of these strategies will help your child decode many words in age appropriate books.***Look for the following characteristics when helping your child find a "just right" book: It is read not too fast, but not too slow. He/she knows all or most of the words. The topic is age appropriate.***

Word Workshop
We are reviewing short vowel (CVC) words. First graders should be able to decode any regular CVC word. Even for First Graders that are reading, phonics review is very important. The little books are great practice for fluency. The studetns can choose to leave them at school in their books boxes or take them home for practice. 
Our Review Sight Words so far: (Students need to recognize in 3-5 seconds.) Practice cards will be coing home! :-)
is
I
see
the
go
at
can
my
not
a
and
have
to
be
play
did
**cannot** tricky (explain it is the same as it's)
with
get
here
look
me
too
This Week I Really Learned!
Today your child will be bringing home his/her T.W.I.R.L. book for the third time. This week we brainstormed what we learned in a T.W.I.R.L. web. Each student was requried to write one sentence that started with I learned.... and then finish the sentence with an idea from the chart. Thank you for taking time to write to your child. We were able to enjoy some of the letters during snack break this week. They loved hearing your written words.

Mystery Reader
Our first Mystery Reader was Mr. Butler! He read a story called Two Bad Ants. We were engagted and making great inferences about where the ants were during the story. Thank you, Mr. Butler, for taking time out of his busy day to read with us!

 



Attention Getters
Miss Grimes has a lot of ways to get our attention. The chime is rung to signal the end of read to self time, the teacher bell is pressed twice to signal the end of math time, the show me 5 signal is used to get attention most other times, and the tambourine means "get to her feet on the rug quickly!" She uses the tambourine if she realizes that her directions weren't clear or if the whole class is off task and too noisy. We think the tambourine is very cool and thank Tony Kamana for it! :-)

 

 

Our Mystery Reader will Visit Tomorrow!

Clue 3:

I like to vacation at California Beaches.

Mystery Reader's Second Clue

 

"I went to college in Arizona."

Mystery Reader's First Clue

I was born in the "Windy City"

Mystery Reader

Our first Mystery Reader will be here this Friday, September 27! Who do you think it will be? Clues will be revealed Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning before this mysterious person arrives!

Welcome Fall

 

Thank you for sending in leaves of all different shapes, sizes, and colors for our fall leaf project. We had fun sorting the leaves by shape. We ran out of time, but talked about sorting them by color and size also. We then created beautiful leaf rubbings where the stems and veins of the leaves were easily visible.



Our Third Week

Hello Families,

September is flying by quickly, and our first graders are adjusting well to classroom routines and expectations. We earned a couple more Panthers Pride cards this week and were so cooperative during indoor recess on Thursday. Nobody even complained when another class joined us for Tumble Books instead of activities in the classroom.

Math
We did a quick check on Topic 2, identifying, reading, and writing numbers to 12. These will be coming home next week. I apologize for not having them ready to go today. Our second topic is a short one. We are learning to compare numbers to tweleve. New vocabulary words are greater than, less then, least, greatest, compare, between, before, and after. Using these words in daily family conversations will be very helpful for your child. Our topic 2 check is scheduled for Tuesday, September 24.

Reading Workshop
Wow! I am beyond impressed with the reading stamina of these readers. This week we read for more than 15 minutes. That means that all students were quiet, stayed in their spot, and had their nose in a book the whole time. We learned how to care for books (ask about the crying books), how to get and put back our book boxes nicely, how to choose "just right" books, and how to find an appropriate spot to read. They are amazing, and I can't wait to watch their reading growth this year.
***Look for the following characteristics when helping your child find a "just right" book: It is read not too fast, but not too slow. He/she knows all or most of the words. The topic is age appropriate.***

Word Workshop
We are reviewing short a, i, e, and several consonants. We are practicing segmenting words, which means saying the sound of each letter. Even for First Graders that are reading, phonics review is very important. The little books are great practice for fluency. The studetns can choose to leave them at school in their books boxes or take them home for practice.
 Sight words: go, I, is, see, the, my 

This Week I Really Learned!
Today your child will be bringing home his/her T.W.I.R.L. book for the second time. Thank you for taking time to write to you child. We were able to enjoy some of the letters during snack break this week. They loved hearing your written words.

Thank You!

Thank you for all of the Scholastic Book Orders. They arrived today and will be coming home with your child. We received these books for free becuase we had such a large order! They are a very nice addition to our growing classroom library!

 

Thank you for supporting our readers!

Another September Birthday

 

to

Madison

 

 

Our Second Week

Hello Families,

We are off to a good start in First Grade! We are practicing Panther Pride Expectations so well that we earned FOUR pink Panther Pride class cards. Expecations are set high at the beginning of the year, and we are following them well. Our routines and procedures are falling into place.

Math
We are reviewing identifying and writing numbers 0-10. We are also working on identifying numbers by using spacial patterns; like the patterns found on dice. A fun family activity would be to roll a die and see how fast your child is able to recognize the number.

Reading Workshop
We are launching our reading workshop! So far we've identified what student and teacher jobs are duing reading workshop and what good listeners do during read alouds, lesssons, and turn and talk. We were able to read independently for 6 minutes and share our favorite page of our book with our buzz partner. Pictures are below:

Word Workshop
We are reviewing short a and i, and several consonants. We are practicing segmenting words, which means saying the sound of each letter. Even for First Graders that are reading, phonics review is very important. Our new sight words are: go, I, is, see, and the.

This Week I Really Learned!
Today your child will be bringing home his/her T.W.I.R.L. book. Please read the information on the front cover. This is a special book that will help keep you updated about your child's learning in his/her own way. Please be sure the book is back in school each Wednesday.

Morning Meeting Fun

 

 

Our First Student Birthday Celebration

to Landon

 

 

 



First Week

Our first week was a success! We earned our first class Panther Pride card for excellent behavior choices and we're settling into our routines and procedures!

We made a birthday graph during math time and were very good and reading the graph for information about all of our birthdays.

A couple of reminders:

Please remember to be logging reading minutes on the weekly reading log. Reading out loud to your child counts for minutes! :-)

Be sure to sign the reading log each week and return it to school on Friday.

Snack, juice, and milk cart starts Monday! If your child does not get snack cart he/she needs to bring a snack from home. Water is the only beverage allowed in the classroom from home. If you want your child to have juice or milk, they need to be signed up for the juice/milk cart.

Panther folders need to be looked at each night. Please send papers that need to be returned to school in the "return to school" side.

My voice mail still has not been reset, so I am not able to listen to messages that have been left at my extension. I will contact the IT department again. For the time being, email is the best way to contact me.

I'm looking forward to week two! Enjoy the nice warm weekend! :-)

We Were as Busy as Bees Today!

   We had a great first day, busy with stories, activities, and modeling and practicing.

• We listened to "Wemberly Worried", "First Day Jitters, and  poem called "Jitter Juice."
• Miss Grimes made Jitter Juice and we all had some at the end of the day to keep the jitters away for tomorrow.
• We learned about recess and lunchroom expectations.
• We started learning about classroom expectations.
• We reviewed how to use pencils and everything they can be used for.
• We had our first music and gym class.
• We started an activity with student's names.

We looked at books in the morning and when we finished our work.

We had fun talking to our friends at lunch!

 



Our first day of school class picture!

 



First Day of School Tomorrow

   Tomorrow is our first day of first grade. I'm so excited to get our year started! I'll see you in the morning!