Weekly Update #3

We had another busy week in first grade! The students have continued getting to know each other, practicing our classroom routines, and diving into first grade academics.  We had a busy, fun week! Some of the highlights this week were:  2 fire drills, the super rainy day, seeing squirrels in the garden, and who can forget when the water didn't work for a couple of hours in the middle of the day! What an adventure!

This week in Reading...

• We continued learning about building good reading habits.  We talked about how good readers read MORE and MORE and keep track, good readers set goals, and good readers reread to see more! We practiced this habit using the book Goodnight Moon.  Can you believe that we never noticed the mouse on each page and that the book had rhyming words? I encouraged the students to use this strategy in the books in their book bins.  We've really been practicing setting up our reading mats, setting a goal and keeping track, and staying on task during reading workshop.  Next week, we will pick our reading spots!
• Next week we will start discussing good habits for solving hard words.  I am excited to introduce these strategies to students!

This week in Math...

• We practiced tracking data and putting it into tally charts.  We graphed animals with wings/no wings, what type of bottoms students were wearing (shorts, pants, skirts), and we also practiced making tally charts playing Rock, Paper, Scissors!
• The students had a math exploration lesson where they explored base-10 blocks, geoboards, pattern blocks, and took a math assessment in small groups.
• We played math games today!

This week in Writing...

• We discussed the steps of writing small moment stories.
• We discussed the difference between a watermelon story and a "seed" story.  For example, "our day so far at school" is a watermelon story, but playing ZAP! with a friend is a seed story.
• The students completed a writing prompt for a beginning of the year writing assessment.  (Lots of assessments this week!)
• We talked about strategies for spelling tricky words (i.e., stretch out the sounds, use words you know to help you).
• We started trying out different writing spots in the classroom (i.e., lap desks, wobble stools)

Below are some pictures of students in action and some of our anchor charts.  I hope you enjoy!

Here are the steps to writing a small moment story.  Think, plan, write.  

Here is the first anchor chart for our reading.  We're working on building good habits to grow our reading muscles!

We reviewed rhyming.  Students were each given a picture and had to find the person who's picture rhymed with their picture.  We also generated more rhyming words.

Here is our poem of the week.  This week, we searched our poem for "snap" words (sight words), punctuation, and worked on reading it smoothly.  

Here is our schedule for wiggle stools (Hokki stools).  The students LOVE them and look forward to their day!

Writing workshop!

Using the lap desks.

Using the floor table.

We're learning about apples.  We made a diagram of an apple tree.

The students spent a few minutes browsing the books in our library and using our "reading buddies." We also practiced putting books away in the correct bin!

Some reminders:

• Picture Day - October 3rd
• I will send out a Sign Up Genius link in the near future for parent-teacher conference sign ups

As always, please feel free to e-mail me with any questions or concerns!

Have a great weekend!