A Monday Update a Day Late

What an amazing week we had last week. Our class is moving smoothly into a daily routine, where learning is our main goal!

· This Tuesday we will have an aid in our class while Ms. Rosa and I have our FAIR (Florida Assessment in Reading Instruction) assessment day. This allows us to tests the students one on one in a quiet setting. Please make sure they go to bed early on Monday and get a good breakfast on Tuesday morning.

· Check the calendar on the back of the home folder to see if they had an “opps”. Please initial next to the “opps” if they did. Thanks for your support in helping keep our classroom behavior a priority.

· ME BAGS are due tomorrow and they are the first social studies grade. Please help your child put theirs together and send in tomorrow. Include a photo of family, item representing hobby, favorite book, and any other item that is special.

· If you have not done so please send in $5 for our first grade T-shirt and a spare set of clothes in a Ziploc baggie (which will be returned at the end of the year).

· Remember Tuesday and Wednesday is PE; please wear tennis shoes. Closed toed shoes with backs must be worn every day! Students may get to check out library books at Media today. Get excited and use the recall hand to assess their comprehension!

· On Friday their sight words week 2 will be assessed. Remember they do not get a grade each week, but I do highlight the words they KNOW in their HOME folder. They need to be able to look at the words and read it within 4 seconds. There will be a point when we work on spelling some of the most common ones but right now I want the students to focus on reading them.

· We are continuing reviewing letter sounds and learning the routines of the new phonics program this week. I do not think there will be a dictation on Friday.

· Check your food for box tops. J If you need me to resend the sheet with the products let me know.

· NO SCHOOL next MONDAY, September 5^th

The First Week

Look at these 20 new 1st graders!!!

I love them already!

We learned so many things the first week!  My own brain hurts still so I can imagine they were just as pooped out as I was on Friday afternoon.  We learned how to use our smart board for math calendar, were introduced to our math journals, explored math tools (linking cubes, pattern blocks, geo cubes), created many graphs (name, right hand/left hand, transportation), created our names with lines and curves, and even worked on illustrating our own number book.  That was just math!!!!

We read so many books that helped create a warm welcoming classroom community.  We learned rules and many classroom routines that they are doing so well with this week.  We learned our syllable chant…”A syllable is a word, or part of a word with a vowel that you can hear”.  Make them do the chant for you and start clapping out syllables with them!  We jumped and spelled sight words, learned how to use our new writing grid with our special lines (sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line), we reviewed and practiced writing letters (b,t,f,m,n,c,a), and even met our owl Echo! 

During reading centers, they used letter tiles to make the alphabet, journaled about their summer, illustrated characters from stories, used wikki sticks to create words, and began exploring the different book bins in the library. 

In the afternoon we also began introducing the DAILY 5.  We talked about 3 ways we can read a book.  1. Read the pictures. 2. Read the words. 3. Retell the story. 

Here the kiddos are reading stories 3 different ways.  Now that they know how to read the stories 3 different ways we introduced the first of the 5….READ TO SELF! 

We made a I- chart (I is for independence) of what the students will do and what the teacher can do if the students are independently reading. If they look at their book and read, whisper the words or picture story/retelling, sit, stay, and read the whole time, sit away from people they might talk to….I can read one-on-one with them or pull a small group.  Each day since Friday we have modeled it correctly and incorrectly, practiced it, and reviewed what it looks like.  Today was the first day they got over 2 minutes staying on task!  They filled in a bar graph so each day they hope to see the bar grow and grow as they build their stamina for reading to self.

I am sure there were a million other things we did that I can’t possibly remember but I can say without a doubt…I am loving my class and excited for what this year will bring!  

Meet the Teacher

Meet the Teacher was a great success!!  Ms. Toledo and I got to meet

17 parents some with the little ones and some without.  We have a

feeling it is going to be a fantastic year!  Ms. Toledo and I

are  ready for the first day of school and all the joy and excitement

that come with it. 

 

SCHOOL YEAR 2011-2012 HERE WE

COME!!!