Our Holiday Celebration

We had a great time at our holiday party.  Here is a short video capturing all the fun.  Just click on the link below.

Happy Holidays!

Our Holiday Celebration

Lucky Tray Winner!

Congratulations Claire....

Tonight's homework

Click on this link.  Watch my lesson and then do your homework.  Don't forget to bring it to school tomorrow!

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/solving-problems-with-unknown-addends/15172076/?s=heBCKi&ref=app

Thanksgiving

The class has been hard at work retelling The Thanksgiving Story.  We used the explain everything app to complete this project.  Enjoy!

Exciting News!

Today we began kid blogs!  Look at the top of the blog...do you see the tab for kid blogs?  Click it and see what the kids are blogging about.

Today during our library tech time we learned what blogs are and reviewed all about safety when blogging.

Then we started posting to our own blogs.  I love all the different things the kids chose to blog about.  They can even blog from home!

All post and comments must be approved by me....safety first!  Once I have approved them, they will be posted for all to see.

I love all this authentic writing they are doing!

Happy Reading :)

Busy November!

We have been quite busy over the last month.  Here is a quick overview of what we have been up to.

****Don't forget that we go out everyday!  Please be sure to pack snowpants, hats, mittens and boots.


Here's a picture of the kids during morning check-in.  I was amazed how engaged they were all reading.

During snack and free time some friends worked together to make an awesome flag out of legos...great teamwork!

Literacy

• Reviewed Short U.  We remember Short U by saying "U"..."umbrella".."short u sound".
• Worked with the families ug, uck, ut and un
• Worked with the "H Brothers".  H Brothers are when two consonants work together to make a new sound.  Here is a picture we have to help us remember "th, sh, ch and wh sounds.  

• Worked with new word wall words.  Look at the tab marked HF words to see all the ones we have introduced.  Don't forget to practice these, we need to read and spell these by the end of the year.

• Have you checked out Raz-Kids?  The kids love this web site where they can practice a variety of books at their independent level.  They can even record their reading and send it to me so I can hear how they are doing. Try to have your child login at least two times a week.  Just click on the Raz-Kids tab at the top of the blog.                                                                                    
• In Writer's Workshop we have been working hard at making our stories "come to life" by making character's think, talk, feel and move.  We have also worked on revising our stories.

Math

• We have continued working with story problems.  We have begun to use math journals to show our math thinking.
• Continued using efficient strategies to show our math thinking; counting all, counting on/back and known facts.

Social Studies

• Learned about the pilgrims and why they sailed to American.  
• Read many stories about the first thanksgiving.
• We are working on doing a retelling....stay tuned.

Busy Day!

What a busy day!  Today we talked about lots of different things...here is a snap shot.

In writer's workshop yesterday we worked on writing a small moment story together.  Then today we went back and used "acting it out" to help make sure we made the characters move, talk, think and feel.  Our changes are in red...what a difference!

We also worked with our new word families -og & -ot.  I was amazed at the words they came up with: including blends and multisyllable words.

Classroom Update

Parent Information

• Don't forget to send in the Acceptable use policy.  We need it signed to allow students to use the computers.

• We will be having our Halloween parade and party next Thursday.  Please send in your child's costume that day.  Any make-up should be applied at home.  The parade will start at 1:30.  We will be parading around the school.

• Please send in the class email form.  I would like to give them out so the room parents have them for the Halloween party.

Math

• Continued working with story problems focusing on using the most efficient strategies we can: counting on or better yet...known fact
• Continued working on showing our thinking, record a number equation and label our answers
• Worked on problems with multiple combinations.  Students iidentified some target words..."some, target number & how many of each". 

***Check out our guest blogger Sean's system he uses to solve this type of problem.

                                

Social Studies

• Read several different stories about Christopher Columbus

Literacy

• Worked with the short vowel I.  "I...itch...i"
• Worked with the ig & ick word families
• Learned that you use -ck at the end of a word or syllable that has a short vowel
• Began working with short O.  "O...octopus..o"
• Worked with the -ock & -op families
• Writer's Workshop:  learned how to "unfreeze our stories" by making our characters move and talk

Global Read Aloud

We continued to read books by Eric Carle as part of our global read aloud.  This week we focused on The Mixed-Up Chameleon.  In our library/tech class we worked on making ourselves into animals.  The students used "fotobabble" to record themselves.  I then used "thinglink" to put in all together.  Click on all the touch points to see/hear our mixed up animals.  

Math

We have been working on using efficient strategies when solving problems in math.  Our guest bloggers Katie and Carl have shared their strategies.

                              

Classroom Update

Parent Information

• Please make sure to send in your scholastic order by Tuesday if you are interested in ordering.
• Picture day is on October 10th.
• The list of words coming home each week are the words that we have worked with for the week.  The words that are starred are the "word wall" words that they must be able to read and spell.  Practicing reading and writing the "word wall" words and words with the families we have explored would be beneficial.

The Great Read Aloud

All around the world first grade classes are reading books by Eric Carle.  Last week we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  We then watched videos from Eric Carle himself.  In our tech time in the library we worded together using tagul.com.  This web site works on build word clouds.  We put together words that reminded us the story.  You can move the mouse over the words and ask your child to explain them to you. Take a look at the cloud we made! 

http://tagul.com/preview?id=199350@9&name=The%20Very%20Hungry%20Caterpillar

Literacy

• Began working with the short vowel I.  "I...itch...i"
• Worked with the in & it word families
• Worked with new centers:  Work on Writing & Word Work
• Talked a lot about how to "frame our thoughts":  capitals and end marks
• Writer's Workshop:  learned how writing partners can help us with our planning and revising our stories

Math

• Worked with story problems
• Began identifying different ways to solve story problems:  counting all, counting on and know fact
• Talked about how important it is to show our thinking, record a number equation and label our answers
• Continue to work on being efficient, making the decision to count accurately but quickly

Social Studies

• Talked about what fall or autumn brings
• Read stories about apples
• Sequenced the life cycle of an apple
• Read a "tall tale" of Johnny Appleseed

Whole Body Listening

Over the last 20 days we have been talking about "Whole Body Listening"; why it is important and what it looks like.  Today we looked at the visual to help us remember what it takes to listen.

Below you will see the visual we are using.  We talked about how you need to use "Whole Body Listening" at home, brownies, cub scouts, soccer...etc.

Enjoy :)

Room 15 Rules

Here are our classroom rules.  The children created these themselves and signed them to agree to follow them throughout the year.

Classroom Update

Parent Information

• I sent home the class directory.  Please check for errors in names, phone numbers, etc.

• If you haven't sent in your poem notebook money it is not too late.

• Don't forget to send in your scholastic magazine money.

• Parent Information Night is Wednesday, September 25th.  Hope to see you all there!

Literacy

• Continued to do "Read to Self".  They built their stamina to 15 minutes...amazing!
• Continued to do "Read to Someone".  We learned different ways to read to a partner and learned to "check for understanding".
• Introduced our first set of short A word families; at & ap
• Worked with the high frequency words a, I, see, at, is me the.  They are now responsible to spell these words correctly in their writing.
• Began a new center "Word Work".  Learned how to build our at & ap words using tiles, wikki sticks, white boards and magnets.
• Writer's Workshop:  Worked on understanding how to revise our stories by asking who, what, where, when, how and why questions.

Math

• Continued to work on numbers to 20.
• Began playing games that compare numbers.
• Continued to talk about how to be "efficient" & "accurate".
• Used the 20's frame to organize and help "represent" amounts of objects.

Technology

• Read a book called The Dot.  Talked about what it meant to "make your mark".
• Participated in celebrating "Dot Day" by working with partners to design their own dots.
• Used I pads to create cool 3-D pictures.
• Look for a gallery of photos soon!

Second Week

Well we successfully completed a full week of school.  It is an adjustment to being back to school, not to mention that it was 90 degrees in the classroom.  I know that I was spent by Friday night, I can only imagine how tired they must have been.

We had a great week.  Here are some updates...

Parent Information

• Don't forget to send in an art smock with your child.
• We do have snack every day, please send it in daily.

Language Arts

• Read several stories that reinforced the importance of vowels "There's a vowel...in every...word".  
• Continued to work on "Read to Self".  They are doing great and have built there stamina to 11 minutes!  We also learned about the "3 Ways to Read a Book" (pictures, words & retelling the story).
• Began a new center "Read to Someone".  Once again they helped to develop the job for both themselves and the teachers.  Ask them if they know what "EEKK" is.
• Began "Writer's Workshop".  We are learning how to plan out and write true small moment stories.  

Math

• Explored different math tools that we will be using this year.
• Focused on counting accurately.
• Learned how important "double checking" is.
• Began talking about being "efficient"....learned how organizing counters in rows of 5 made it more efficient to count.

Open Circle

• Brainstormed rules for our classroom.  Signed them, agreeing to following them for the year.  I will post these soon.  Be on the look out!

First Week of School

Our first week of school was very successful!  We spent a great deal of time reviewing rules and routines of the classroom.  For example; the children are already becoming pros at their morning routine:  bringing notes into the classroom, putting their folder in their cubby checking in their lunch tag,  and doing their before work (BSW).

We also began learning our first center job....Read to Self.  The children did a great job of coming up with what "Read to Self" should look like.  We brainstormed their job and the teacher's job.  We even had children model the right way and wrong way to "Read to Self". We got a lot of laughs at the wrong way!  Then we began building our stamina.  We are able to do this successfully for 3 minutes.  Each time we practice we will be continuing to build our stamina.

Here are some pictures....look at all the "Read to Self" models :)

Back to School

We had a great day today...despite the humid classroom!  I was impressed with how quickly they were beginning to pick up on the classroom routines.

They each have a blue school folder that they went home with.  Please check it each night and put any notes that need to be returned on the school side of their folder.  Please let them know if they have any notes so they will know to check in the morning.

Can't wait for another day!

The start of the school year is just days away.  I am sure that you are all as excited as I am to start a new year together.

Hopefully you all received my welcome letter by now.  Don't forget to wear your sticker on the first day to help me with the names of all my new friends.

I have updated the special schedule for the year.  If there are any changes, I will be sure to let you know.  We have art on the first day of school.  Don't forget to send in an art smock.

We do have snack every day.  Don't forget to send it in.

I can't wait to see everyone on Tuesday!

Take a Look!

Emily A. has been taking care of her plant at home making sure it is getting everything it needs; food, space, water and shelter.  Take a look at how big it has got!

National Symbols Big 6 Project

I hope you enjoyed our writer's celebration today.  I was so proud of how well they sang at the flag day show.  I am sure that you were able to see how much each of the children have grown over the year!

Here is our national symbol big 6 project...leave a comment and let us know what you think.



Guppies

We continue to work on our organism unit.  As part of the unit we learned about a freshwater animal, a guppy.  Here are our guest bloggers Emily A., Matthew, Sadie and Ava sharing what we have learned.  Enjoy!

Upcoming Important Dates

We are entering into the final stretch of first grade....so hard to believe.  I will be sending home a paper copy of the many events over the next few weeks.  They are also listed on the calendar which you can find on the blog.

The biggest event is coming next Tuesday, June 11th.  It will begin with the flag day celebration in the gym at 9:30.  

Immediately followoing flag day, you are then invited to our "Writer's Celebration".  We will be sharing our Big 6 project on national symbols, as well as celebrating our writing we have done throughout the year.

Hope to see you then....

Learning About Plants

We have been learning about organisms, "living things".  We have planted seeds and have been learning about plants.  Here are our guest bloggers Finch and Caroline sharing what they are learning about plants.

Fun Games

We have been working on becoming more fluent with our math facts.  One of the groups that has been a focus is "fast tens".  These are combinations that equal ten.

A free app for the iPad is called "Make 10 Plus"...what a fun way to practice!

We have also been using a web site that has some fun games to help with fact fluency.  Here is the link:

www.gregtangmath.com

More Stony Brook Pictures

Here are some more pictures....thanks Michael's mom :)

New Clip Chart

We have started a new behavior system in Room 15.  Our guest bloggers Nate and Theresa have done a great job explaining it!

Our Stony Brook Visit

Today we were lucky to have great weather for our trip to Stony Brook!  We  were able to visit three different habitats: woodland, field and pond.  We saw different organisms in each habitat and were able to identify the four things they need to live in their habitat; food, water, shelter and space.  Ask your child about the different organisms they saw.

Below are some photos....more to come...

Room 15 Update

So today I am beginning a new way to keep you updated about all the great things that are happening in room 15.  My hope is that this will be a convenient way to inform you regarding curriculum, important dates, and fun things that happen during our day.

Don't forget that tomorrow is our field trip to Stony Brook.  Please be sure to pack a lunch from home, wear long pants and dress in layers.  It does get cold when we are out in the pond area.

We will be seeing different habitats and be talking about what some animals might need to live in their habitat. 

Ask your child what an organism is....and what four things organisms need to live.

Looking forward to a fun day!