First Full Week

We made it through our first full week of school.  It has been a great week.  The children are doing a great job establishing routines.

• If you are interested in ordering scholastic books please click the tab at the top of the blog.  Click on the link at the bottom of that page and it will bring you directly to order form.  All orders should be submitted by September 22nd.

• Parent Information Night is this Tuesday @ 6:30.  I look forward to meeting all of you and giving a sneak peek into our day.

Literacy

We have been hard at work learning our new centers.  The first two centers we have learned about are "Read to Self" and "Read to Someone".  The children established what is expected for each center, modeled the right and wrong way (their favorite!) and worked on increasing our stamina.  Here are some photos of "Read to Someone".

                                    

Writer's Workshop

We have begun writer's workshop.  We have learned how to plan out a small moment story.  The children have done a great job coming up with true things that have happened to them.

Math

In math we have been working on counting objects efficiently.  We have been working on using ten frames to help organize and count objects.  Below are two friends who put their counters in ten frames.

  Behavior Chart

We have begun a class behavior chart.  It is focused on students using expected behavior.  Expected behavior could give you a clip up.  Unexpected behavior could give you a clip down.  It is a very flexible system so there is always a way to work on changing unexpected behavior.

I will explain more about it at Parent Night.

                                         

Scholastic Book Orders

I am sending home the scholastic book order forms tomorrow.  If you wish to place an order, go directly to the tab on top of the blog.  It will take you to the on-line order form.

Do not send the order in to school.  All orders should be placed by September 22nd.

Happy Reading!

Classroom Update

Well we have completed our first week of school!  The children have been doing a great job getting used to the classroom routines.  The first few weeks bring with it a lot of group work and focus on building the classroom community.  With that in place...we can do anything!

• Please be sure to return the scholastic news payment.
• Don't forget to send in your art smock to school if you haven't already.
• Make sure that you send the poem notebook to school after your child has done their homework.
• The class directory is going home tomorrow.  If you find an error please let me know and I will correct it.  It was a lot of information to keep straight.

We have begun to learn our first center:  Read to Self.  We brainstormed what it looks like and they have been working on building their reading stamina.  We have made it to 8 minutes!

In math we have been exploring math tools we will be using this year such as; geoblocks, pattern blocks, power polygons and snap cubes.  We have also been exploring how to count efficiently using a tens frame.  Ask your child about this.

One thing we are looking at improving is our listening looks.  Mrs. Goldstein came in and we learned about the "whole body listening look".  Did you know that you have to turn parts of your bodies on and off.  Check out the picture below.

                                            

We have begun writer's workshop.  We are learning how to write small moment stories.  Here are the first few steps we have learned.

                       

Congratulations Emma and Olivia....lucky summer reading winners!  They won gift certificates to Park Street Books.

                                   

Our First Few Days

We had a great start to the school year...despite the humid classroom!  I was impressed with how quickly the students are beginning to pick up on the classroom routines.

Each student has a red 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.

We had a visit from Dr. Bilsborough.  She read a very funny story about a rabbit who wasn't very good at listening.  We however....knew exactly what to do!

Reminders:

• Don't forget to send in the $2.00 for the poem notebook if you haven't yet.  We will be bringing home our poem notebooks on Friday.
• Remember to send a snack in everyday.
• Please send an art smock to keep in school.