I hope you are all having a chance to enjoy this sunny weather!
This week in class we have been really getting into our schedule. We start our day with writing and the kids are building their writing stamina every day! We are talking about small moment stories, or true stories, that happened to us. We have been discussing how these stories need to be real stories and that we need to think about our stories before we begin writing. We look at each blank page and decide what is going to go on that page. For our first page, we are talking about how we need to include what we were doing, where we were, and who was there. As I meet with students I also help them with punctuation and capital letters as well as focusing on penmanship. As part of writing, we will be working on our handwriting and spelling.
Next we move to reading. Next week we will begin our LLI groups. As a first grade group, we mix all of our kids up and put them into groups. These groups focus on those students needs as a way to differentiate their learning. In other words, the kids in the groups are all needing work in a specific area that is the same as the other kids in their group. Besides myself, the other first grade teachers lead groups as well as our three para pros. This makes for 6 groups that we can place kids in. It is so great that we can do this! Looking at data from last year we see that these groups are making a big difference in the growth of the kiddos! In class we are focusing on why reading is so important and why we read. We will be focusing on reviewing reading strategies this next week. During reading time we will also focus on phonics.
After lunch we move into math. We will be taking things a little slow for our first unit as we really want kids to get the basics of number sense. Some of this is a review from last year, but there are some new things that they are learning as well. The strategies that they are learning are ones that they will build upon as the year goes by. Right now I am teaching whole class, but I will begin moving into math workshop - maybe even a little bit this week. Math workshop is a great way to differentiate kids with their math learning. Math workshop is a time when kids are divided up into groups. They will get the lesson from me and then work independently on math skills. I will differentiate the kids learning within these math groups. Another thing that we will be doing in math is addition and subtraction fact fluency. The kids will work with a para pro on these math facts through something I call ice-cream math. It's a fun way to engage the kids and motivate them to learn their facts. As we move further into the year I will have the kiddos set a goal for themselves. Each time they pass a set of math facts they will receive a "sprinkle" (sticker) for their ice-cream cone that will hang in the room. When they reach their goal they will get a cherry sticker for the top of their ice-cream cone. At the end of the year we will have an ice-cream party to celebrate their success!
At the end of the day we focus on social studies, science, and I do a read aloud to the kids. Right now we are working on building a positive classroom environment during this time as well as reading and learning about The 7 Habits of Healthy Kids. For the read aloud I am reading the kids the book series Freddy Fernortner Fearless First Grader. The kids always enjoy this book series and he is a Michigan author. I have had the pleasure of meeting him before and he is a really great guy! You can request signed books on his website - makes for a good Christmas present.
Registrations for the color run are due on Monday, September 18. Pledge forms are due on Friday, September 22.
School pictures are on Friday, September 22. I will not be at school that day as I will be in Chicago for a family wedding. Stephanie Coeling will be our sub and she is fantastic! She is one of our main subs at school so the kids should already know her :) She will do a great job getting the kids down for pictures and for the whole day. I will also be out the following Monday morning for an appt. for my daughter. Stephanie will be our sub then too.
I think that is it for now, but please let me know if you ever have any questions.