An Amazing Start...

Dear Parents,


Thank you for taking time to visit our blog today!  What a great start to our school year we have had!  The children have really impressed me with their maturity and I know we are going to accomplish amazing things this year.  This week, we focused on getting to know each other, learning where things are in the classroom, and expectations and procedures that we will follow throughout the day.  I will be slowly introducing new things to the children over the course of the next two weeks or so; everything from homework expectations and morning routines to classroom management.  I want to thank all of you for allowing your first graders to exhibit their independence and come to the classroom on their own our first week!  I will be challenging your child to live up to his or her full potential every minute they are in my classroom, and keeping a structured  environment really allows for this.  Of course, there will be many opportunities for you to participate in our classroom. I will be contacting parents who expressed an interest in helping after our Open House meeting. I also wanted to thank all of you for getting the school supplies to me so quickly.  Your child will not be needing a pencil box since we will be using tables instead of desks in our room.  If you sent one to school, I have told your child to keep in his/her bookbag for homework.  I will be providing snack for the children this week, so there is no need to send one in.  The snack sack rotation will begin the following week.  Directions are attached to the sack. 


Check out below to see what we have been working on in class this week...


Phonics/Grammar: We briefly reviewed all the sounds of single letters. We also talked about how to identify syllables in words and how this helps us spell more challenging words. We identified the number of syllables in our names and made a class graph.

Reading: We read the book Chrysanthemum. We played a partner game, making smaller words from the letters in Chrysanthemum. We listened to a funny story entitled My Little Sister Ate One Hare and retold the events of the story. The children also learned how the books are categorized in our reading center and how to find books on their level. In the coming weeks, the children will be taking several assessments in order to help me identify their independent reading level and guide them towards appropriate reading material.

Writing: We read the book What I Did Over Summer Vacation by Marc Teague, then began our first piece of writing. The children were introduced to the concept of choosing one topic and making sure all the details included in their paragraph pertain to that topic. Next week, we will learn how to use an organizer to help us write a rough draft, revise and then rewrite a paragraph.

Math: The children became familiar with the components of our Daily Calendar and Math RAP (review and practice), which focuses on maintaining essential skills. The children will be taking a math inventory next week to help me identify their strengths and weaknessses.

Social Sciences: The past few days, we really have focused on creating a classroom environment that is conducive to learning. So far, we have discussed four out of our five "Rules". These five rules, which are actually character traits, are Active Listening, No Put-Downs, Personal Best, Truthfulness, and Trustworthiness. The children learn a hand motion with each rule and we act out in a classroom meeting what each rule looks like and doesn't look like.

Important Reminders and Class News...

Please help your child practice his/her +1 math facts. We are using these very simple math facts to help us really practice the procedure of taking a timed test. You may use flash cards or visit the "math facts" website at the bottom of this blog to help your child learn these facts.

Have fun and be creative with the Hawaiian shirt activity! The shirts are due Friday and will be shared that day and all next week.

Thank you to Mrs. Tovar, who has agreed to be our class room mom! Mrs. Henry has also agreed to share in this responsibility. Thank you, also, to all the volunteers who signed up to help out in our classroom.