August 19th, 2011 Update...

Hi Parents and Students,

What an amazing first week we had!  I'm already loving all the great personalities in my room. We have such a sweet class and everyone has begun adjusting to the new rules and routines of  first grade.  I've done many preliminary assessments to determine the needs of the students and I am thrilled with where we will start the year off.  I am confident we will accomplish amazing things throughout the year. Fun Friday was a big hit and I think it was a great motivator to see what a big deal it is.  I warned the children, the honeymoon is over next week!  We have so much to accomplish this year that those consequences will be lovingly enforced when our behavior requires it. I appreciate all the support that has been coming from home. Check out the section below to see what we've done in each subject area. Also, make sure to look over the sections labeled "Dinner Conversation Starters" and "Classroom News". There is some important stuff for you there!

Phonics:  This week, we reviewed all of our consonant sounds.  We learned several fun songs to help us recall these sounds when reading and writing.  We also reviewed what a vowel is versus what a consonant is.  We practiced identifying the syllables in words, also to help our sounding out when writing.  We loved showing the math monster how many syllables were in our name!

Reading:  We read the book Chrysanthemum and talked about literary elements such as characters, setting, problem and solution.  We cut apart the letters in the word Chrysanthemum and worked in collaborative groups to make as many words as we could.  We read the book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell and talked about sequencing the important events in a story.  We completed a fun activity where we cut apart objects found in the story and put them in the correct order on a sentence strip.  We also have really enjoyed listening to our chapter book read aloud High Tide in Hawaii.  We worked individually with Mrs. W to show her our sight word knowledge.

Writing: We took our preassessment  on writing. We also wrote about our families this week.  Together, we created a "illustration rubric" and discussed how pictures tell stories just like words do. We talked about the importance of adding detail and really doing our personal best when illustrating. Please emphasize this at home as well!

Math:  We played several new smartboard math games that will help us learn our addition facts.  We also read the book Ten Black Dots and created our own dot books.  We explored some math activities in our room such as geoboards, polydrons, and pattern blocks.  We took our computation assessment on addition and subtraction as well as problem solving. 

Social Skills:  We learned our five rules to live by...active listening, no put-downs, personal best, truthfulness, and trustworthiness and practiced the hand motions for all.  We met for classroom meetings to act out, problem solve, and discuss what these rules look like in our day to day life and how we should react to various situations.  Please reinforce these rules as home as well!

Dinner Conversation Starters!
Having trouble getting out of your child what he/she did this week?  Check out this section to help get the conversation started...
*Ask your child what a tsunami is and where they heard this word at school (Hint: mention Jack and Annie from our chapter book)
*Ask your child to show you the hand motion for trustworthiness and what it means (Hint: has to do with rock climbing)
*Ask your child what the problem was in the story Officer Buckle and Gloria.  Can they tell you about the dog, Gloria?

Classroom News...
Thank you to Mrs. Abrams who has stepped up to be our class room mom this year!  She also is going to be having help from Mrs. Conner, Mrs. English, and Mrs. McKinney.  Be on the lookout soon for your opportunity to help in the room.

Please send in two clean socks for your child next week. The socks can be new or used. We will be using them all year long as erasers when we work on our white boards. If you have extras, we'll take them!

You will find your child's blue behavior sheet in the folder today. Please remember to sign it and return it on Monday. Also, we will begin our regular homework routine Monday as well. The packet will be due on Friday. Please do not send in until Friday, even if your child finishes early.