Classroom update, Calendar of Events, and Gingerbread House Pictures!

Hello families!

First, I wanted to apologize for my lack of communication via our blog here!  I have every intentions of updating it more regularly, but time seems to fly away.  With all of our new curriculum this year, there's lots more time devoted to planning and prep than I expected.  I will do my best to update the blog as frequently as possible!

I wanted to give a brief update on all of our academic subjects.

In Reader's Workshop, we are beginning our new unit of studying informational books.  We will be reading lots of nonfiction and talking about the different ways we can learn things through our books, and we'll really focus on comprehending nonfiction!  We did this unit last year, and the kids LOVED getting to read and talk about nonfiction books.  Keep encouraging your child to read at home every night.  It's important to keep the reading habit going, even throughout out longer breaks from school!  Thanks for your support at home in helping your child develop a life-long love of reading!

In Writer's Workshop, we are finishing up our unit of writing informational books.  Your child may have already bragged about writing chapter books!  They have been working so hard and are learning all about organizing our writing and making books for others to read.  I can't wait for the next few weeks to see their final projects and to send them home for you to enjoy, too!

We are starting Topic 5 in math, and will be working on addition strategies for adding numbers up to 20.  We will really be focusing on doubles, double plus 1, and double plus 2 facts.  These strategies are a little tricky, but they are helping your child really deepen his or her understanding of overall math concepts.

In science, we are learning about the seasons, weather, the water cycle, and types of precipitation.  We will be working on these topics up until our winter break.  In social studies, we are learning about winter holidays by traveling to the other first grade teachers' rooms.  We have or will be learning about Christmas in Germany, Christmas in Mexico, Christmas in Italy, and Hanukkah.

Please check out the top of the blog for a new page--Calendar.  Here is where I will post special days and celebrations we have planned (for example, Stuffed Animal Day).  We will try to remember to send home a note before each of these days as well, but know it will be posted here as your main source of information.

And last but not least, thanks to everyone for donating supplies for our Gingerbread houses.  The kids LOVED making them last week, and I loved having all of the parent volunteers and help!  Thanks to all involved in this fun project!  Check out our pictures below :)

Fall Celebration and Fall Conferences!

Hello families! We have been having a great fall, even if the weather has been mostly rainy and cold! We've been working hard in Math and are beginning our fourth unit already next week! You'll see math tests coming home sometime next week. Please be sure to sign the actual test and return it to school with your child, signaling that you have seen it! Reading has been going great--our reading stamina is up to 45 minutes of independent reading! All the students have been soaring through reading, and it's becoming easier and easier each day! We've begun our Word Work program called Words Their Way, which mainly helps your child hear sounds in words and look for spelling patterns in words. Your children have been busy writing stories each day. We sometimes joke that we are a story factory in our room, we're writing so many stories! We have moved away from writing Small Moments stories to writing informational stories now. We are really enjoying teaching our classmates and other readers about all the things we know! In science we have worked hard on learning all about plants, and are now learning about bats. We've been working on our listening rules in Social Studies and learning how to be good students with different tools for learning.

Thank you to all of you who have come to conferences so far this year! It's been great to see you and share all the exciting things we're doing in our classroom and how well your student is doing! If I haven't seen you for conferences yet, I look forward to seeing you next week!

Below I wanted to share some pictures from our fall celebration! Thanks to all who came to volunteer at our party and to all the families who provided treats--we had some yummy popcorn, apples and caramel, and juice boxes! They were a big hit! Also, a big thanks to Jen Lehmann for planning a fun BINGO game and Jen Macakanja for planning a fun pumpkin painting magnet craft! The kids had so much fun and it was a wonderful celebration. I especially loved seeing all the creative costumes! Enjoy the pictures!


 

An Update and Some Pictures!

Happy Friday 1st grade families!

We have been off to a super start of our school year!  With testing (almost) completed, we are finally getting to the fun part of first grade--lots of learning and exploration!

In Reader's Workshop, we are finishing up our launching unit by learning how to talk about books.  We are learning to talk about characters, settings, and events, asking questions and answering them, and how to hold book talks with our reading buddies.  These are things you can work on at home with your first grader!

In Writer's Workshop, we are working hard on writing small moment stories.  We are thinking of all the neat things that we do and that happen to us each day, and writing stories about them.  We are working on writing our stories across three or more pages, and using our brains to touch and tell our stories before we write them.  We are working on adding details and elaboration, and making our stories exciting.  We are bringing our stories to life by unfreezing our characters, writing our stories in "itsy-bitsy" steps (just like the itsy bitsy spiders!) and showing and telling our feelings and thoughts.  

In math, we have been working hard on addition and subtraction.  I'm sure you've seen (through the homework) how different we teach math today compared to how we adults learned math a long time ago.  Thank you for supporting your child in learning math through using the reteaching side of the homework to further explain and help your child.  We are doing great!

In Social Studies, we have been talking about how we can be a good learner by focusing our attention (ask your child about their attent-o-scope!) and by using the 4 listening rules--eyes watching, ears listening, voices quiet, and bodies still.  

In Science, we have been working on learning all the parts of plants--starting with sunflowers!  Mrs. Destache brought in a HUGE sunflower from her house.  It was nearly 11 feet tall!  We used science tools (magnifying glasses) to look at all the parts of a sunflower, and even got to take a seed home!  Then, we solidified this learning by working on life-size drawings of sunflowers with a partner.  It has been lots of fun!

Below, please see a slideshow with just a few pictures (I have been bad about taking pictures...I promise to get better!)  You can see us having fun playing math games and working on our sunflower projects!

Have a great weekend!

- Mrs. Wright

Behavior Log--Color Explanation

Hi families!

We are off to a great start to the school year!  The kids seem to love school and are learning our routines quickly.  It's great to see how much they have grown in such a short period of time!

Today I wanted to provide a description of our color behavior system.  Many of you already know that we have 7 colors:

Red--Parent contact
Orange--Consequence
Yellow--Stop and think
Green--Ready to learn
Blue--Great choice
Pink--Excellent Effort
Purple--Outstanding Day

Every student starts the day on green.  This means that they are ready to learn and each day is a fresh start.  Most children will stay on green all day.  If your child is on green, it means they made great choices--I always tell them that green means great!  If your child comes home on green, please reinforce this by positive praise...I want them to feel like green shows that they ended the day on a great note.

If your child is making a negative choice, such as talking in the pod, playing during learning time, fighting, etc. they may have to move down a color.  This is usually a warning to get their behavior back on track.  When they choose to make smart choices again, they are asked to move back to green.  If negative behaviors continue through the day, even after the warning, your child may move down to orange or red, depending on the number and severity of the behaviors.

Some people ask about the higher colors--blue, pink, and purple.  I use these colors as positive reinforcement for good behaviors--but especially as a motivator for other students.  For example...let's say your child is the first one sitting quietly on the carpet for learning time.  They may get to move up a color because they are setting a good example for the other students.  Sitting quietly on the carpet is a behavior that is expected in our classroom, and while it normally wouldn't warrant a positive color move, if the rest of the class is talking and one student is sitting quietly, ready, the positive reinforcement for that child will get the rest of the students' attention and usually help motivate the rest of the class to be quiet as well.  These positive color moves could count for anything--perhaps helping a student clean up their art box, being the first one quiet in line, helping a partner during a game, solving a conflict with words instead of yelling, etc.  Please know that these positive color moves are very subjective, and not the same each day.  They change and adapt to give reminders to the rest of the class.

Please know that this management system, while perhaps confusing, can be very motivating to students and helpful to our classroom environment.  Your support at home (even a simple "Great job for being on green!") can really help our classroom behaviors!

If you have any further questions regarding our color system, please feel free to email or call!

Thanks,

Melissa Wright

Welcome to a First Grade!

Hello and welcome to all new first grade families!

My name is Mrs. Wright, and I am your new teacher!  I am really looking forward to another great year in first grade!  Please take time to explore our blog, learn a little bit about our classroom and curriculum, and even look back at last year's blog posts for an idea of what your child will be learning and experiencing this year!

Remember to check back occasionally to see the updates about what is happening in our classroom and all the fun we're having this year!

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me!

Melissa Wright

Contraction Surgery!

We had a blast today doing our Contraction Surgeries!  The kids each had a partner--one acted as the surgeon, and one as the assisting nurse...then they switched!  Each pair was given a pair of two words (for example: do not).  They had to cut out the "disease" and stitch their patient together back with tape (do not became don't).  Then they used the band-aids to show where the apostrophe goes.

The kids had a blast with this, especially because they got to wear masks and gloves.  What fun!  Thanks to all families who donated supplies for this fun project!

Play Performances

Thank you to all the parents, grandparents, and other family members who came to see our plays last week! The kids had a blast, and felt very special to be able to put on a performance for you!

 Here are the recordings of our performances. The kids had a blast and did so great!

Lion and the Mouse

Stone Soup




The Gingerbread Man




The Three Billy Goats Gruff