Fabulous First Grade
September/October 2017
Welcome to Our First Grade Newsletter
We have had a great start to our new year! We have spent first months of school getting to know one another, setting expectations, learning routines and establishing our classroom family! Our two āGolden Rulesā are ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST AND ALWAYS BE KIND!!!
Team Building
One of our favorite team building activities was the "Tin-Foil Challenge". The boys and girls worked with a partner to meet the challenge of working together to create something, name it and design a poster. The boys and girls had to work with someone who they weren't in class with last year. This helped them to meet someone new and make new friends.
John and Robert made a Megazord.
Connor and Sheila made a basketball hoop.
Cambria and Aryana made a launch rocket.
Victoria, Olivia, and Ellie made a unicorn on an island.
Lacey and Sean made a boomazan.
Aren and Joseph made a seahorse.
Emma and Iris made a bird.
Connor and Lilliana made a Tin-foil Monster.
Isabella and Kaylee made flowers in a vase.
Star of the Day āļø āļø āļø
The boys and girls love being the "Star of the Day!" When they are Star of the Day, they get to run the morning meeting and lead us in some Fundations skills practice. At the beginning of the year, we do a Star of the Day interview. We draw and write about the star student. We will put these together and each child will have a book of their classmates stories about them. It is a great way to build our classroom community and for the students to become confident in oral speaking.
Sean Leading the Calendar and Weather
Robert Leading Our Warm-Up Drill Sounds
Joseph Leading Our Trick Word Practice
Lamarco and His Star of the Day Story
PAWESOME AWARDS
Have you heard about Pawesome awards? Students can earn Pawesome Awards for showing RESPECT, CARING, LEADING AND SUCCEEDING. Students can earn them in the classroom from me or from any staff member in the building that recognizes them exhibiting one of these traits. Sometimes a whole class can earn a Pawesome award or students can earn them in groups. Here are some of our recent Award Winners! Congratulations!
Walkers Earn a Pawesome Award- Ellie, Sheila, Connor, Lilliana, Olivia, Aren and John!
Ellieās Pawesome Award
Robertās Pawesome Award
Josephās Pawesome Award
Johnās Pawesome Award
Arenās Pawesome Award
Cambriaās Pawesome Award
Connorās Pawesome Award
Lillianaās Pawesome Award
Oliviaās Pawsome Award
Daily Five and Reader's Workshop
In our classroom, our reading time is called Reader's Workshop. For our Reader's Workshop we follow the Daily Five model. Students work on building their reading stamina as they Read to SELF, Read to SOMEONE, or Read with a Teacher. Students have individual book boxes where they store their books. They are learning to go "Book Shopping" and choose "Just Right Books!" Students also Work on Words with Word Work and will be learning to Listen to Reading. While students complete these reading activities, I work with students in Guided Reading Groups that focus on phonics, reading strategies, fluency and comprehension. We celebrate our Reading success and our growing stamina with "Fun Fridays"!
Read to Self While Practicing Fluency with our Reading Phones
Reading with a Reading Buddy
Guided Reading Group
Go Noodle
In our classroom, we take daily exercise breaks. We do these to keep our mind and body moving. We also do calming down or relaxation breaks. One of our favorites is Kids Bop on Go Noodle. Here we are doing the DAB!
You can check out Go Noodle at https://www.gonoodle.com/.
Another one of our favorites is Jack Hartmann. You can find his educational videos on Youtube. Here's a link to his videos on digraphs.
https://youtu.be/HfMtsRVZWfE
Making Applesauce
We celebrating Johnny Appleseed's Birthday on September 26th by making applesauce. We watched a Brain Pop Jr. video about his life and read many stories about him. The boys and girls enjoyed doing many apple activities but their favorite was making applesauce for sure!
Cutting up Apples š
Adding Ingredients- Water, Sugar and Cinnamon.
Johnny Appleseedās Birthday
Science- Air and Weather
Our first Science kit is called "Air and Weather". The boys and girls were very excited to get started. Our little scientists have enjoyed experimenting to discover and answer the question, "What is air?" They have been recording their experiments in their science notebbooks. One of their favorite investigations was constructing parachutes. They became engineers as they worked to construct then fly their parachutes.
Constructing and Flying Our Parachutes
Fire Safety
We transitioned from September to October and began our next unit in social studies on Community Helpers. We kicked off our unit with a visit from the firefighters, one of our favorite community helpers. The firefighter taught us about important rules about fire safety. The firefighters also gave all the boys and girls "homework". Ask your child about it. The visit ended with an appearance from Sparky the Dog!