Ms. Abrams' Allstar News!
Updates from the First Two Weeks in Room 7!
The First Few Days:
On Thursday, we learned about our morning routines. We used our attendance and calendar charts on the Promethean board for the first time. We did more getting to know you activities during our English/Language Arts (ELA) time. After ELA, we went to the MPR for a grade-wide assembly on Leader in Me and the lunch time expectations. We came back to our classroom and had our first chance to learn about iPads before it was time for our first lunch at school. In the afternoon, we did a few math activities to get our brains ready for the year. We ended the day with our first specials, Art and Music.
Friday the class had their first chance to try the different Promethean charts we use in our morning routine. Then we brainstormed about things that our class wants to learn in first grade before having our first Leader in Me lesson. The first lesson was on being proactive. Be sure and ask your child more, because they should have a lot to say! Our last activity before lunch was also our first chance to use the iPads. We were busy getting familiar with them so that we are ready to work independently and bring them home when the time comes. After lunch we worked on our class mission statement by brainstorming why we go to school. The last thing on our agenda for the week was our first days of PE and Spanish.
This first week was really successful and it got me very excited for the rest of the year!
Students showing off what they want to learn this year!
We became professionals at finding our place in line!
Why do we go to school?
This Week:
On Tuesday, we started our day by introducing our class mission. After that, we dove into ELA with the book Chrysanthemum. After learning about the mouse's very long name, we reviewed what a syllable is and counted the syllables of all of the name sin our class. After clapping our names out, the class got to work creating books about first grade. Our before lunch activity was once again practicing with our iPads. After lunch, we took a break for a read aloud before diving into math by practicing our subtraction facts. Once our fluency minute was over, we went back to what we learned in Chrysanthemum about our names and made graphs of how many letters are in the names in our class. Our Specials on Tuesday this week were PE and Spanish.
We started our Wednesday this week by learning what to do in a bus emergency at a bus evacuation drill. After we settled in to our day, we did more word wall work and started working on a classroom environment activity during our ELA time. After ELA was over, it was time for our last official iPad lesson. After lunch, we graphed our september fact fluency numbers (an explanation of this will be in your child's home folder today). For our main math activity today, we explored our length comparison words some more by finding objects around the room that were longer, shorter, or the same as us. Since it was our first day 5, we only had one special. During our other special time, we learned about our second habit, Beginning with the End in Mind. I encourage you to ask your child about the goals we discussed and set as a class and how we begin with the end in mind in our class. After our Leader in Me lesson, it was time for our first trip to the Library before the end of the day.
Thursday morning started with learning about traits. We talked about the difference between inside traits and outside traits. We practiced identifying them using our characters from freckle juice. We did more word wall work before diving into our iPad work. Today in iPads, we learned how to bookmark the web pages that we'll use a lot in class. After lunch, we learned our first reading strategy. Our friend Eagle Eye is going to remind us that looking at the pictures can help us understand the story. We dove into math with our last day of focusing on longest, shortest, and same as. Our specials today were Art and Music.
Today we started by exploring our own character traits. We used pictures taken yesterday during ELA time as our base to surround ourselves with our inside and outside traits. After exploring ourselves, we finished our classroom environment activity that we've been working on throughout the week. After finishing our environment activity, we spent some time in small groups going through our environment. Before we knew it, it was time to head to lunch! This afternoon, I was out for some meetings so the class worked on measurement with a substitute. They started to measure using nonstandard units. They did this by measuring how long their feet were in unifix cubes and comparing them to the rest of the class. Their specials today were PE and Spanish.
Overall, it was a wonderful full week and diving into our units made us all very excited to learn together!
Exploring measurement with Unifix cubes!
Check out our class mission!
Comparing the lengths of different pencils!
Other News from Room 7:
- Our class Twitter this last week has been very active. I sent an e-mail previously but I wanted to remind you that, if you would like to follow our class, you can do so here. If you do not have a twitter but would like to keep up with our updates, you can text "Follow Abrams_Allstars" to 40404 to receive a text containing each tweet.
- Based on the number of iPad Guideline forms we have received from First Grade families, we have made the decision to send iPads home Today. While they are going home, they are not going home to be used. They do not have enough charge right now to finish our lessons, so please send them to school on Tuesday fully charged. Please see the e-mail sent Friday (today).
- MAP testing will be in the morning next Tuesday and Wednesday.
- Remind your child to try to read for at least 10 minutes every night and to fill out their Reading Log. Please also ensure that they are in their backpacks on Monday night to come to school on Tuesday.