This week in First grade...

We had such a fabulous first week of school! I have enjoyed getting to know your children and I hope they had a positive experience learning new routines. This week we will continue to practice our arrival procedures, in the cafeteria, and in the classroom. The students are doing so well coming into the classroom, putting their backpacks away, putting their purple take home folder in their pocket and making their lunch choice before they choose a book to read.

This week we will continue to review concepts from Kindergarten including vowels and consonants. There will be a poem in your child's Take Home Folder for you to read with them and activities to reinforce what we've learned each day. Please keep track of the minutes you and your child read together on their weekly Reading Log. We will go over this at Open House on Tuesday night, September 1st, at 6:30pm.

During Reading Workshop we will practice different reading strategies as a class after I model the expectations. This week we will start with The Art Lesson by Tomie de Paola and will focus on Monitoring Comprehension. Your child will have a Reader's Response Notebook that they will use on a daily basis. During Writer's Workshop we will continue to set up our expectations and practice being independent thinkers. This week we will focus on how to get ideas for stories. We will make a list of ideas in our Writer's Notebook.

In math we have been working on collecting data and making graphs. We've discussed why graphs are important and what they tell us. This week we will be doing Quick Surveys to make class graphs about different things. We are going to end our week with a Quick Survey titled, Cone or Cup? What kind of Ice Cream do you like best? We will survey our classmates, make a tally chart and make a graph in our Mathematician's Notebook. I will use this activity to assess how well each student understood the topic.

In Social Studies we have learned about Citizenship. We discussed what a good citizen does and traits of a good citizen. This week we will learn about different citizens in our community from our Principal to our President.

Monday folders will be packed to the gills this week...Thanks Laura! They will have many things to sign and return including handbook forms. Please look through these items and return handbook forms by Friday, September 4th. I am also including Book Order fliers from Scholastic. I will be using the bonus points that I receive from your orders to purchase materials and books to use with your children in the classroom.

I look forward to seeing all of you on Tuesday night at 6:30pm for Open House!

First day of First Grade and this week

We had such a great day together! We learned two different sign language signs to give "silent signals". We also read "No, David" by David Shannon and talked about why we need rules in our classroom. Then we made a list of rules that we should use to stay safe and learn! After that we played a game with a ball of yarn and learned our new friends names. Ask your child what we made together with the yarn! We read a story called "The Cow who Laid an Egg" and why she didn't want to be ordinary. We tried to think about what the work cowpoke means or what a cowpoke is. We recorded our thoughts in our Writer's Notebook and drew a picture of what a cowpoke looks like. After everyone finished we shared our conclusions of what a cowpoke is in our circle group. After recess we practiced writing our names in our best handwriting and we learned how to use the book boxes for our tables (i.e. quiet self sustained reading). We had a great lunch and even got to play outside for a little bit. Right after lunch we headed to PE with Mrs. Rader and that really made us tired! We went back to the room after a quick water break to get ready for Calendar and Math. We learned some new songs for Calendar time and practiced coming to sit on the carpet as a group. We talked about transportation and made a class graph about how we get home in the afternoons. We compared the number of bus riders to walkers, car riders and after-schoolers (daycare and YMCA kids). We learned that there are more walkers than anything else in our class! We will continue to learn about data and putting graphs together this week. At the end of the day we learned how to pack our backpacks and how to line up for dismissal. Our day went by very fast!!
If you have not already designated a spot to meet your child, if they are a walker/biker/door pick-up, then please do so and let me know. The choices are the flagpole side of the school, Carlwood or the playground side, Oakview. I will bring the kids to you in a group. This should help streamline the amount of people in the halls.
If you plan on volunteering in our classroom please go online and register again this year. Mrs. Hohmann has details posted on e-news.

So glad to meet you!!

Hello First Graders!! I am so happy I got to meet each one of you today! I am excited about learning this year and look foward to our first day together! Don't forget to have your parents read the mini book with you so that you are prepared for your first day of school.

Your homework assignment is to find or purchase a magazine organizer. The plastic kind that is tall and thin. This will be your book box! During the school year you will be able to put some of your favorite books in this box to read during Read to Self. If you have one at home just bring it!! I have an example for your mom or dad if they need to see one!

I'm excited to see you on Tuesday!