News You Can Use!

This week the children were very busy despite our short week. At the end of the week the children worked together to create a news clip of what we learned this week. I will post it here as soon as all the media releases have been turned in. Thank you, we now have all media releases turned in! 

***If you still have any sign and return papers from your curriculum night folder please send them in as soon as possible. Thanks!***  

Reading

This week, the children listened to the story, Cookies Bite Sized Life Lessons. After reading, we discussed the six pillars of Character Counts. Our Character Counts pillars are: Responsibility, Citizenship, Respect, Caring, Fairness, and Trustworthiness. The children also read our character counts promise, each child signed a copy to bring home. The children connected that by following the six pillars they are also being a bucket filler. 

I have almost finished meeting individually with all of my first grade readers and assessing them using Fountas and Pinnell running records. The running records along with AIMSweb scores help me to understand where each child is as a reader and to create meaningful guided reading groups. We will begin guided reading groups in about two weeks after our introduction to the Daily 5. I will post information about each area of the Daily 5 as we learn the routines in class. 

Writing

This week, we continued working on our first writing unit, Autobiographies. The children wrote about their favorite pet, favorite toy or game, and their favorite thing to do. They are working very hard at using the writing process: Think, Draw, Label, and Write. I am proud of our authors for using their “brave spelling” to stretch out sounds in tricky words. 

The children also began practicing, work on writing and word work this week. These are two parts of the Daily 5. The children will learn more about these procedures in the next two weeks. This week they were introduce to journal writing, the children received a journal prompt and then decided how they wanted to respond. The children wrote some interesting things about what they would do if they were the teacher and what they would do if they lived in outer space. These journal writings will be kept in their writing binder. In word work, the children learned about rainbow words and spelling code. When we begin spelling, these are some of the ways the children will practice their words in class. Currently, the children are reviewing their kindergarten sight words. 

Math 

In Math, the children worked with number sense. This week they practiced using the number line, compared numbers, practiced writing numbers correctly, and worked with beginning number stories. The children also enjoyed playing the Bunny Hop game to practice their number line skills and Top-it to compare numbers. We ended the week by learning about tally marks. The children were excited to create a class pet chart using tallies on the mimio. 

The children did a great job of returning their first homelink on tally marks. We will begin having homelinks on Monday- Thursday nights this week. Please return them the next day unless otherwise noted. 

Social Studies

We began our first social studies unit this week on communities. We kicked off the unit by learning about our school rules and our Dryden School Helpers. Below is a list the children created featuring our school helpers.

After we finished with Dryden School Helpers we began a KWL on community helpers. This week the children learned about: crossing guards, doctors, and nurses. We watched a short video titled, Community Helpers on BrainPOP jr. and read the books, Watch Out! and Doctors in Our Community. As we learned new facts we added them to our Community Helpers KWL.  

Royal Reader

We had our first Royal Reader this week. The children were very surprised and excited to see Mrs. Sessler in our room wearing a crown and royal robe. She read the children, It Looked Like Spilt Milk and I Want to Be an Astronaut. Thank you Mrs. Sessler for coming and sharing these wonderful books with us!!

International Dot Day

This coming Friday, the children will celebrate International Dot Day. The children will hear the story, The Dot, by Peter Reynolds and have a chance to create their own dot art. The importance of this day is for the children to learn that each person matters, has genius, and has the potential to make a positive impact on the world. For more information on International Dot Day, please visit: http://fablevisionlearning.com/dotday/