News You Can Use!

We had another busy week here in 1-1. Read all about our great learning adventures!

Reading

This week, the children began learning about the Daily 5. You can view our earlier posts from the week to learn about: what good readers do, building stamina, I-PICK good-fit books, and read to self. 

On Friday, the children were introduced to Read to Someone. Read to someone helps children read independently and grow as readers. The children enjoy, read to someone because they get to read and discuss books with a friend. It gives children a chance to share their thinking and learning. Read to someone also helps improve fluency. Below is a picture of our class created I-chart.

Enjoy a slide show of the children practicing Read to Someone.

We will begin guided reading groups in a week after we have finished our introduction to the Daily 5. I will continue to post information about the remaining areas 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 thing to do and their favorite place to go. On Thursday, the children met with a partner to share their rough drafts. They took turns reading their writing to one another. After, they shared ideas for adding more detail to each others writing and illustrations. The children then returned to their seats and worked on editing their rough drafts. 

Math 

In Math, the children continued working on number sense. This week they compared pairs of whole numbers, used the calendar to answer questions about days, weeks, months, and dates, and practiced reading temperature ranges on a fahrenheit thermometer. They made the connection that the degrees on the thermometer go up, just like numbers on the number line. The children were also introduced to math explorations. They learned about base-10 blocks, pattern blocks, and geoboards.  

We will wrap up our first math unit next week. The children will review all of the math concepts we learned in this unit. They will enjoy using Mimio Vote as our review tool. Our classroom will turn into the set of a game show during our math block time as the children apply their math knowledge and answer questions using their very own clickers. On Wednesday, we will have our first math test. The children will have all problems read out loud to them. This will ensure that I am testing their math skills and not their reading skills. The tests will come home via backpack mail on Thursday. 

Social Studies

We finished our first social studies unit this week on communities. The children learned about how firefighters, police officers, doctors, and letter carriers help our community. They listened to a book about each community helper and then brainstormed ideas about how they help our community. The children completed their community helpers packet and brought it home to share with you today. 

We will begin our next unit on Maps this coming week. If you have any relatives or friends that live in other states or countries please encourage them to visit our blog. The children we learn next week about ClustrMaps and Live Traffic Feed on our blog. They will be excited to check in during our Map unit and see all the places that people are visiting us from.  

Patriot Day

On September 11th, we celebrated Patriot day in our classroom. We read the story, America Is... After, we had a discussion about what America means to each of us. The children, created heart shaped flags and on the back they finished the sentence starter, America is... Some of the finished sentences were: America is a safe place to live. America is freedom. America is beautiful. America is my home. America is my family. America is a wonderful place to live. 

International Dot Day

On Friday, the children had a wonderful time celebrating International Dot Day. They listened to, The Dot, by Peter Reynolds. We talked about how each of us can make our mark. The children shared ways that they will make their mark this year by doing something brave or something creative. The children also enjoyed creating their own dot art. They started with a blank canvas and used crayons and water colors to create their own dot.  We have some remarkable artists in our room! 

Notes:

-Please be sure to check your child’s red take home folder nightly.  Encourage your child to show you the work they are bringing home. 
-I will send the first Scholastic book order home on Monday. If you would like a sneak peek, click on the Scholastic link on our blog. Please place your book orders by Monday, September 23rd.

-Next Wednesday, September 18th the children will enjoy a Fire Safety presentation from the Arlington Heights Fire Department. Be sure to ask your child what useful fire safety tips they learned!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Read to Self

Today the children learned about the Read to Self component of the Daily 5. We began by creating an I-chart. The children came up with appropriate Read to Self behaviors to write down on our chart. We not only talked about the role of the children during Read to Self but the role of the teacher. After creating the I-chart, the children practiced Read to Self and worked on building their stamina. They made it to 9 minutes today! View a picture of our I-chart below. 

I PICK Rap

Today the children learned the I Pick Rap to help them remember the 5 steps we use to choose a good-fit book.  

Enjoy a video of the children performing the rap below!

 

                   

I PICK Rap from Melissa Johnson on Vimeo.

I PICK Good-Fit Books

Today the children learned how to choose a good-fit book. They learned how to look for a good-fit book in five ways using the acronym I PICK. We will revisit this frequently in the next couple weeks and throughout the school year. Picking a good-fit book is one of the most important things to do in order to become a better reader. 

I PICK

1. I choose a book

2. P urpose - Why do I want to read it?

3. I nterest - Does it interest me?

4. C omprehend - Am I understanding what I am reading?

5. K now - I know most of the words

The children also practiced building their reading stamina again today. This time they made it to 5 minutes. We will continue to build our reading stamina every day. Ask your child to explain what stamina means. Tomorrow we will review the Daily 5 components we have learned so far: what good readers do, stamina, and I PICK good-fit books. 

Introduction to the Daily 5

Today the children had their first introduction to the Daily 5. The Daily 5 is a way of structuring the reading block so every child is independently engaged in meaningful literacy tasks. These research-based tasks are ones that will have the biggest effect on each child's reading and writing achievement, as well as help encourage children who love to read and write. The children receive explicit whole group instruction and then are given independent practice time to read and write independently while I provide focused, intense instruction to individuals and small groups of children.

When it is up and running smoothly, the children will be engaged in the Daily 5, which is made up of the following:

-Read to Self

-Work on Writing

-Read to Someone

-Listen to Reading

-Word Work

This morning we discussed in detail what it means to be a good reader. Together we created a chart titled, Good Readers... Below is a picture showcasing all the ideas the children came up with that good readers do everyday.

The children also learned about stamina today. They learned that stamina is doing anything for a long amount of time without getting tired or giving up. Today we worked on building our reading stamina. The children practiced reading and training their bodies and brains to read in the appropriate way (staying in one spot, read the whole time, read quietly, work on stamina, get started right away). They did a great job and met our goal of reading to three minutes. Each day we will work on increasing our stamina and building the length of time we read for. Enjoy the photos below of our class hard at work on building their reading stamina. 

News You Can Use!

This week the children were very busy despite our short week. 

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 made the connection that by following the six pillars, they are also being a bucket filler. 

I have now had time to meet individually with all of my first grade readers and assess 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 and favorite toy or game. 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 learned about journal writing, the children received a journal prompt and then decided how they wanted to respond. The children wrote about their families and about their favorite thing to wear. They will keep their journal writings 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 the kindergarten sight words. 

Math 

In Math, the children worked with number sense. This week they compared numbers, practiced writing numbers correctly, and practiced representing numbers using tally marks. The children were excited to create a Tally Chart to organize data. They created a class pet tally chart on the mimio. 

The children enjoyed playing Top-it to compare numbers. 

The children had fun playing Dice-Roll and Tally. Before we started, each child predicted which number they thought would be rolled the most times. After, they compared it with the number that did get rolled the most. They had a great discussion about their observations. 

Everyone did a great job of returning their first two homelinks this week! We will begin having homelinks on Monday- Thursday nights this week. Please return the next day unless otherwise noted. 

Social Studies

We began our first social studies unit this week on Community Helpers. We kicked off the unit by learning about how laws and rules help us to be good citizens. Then the children brainstormed a list of our Dryden School Helpers.   

School-Dryden

Principals-Mrs. Sessler, Mrs. Trendal

Teachers

Custodians-Mr. Bob, Mr. Ron

Lunch Teachers

Nurses-Mrs. Hamilton, Mrs. Leventhal 

Secretaries-Mrs. Lane, Mrs. Kelly

Music-Mr. Deptula

PE-Mr. Gries

LMC-Mrs. Dufern, Mrs. Powers, and Mrs. Kenney

Art-Mrs. Fuglestad

Patrols

Literacy Teachers

Police Officer

Bus Drivers

After we finished with our Dryden School Helpers, we began a KWL on community helpers. This week the children learned what makes teachers community helpers. We read the book, Teachers (People In My Community). The children each wrote a fact about what makes a teacher a community helper in their Community Helper Book.  

Exciting News!

On Friday, I shared some exciting news with the children. We played a game of Crack the Code together on the mimeo. When the children revealed the message, there were squeals of delight and lots of smiles. The children learned that I will be having a baby at the end of January. Your children were very sweet and offered lots of congratulations and thoughtful comments. After we played the game, we read the book, Alligator Baby by Robert Munsch. The children enjoyed the story and thought it was very funny! 

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/

Note:

On Friday, 9/13 at 9:10 the LMC will be hosting an orientation session for parents interested in volunteering this year in the LMC. If you can't attend the meeting, but would like to be added to the schedule, please email Mrs. Kenney, jenny@sd25.org.

Happy Sunday! Have a great rest of the weekend!

Our First Full Week!

Curriculum Night

It was nice to see all of you this week at Curriculum Night, thank you for coming out. I hope you enjoyed hearing about all the wonderful adventures that we are going to have this year! The children were very excited to read the notes you had left on their desks. If you missed the presentation I have posted a link on the right side of our web site titled, Curriculum Night Presentation.

What did we do this week?

The children have learned a lot in their first full week of first grade. They continue to familiarize themselves with our classroom routines and procedures. The children can now go through: arrival, lunchtime, and stack and pack routines with few reminders of what they need to do. 

We took a room tour and learned where everything is located in the classroom. This will help the children to solve daily problems that arise on their own, such as: What should I do with a broken pencil? Where do I put my writing folder when I am done? 

The children worked together to brainstorm a long list of things that they need to be successful as first graders. After, the children each created a paper backpack. In it they placed their own personal list of what they need to be successful. 

We also talked about our hopes and dreams for first grade. The children each wrote down a hope or dream that they have for this year. We turned their writings into a cute bulletin board at the back of our classroom.  

Reading

During whole group reading this week the children listened to, A Bad Case of The Stripes. After, they created a picture of themselves with a bad case of something they love. 

Currently, I am assessing the children using Fountas and Pinnell running records. This will help me get to know the children as readers. I will continue working on these assessments next week until I have had time to read with each child.

Writing

This week, we started our first writing unit, Autobiographies. The children learned that an autobiography is a writing about the author. They each have started their own mini autobiography. The children chose to write about something important to them (ex. family, pet, or a favorite memory).  

The children also learned about the writing process that authors go through. We will practice and use this process throughout the whole year. The children will: Think, Draw, Label, and Write. 

Math 

We began our first everyday math unit this week. Our lessons focused on learning about our math routines. The children were introduced to our calendar procedures, their math tool kit, and their math journal. They also played three math games this week: Monster Squeeze, Bunny Hop, and the Penny Dice Game. The children had the opportunity to play these games both as a whole class on the Mimio and with a partner using their own manipulatives. 

~ Thank you for all your support at home and your help in making the start of this school year a great one! Please let me know if you have any questions. ~

Reminders:

-Please send in your sign and return forms from your Curriculum Night folder as soon as you can. Thank you!
-We have PE on Tuesdays and Thursdays, please make sure your child wears proper gym shoes to school.