October is almost here!

We ended our week with apple tasting!  What a great Fall activity thanks to you!  The students sampled delicious foods and some tried apple butter and apple chips for the very first time!  We graphed about our favorite treats with no problems!

The nonfiction writing about bats, raccoons, fireflies, and other nocturnal animals

was a huge success!  This week we did some close readings on bats and learned even more facts.  Did you know a vampire bat is the size of your thumb?!  Did you know that bat babies are called pups...just like dogs?! 

Here is a Literacy Group showing off text features that we are learning about.  The kids grouped in twos and looked through several nonfiction books to do a text feature scavenger hunt!

Boosterthon is coming our way!  More information very soon!  Also, look for Oakland's Walk to School Week.  It ties right in to Boosterthon and exercise!  

Who is our October Mystery Reader?!  I KNOW!  The kids will love this friend!

Life in the 1st Grade Lane...

Just wanted to give you a "heads up" as to what our Mornings look like!  We  have a flip chart where students make the spelling pattern for the week on the back of their classwork!  We then read our literature for the week! This week was nonfiction text.  The kids loved all of the facts so much that we are changing our "Bird Wonders" to "Bat and Owl Wonders"! Our writing shows some of our fact sentences.  Literacy Stations are always a good time for me to read with your child in small group and see where they are with reading.  If they improve...they move up groups.  If they struggle, they move to a lower group to get help!  Most are right where they need to be for now with the exception of a couple.  We love the new lego engineering sets.  I also wanted you to be aware that if your children are missing certain things consistently on their tests, NOTHING is on the test that I haven't gone over in class!  So when we struggle in math, we work at it...When we struggle in reading, we work at it...
When we struggle with listening...we work at it!  :)

A big thank you to our Room Mother, Mrs. Roberts. She ASKED if she could do something for the children to celebrate the 1st Day of Fall!  Thanks so much for thinking of us!

FYI - We are trying to upload the Weekly Newsletter.  Other classes are having issues as well. If it doesn't work, no worries.  You will get a copy every Monday!  Thanks for all the support!  Apple pictures coming next week!

A peek at our week!  Our history buffs wanted to know about the Great Depression mentioned in Uncle Jed's Barbershop so we took a history walk!  Dress Like a Pirate on Monday!
Have a great weekend!

Another busy week in 1st Grade...

Technology issues can be an ongoing problem, but I was able to upload some pics. from the week today!  What a wonderful "SHORT" week!  The children discussed what scientists do and were able to walk through our Science Lab. and sign their contracts.  We want everyone safe during lab time!  See if they remember what they should be doing when going to lab.  We wrote about the story events in Lily's Purple Plastic Purse as we closed out our Kevin Henkes Unit.  We created questions of what we want to know about birds so we can begin our research! Today our problem solver was spiders!  They did a great job learning creating addition sentences with 4 plus more!  We had several different solutions to the same problem!  You have a bunch of STEM thinkers in the room!
Looking forward to seeing you at PTA Open House! :)

Have a great weekend!

Newsletter

September 14th Newsletter

Dinosaurs, Patterns and Kevin Henkes

We really had a great time answering our questions about dinosaurs.  If you want to know what we found out...Come to Open House and see our board.  :)  

Thanks so much for all of the support for the animal shelter!  We now have towels, newspaper, and toys to add to the mix!  If you are still wanting to help out, I know cleaning supplies help them, more newspaper, treats...Thanks for thinking of the puppies, cats, and animals without a home.

We ended our week with a "snack pattern" and the kids LOVED IT thanks to my helpers!  Making learning fun can get "pricey" so I try not to overload, but when everyone contributes something, it helps make some of our days a little more enjoyable!  Thank you again!  :)

We sent a video of math problem solving that we do in class.  I wanted you to see an example of how we work on a daily problem solver!  Problem Solvers are meant to challenge students!  The kids are wonderful thinkers!  I love the way they think differently and we share that it's OK!  There are a lot of ways to get to the same place! 

Have a great holiday weekend!  The kids did well on their Language and Reading tests this week! The math Quiz with +0 let me know that you have been working!  You may begin working on +1 facts. The kids will be tested every week for Reading and Language.  I sent an important note on Thursday on how they would the reading test would be a little bit different every other week!  You will find a "cold text" passage coming home once a week for practice.  Allow your child to read the passage to you, if they struggle, you read to them and practice until they are familiar with the words in the passage.  We test ON GRADE LEVEL so if students are behind, you will have to work a little bit harder!  GG is where they should begin 1st!  Many are there or higher.  Some are at G and are almost there!!  It won't take much to put them there! :) 

Thanks for all you do!