Sept 17-21

Reading
We've had a great week!  We've been busy in reading groups working with short vowels and word families.  All of the kids have been hard at work on Reading Eggs.  They love working on the computer!

Math
We've been hard at work with lots of different addition problems this week.  We've done some story problems, played some math games where we practice counting on and making groups of 10's.

Camille & Ty playing Harvest Plus One

Guess My Number

Trevor & KaDence playing Guess My Number

Eli & Isabel playing Guess My Number

Ethan & Makenzie playing Harvest Plus One

Wyatt & Markus playing Guess My Number

 Science

We learned all about the differences between butterflies and moths this week.  We made a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting butterflies and moths.  I'm sure your first grader would love to share their knowledge.  We've been (not so) patiently waiting for our "caterpillars" to come out of their chrysalis too.

 

Our chrysalis' waiting to come out into butterflies

McKenna putting her caterpillar into a chrysalis

Extras

Brady Dicks was our special football reader on Friday.  The kids LOVED listening to him read because he used great expression!




Lots of moms came into our classroom on Friday to help us with Tie-dying our t-shirts for the homecoming parade.  The kids had a great time and are looking forward to wearing their t-shirts in the parade on Friday.  I'm going to include lots of extras next week with the kids dressed up for homecoming!

Hanging out to dry

So excited to wear our shirts in the parade!

Special Reader

We got to have a special reader today.  Molly, from the high school, came down to read Rapunzel to our class.  She was a great model of what good readers sound like - using great expression, phrasing, punctuation and reading smoothly.  The kids really enjoyed her story!

Something completely unrelated, but worth noting is the discussion our class had today in regards to the  recent abduction attempts.  Our class discussed the danger of strangers and how to handle it if a stranger were to ever approach us.  If you have any questions about this, or if your child mentions seeing something at school, please let me know.

Getting into routines

Well, I'm already a week behind in blog posts.  I apologize, but life has gotten in the way!  :o)

 Reading

We started small group reading last week.  We have 4 centers - guided reading, word journeys (spelling), Reading Eggs (phonics on the computer), and read-to-self and working with words.  The kids are able to work at their own individual reading levels.  We've also started bringing home take-home books.  The students are bringing home books each night at their own independent reading level. If the books are "easy" for your child at this point, that's ok.  We want them to feel successful.  Please take time each night to listen to your child read and then sign his/her slip so they can bring it back to school the next day.  We are working towards 100 books by the end of the year so we can have a party!

Math

Our first graders have been hard at work counting collections of objects and playing counting games.  We've been counting cubes hiding in plastic bags in order to start counting on with addition problems.  They've been working SUPER hard with addition problems!  We've also started working on IXLmath this week too.  Some of the kids have been working on ixl at home too!  Any extra practice will help them be more successful.

Social Studies

We've started talking about butterflies and life cycles this week.  We've learned the body parts of a butterfly and made diagrams in our journals labeling the body parts.  Trevor even brought in a monarch for us to see!  We'll continue talking about butterflies and insects in the coming weeks.

Extras

We've had some football readers each Friday again.  It's so fun to watch the kids' reactions to the high schoolers!  If you see the football guys or Coach Wilken, please let them know how your child appreciates extra readers!

We've also had front row seats to the demolition of the old shop, ag room, tower, and tree.  We keep our shades pulled most of the time so that we can concentrate, but we find it fun to watch the demo!  Here are some pictures of the ag room coming down: