Time for Kids

Our classroom has a subscription to a magazine called Time for Kids (like Time Magazine, but for kids!). It includes current events in a kid-friendly way, as well as general concepts, and science and social studies topics we study. It gives us a chance to practice reading a magazine and noticing features like titles, introductions, headings, captions, etc. The magazines usually provoke a lot of interest in the topic at hand. Today we read one about ocean animals and how they communicate. We realized a lot of us see our pets communicating with us all the time, letting us know what they need or want, and sea creatures have some really interesting ways of communicating. After reading the magazine, we read a little more on the topic on a supplemental sheet and practice the hard, important work of finding answers to questions within a text. You'll see Time for Kids come home now and then throughout the year. 

 

 

Name Card Greeting

Every day we start our morning meeting by greeting each other in a friendly way. A friendly greeting means:

• a smile
• eye contact
• use the other person's name

In the beginning of the year we practiced just these things. Now that we've got the friendly greeting routine in place, we are able to do lots of fun variations. We have done a thumbs up greeting, a high five greeting, a handshake greeting, a pinky shake greeting, a whisper greeting. Recently I taught students that we can greet each other in Spanish by saying "Buenos dias." One student taught us the French greeting, "Bonjour" and we had fun trying to say that. Another student plans to teach us how to greet one another in Chinese. If your child knows how to say hello in another language, she or he can let me know and we will include it in a morning meeting.  Sometimes we pass our greeting around the circle, and other times we make a choice of whom to greet and walk to that person across the circle until everyone gets a turn.

Today we did the name card greeting. Students simply draw a card, read the name, and greet that class member. This gave us a chance to practice some important first grade reading skills including: look at the whole word not just the first letter.

Getting Started with Reading Routines

We're working hard getting our Reading Workshop routines underway. After a brief minilesson on a specific strategy each day, students go to a reading spot with their book bags and start reading for about 30 minutes! About halfway through this time, we transition to partner time, when they can read for the remainder of the time aloud with a partner, while reminding each other of the strategies we are working on. Switching to partner time halfway through helps us increase our reading stamina. Sometimes students keep tally marks to track how many books they read each day. If they finish reading all their books, they read them again! Each week students have a day they can book shop, trading in any books they can read smoothly for new ones to dig into. Teachers read with students individually, in pairs, and sometimes in small groups during this time. At the end we have a brief share to wrap up the day's reading.

Open House Tonight!

 

Reminder! Tonight is Open House at school: 5:30 - 6:15 touring classrooms, then a free hot dog dinner for families.

Also, tomorrow, Friday, Sept. 21, is school picture day. Send in your picture forms or you can do it online.

Tally Marks

One thing we are working on in math is making and counting tally marks, which are of course a way to easily make a group of five. We say "1, 2, 3, 4, make a gate with 5,... 6, 7, 8, 9, make a gate with 10," etc. to practice this grouping. We practice counting  the tallies by fives and then ones. 

Last week I had students count out exactly 20 popsicle sticks (have your child count, count, count anything and everything you can-- accurate, organized counting is such a foundational, important skill we try to weave it into everything at this point). Then we played a flash and build game: I showed students a drawn collection of tally marks-- but only for two or three seconds. Students then had to copy the amount using popsicle sticks. To do this they had to subitize, or "see" 5 without having the time to count 5. Tally marks grouped by 5 helps students see 5 and more quickly. We will practice lots of strategies this year that help us benchmark on the numbers five and ten and twenty to tell amounts efficiently. Here they are at work.

Can a Statue's Shadow Move?

In science we investigated this question. We know our own shadows move when we move. We figured out how, using a flashlight, we could make a fixed object's shadow move to be different sizes and in different positions. We learned this happened by moving the light source around. Students made the connection that the sun is a light that moves (or seems to move compared to us) and therefore causes different shadows. This activity will be a grounding activity to refer back to as we discuss why the moon looks different at different times.

We got really excited when we managed to make the gnome's shadow line up with the shadow patterns on the page!

Happy New Year!

Happy new year! Welcome! I hope first grade is off to a great start for your family. Always, feel free to email me with questions, concerns, or just to check in.

As I've said in paper newsletters thus far, this blog will be the primary way I spread the news about our classroom. I hope you'll visit often to see what we are up to and get fodder for dinner conversations. Better yet, please enter your email address in the box on the top right of this page and click "subscribe." You will have to follow a couple of quick steps to confirm you are not a robot, then you'll be all set to receive an email whenever I post new photos or news this year.

During the first days and weeks of school, we've focused on routines, building our classroom community, expectations, and rules. I've modeled and then had students practice things like lining up, taking a break, retrieving their book bag at reading time, and washing hands before lunch. We've done "guided discoveries," where we share ideas for using a classroom material such as Unifix cubes, markers, pattern blocks, or puzzles, discuss how we will take care of it, brainstorm what-ifs and how we'll handle them, then we practice using the material (while also practicing a routine like working with a group, or quiet work time). The first days are hard work as we all get used to one another, and now we're starting to settle into more of a regular schedule. Here are some pictures from our first days in school this year. 

Exploring classroom materials:

 

 

 

 Getting started with Writing Workshop:

Sharing our first writing endeavors with a peer:

 What we are really looking forward to this year:

Brainstorming and categorizing important rules we'll need so we can all enjoy those things and learn:

 Self portraits:

 Getting started with Reading Workshop routines:

 Our door!