We had a great week! Students received their first Brag Tags this week. They were very excited and proud. They are working hard at showing Brunswick PRIDE. We used the book The Bucket Filler this week to continue talking our classroom expectation of be kind. We talked a lot about what being respectful (our 2nd classroom expectation) looks like and sounds like. We focused in on what good listening like as part of being respectful. The students were working hard on eyes on the speaker, body still, hands free, sitting up, etc. We started our MATH rotations this week. Students rotate through 4 rotations (math facts, at your seat, teacher, and hands-on). They loved getting on those iPod-Touches! We started the first part of our literacy routine. Students use their sand timers to complete 10 minutes of reading, 10 minutes of journal writing, and 5 minutes of handwriting. Next week, they will begin to go to their center after completing the literacy checklist. We hope you enjoy the pictures!
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Sometimes in writing students get to a word that they don't know how to spell. In writing workshop the class is encouraged to stretch out the words and write the sounds that they hear. I used a slinky as a visual of stretching out their sounds. In order to help the students practice this skill they were each given some stretchy slime. I read a word and together we used the slime to stretch out the sounds. Now when they say "I don't know how to spell this word," we can say stretch it out. Today I read the story The Most Magnificent Thing to the class. This is a story about a little girl who wants to make the most magnificent thing. She tries and tries, but it is all wrong. As she realizes that her creation is not going as planned, she starts to get frustrated and explodes with anger. She is ready to quit. Her trusty assistant (the dog) gets her to walk away from the situation to calm down. This gets her back on track. In the end she sees good in all of her creations and puts them together to make the most magnificent thing. Together we talked about a time when things didn't go as planned. We might get upset and angry. We discussed what we can do to overcome hard things. First grade might get hard at times, but with help and perseverance we will succeed! Never give up! Wow! What a fantastic first week!!! We are so excited to be back at school and setting the stage for a year of learning with your children! They are doing a great job and we are looking forward to a great year. We can't possibly put everything we do on the blog, but we hope that you enjoy taking a peak into your child's classroom each week. On the first day we read the book Happy School Year. Each student wrote a wish for the new school year. We of course had to have cupcakes to celebrate our new school year! We counted to three and yelled "Happy School Year" and pretended to blow out our candles (since we didn't want to actually light them). It was a great way to get excited for a new year of learning! Students also made a "Butterfly Friend." We read a poem about having butterflies in you tummy on the first day of school. We made connections and talked about how they were feeling on the first day and things that could make them feel less nervous. We discussed how finding a new friend is one way to chase the butterflies away. Students were given a paper butterfly and had to find the other student with the matching butterfly. Then together the two students wrote and drew pictures showing their discoveries of what they have in common. On Thursday, we spent some time learning about how to have a growth mindset. This is something we will continue to learn and talk about all year. Students learned some very important lessons from a couple of cute cartoon monsters named MoJo and Katie. The link for the videos are posted below. We read Leo the Late Bloomer and made connections between the videos and the theme of the story. We also make text to self connections when discussing times when we have felt like Leo did in the story. Here are the three main lessons we have learned so far: 1. Your brain is a muscle that needs exercise to grow. https://www.classdojo.com/bigideas/#2zrtHt3bBmQ 2. Every mistake is a step along the way to building something great. Mistakes can be good if you learn from them. https://www.classdojo.com/bigideas/#rg_MeWhJW7I 3. Yet is a powerful word! https://www.classdojo.com/bigideas/#v5t-RKm0VFg We learned about classroom routines and started our Writers Workshop. Students already wrote their first stories. We want to see themselves as writers. We discussed how writers write about things that have happened to them. (Narrative writing will be our focus mode of writing for August and September). ChrysanthemumToday we read the story Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. We talked about our names and how they are special. The students celebrated their own name by decorating it. We also talked about the theme of the story. In this book, Chrysanthemum starts out loving her name. She thinks it is absolutely perfect. However, when she goes to school kids tease and laugh at her name. This causes her to think that her name is absolutely dreadful. While reading this story we took a giant heart and crumbled it up every time she was teased. We talked about how our words and actions make others feel. The story has a happy ending when Chrysanthemum learns to love her name again. We opened up our giant heart and tried to smooth it out. This was a good visual that although the heart was open again, the wrinkles could not be taken away. Our giant wrinkled heart includes this poem: "Before you speak Think and be smart. It's hard to fix A wrinkled heart." We talked about the meaning of this poem and added band aids filled with kind words and actions that would make someone feel special. The students made their own Chrysanthemum. As a fun way to learn the names of our new friends in room 54 we created a friendship web. The students passed the yarn around and shared their name along with their favorite tv show. We created a strong web of friendship! We hope you find some time over the weekend to look at the pictures and talk with your child about their first week in first grade! We look forward to working with you and your child! We would LOVE to hear about what your child enjoyed this week in the comments below!
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