"Peek at the Week" September 24-28

Thank you to EVERYONE for coming to open house this Thursday!  It was so fun to see all the excitement in the classroom.  Here is a look into our classroom this week:

Reader's Workshop

Our focus this week was that readers have books they love.  Dr. Westfahl came into our classroom on Monday and talked about reading tastes.

This is a book Dr. Westfahl WROTE! Even though he wrote it, he does not enjoy reading it!

Dr. Westfahl LOVES Knuffle Bunny!  Our class did such a great listening job that he was able to share all 3 books!

He even let our class borrow them so we could all enjoy them!

 On Tuesday Ms. Havig shared two of her favorite books:

 

On Thursday we all brought in our favorite books! 

When we find books we love it makes reading so much fun! Many students wanted to bring in more than one book because they enjoy so many :)  It might be fun for your child to keep a special box or shelf full of books they love!

We also built our Read-to-Self stamina to 24 minutes and our Read-to-Friend stamina to 14 minutes!!! WHOO-HOO!

Word Work

We learned 8 new popcorn words this week:

so

we

like

go

to

is

it

my

We added these words to our popcorn word wall, which means we are now expected to spell them correctly when we write!  We also had some fun practicing our words with wiki sticks, play dough, magnetic letters and white boards.  

Writer's Workshop

This week we looked at a well know children's story- Corduroy!  

 

Don Freeman uses very detailed pictures to help tell his story.  We used this idea in our own writing.  The more detail we add to our pictures, the more we can write about!  We will be wrapping up our launching unit early next week and beginning Small Moments later next week!

 Math

We wrapped up Unit 1 this week and took our very first math test!!  I will be sharing these with you at conferences at the end of the month.  Our last lesson this unit was on problem solving.  Here is a peek at what we explored:

 Science

We continued our study on weather this week.  We learned that scientists use their senses to observe the weather around them.  We went outside and used our sense of sight, smell, touch, and hearing to observe the weather. (We discussed how we do NOT use our sense of taste in Science.)

Just For Fun

Here are some 'bonus' pictures from the week!

Wow..what a busy, busy week!! Don't forget, next Wednesday is picture day at Stormonth!  Please remember to return picture forms by that day!

Have a great weekend :)
Love,
Ms. Havig

"Peek at the Week" September 18-21

I want to apologize for the lack of pictures that will be posted this week....I did a software update on my phone and it wiped out all my pictures!  I did manage to snap a few on Friday so you can still 'peek' into our classroom this week!

Reader's Workshop

This week we continued building our reading stamina and choosing "Just Right" books.  The children are learning to change out books in their book bin during our weekly 'book shopping' day.  Each book bin will have 5 "Just Right" books and 3 choice books.  

We also had some exciting news on Friday...we built our Read-to-Self stamina to 20 minutes!!  Way to go first graders :)

Focused Readers!

Getting lost in a book!

Building reading stamina!!

Reading a "Just Right" book!

 

We even enjoy reading in Ms. Havig's chair!

The second Daily 5 activity was introduced this week - Read-to-Friend!  We began the week discussing the guidelines and expectations of this activity.

We also learned that there is a special way we should sit with our friend in order to keep us focused, and to make sure each reader can see the book.  We call this special way EEKK! (elbow to elbow, knee to knee)

This week we practiced reading with our friend 2 different ways.  The first way is called Check for Understanding.  

This way each reader is responsible for both reading, listening, and retelling.  It is a great way to make sure our friend is listening while we read!

The second way we can read with our friend is called I Read, You Read.

This is a great way for us to practice our reading fluency!

Word Work

This week we reviewed 5 more K5 'popcorn' words. These words included:  an, a, see, he, she.

We practiced on white boards, rainbow writing, and using words in sentences to make another class book!  Be sure to look for our "Popcorn" word books at open house!

Writer's Workshop

We explored three different ways writers use to come up with ideas for writing.

 These first graders are really on a roll with Writer's Workshop.  We can't wait to show off our writing folders at open house!  In addition to brainstorming writing ideas, we are also learning how to organize our writing pieces.  We are quickly learning that there are some pieces we are completely finished with, and others we are eager to continue or gain inspiration for more pieces.  We put a colored sticker on each side of our folders.  The red sticker is for pieces we are done with. The green sticker is for pieces we are still working on. 

It is very exciting how full our folders are becoming with all our writing!!

Math

I sure hope your first grader continues to be as eager to have homework throughout the year as they were this week!!  It was so fun to see the excitement on their faces each day when they turned their homework in. 

This week our focus was on calendar routines, using tallies to represent numbers, and playing games in small groups.  We played Top-It in groups of 3 or 4.  We discussed how we play games fairly, safely, and kindly with one another.  It would be helpful to review this with your child at home- especially the fact that not everyone can go first!!  Overall we did a great job and will continue practicing this throughout the year.

We will be wrapping up Unit 1 next week and taking our very first test!

Science

Our first science unit is all about weather.  We learned that weather is the changes in the air around us.  We then graphed our favorite weather.  Surprisingly it was cold weather! (good thing we live in Wisconsin!)

Don't forget....we do not have school on Wednesday, September 26.  

Thursday, September 27 is open house.  It is from 6-8 pm.  Please stop in at whatever time is most convenient for you.  The book fair will also be going on.  This is a GREAT opportunity to fill your child's bookshelves with reading material!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed the VIKINGS win today :) 

Love, Ms. Havig

"Peek at the Week" September 9-14

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend parent orientation on Thursday!  Here is a look into our week:

Reader's Workshop

This week we continued building our reading stamina.  We are very proud of what focused readers we are becoming!

 We have built 12 minutes of stamina!  This is very exciting because we know it is harder to stay focused in a classroom full of friends and with multiple distractions!

We also learned how to choose "Just Right" books.  Ms. Havig brought in some of her shoes to show us how choosing a book is like choosing a shoe!

 We know that each shoe serves a purpose.  Ms. Havig wears boots for shoveling snow, tennis shoes for running, high heels for weddings, and flip flops for the beach.  Just like with books, we need to have a purpose for reading.  (Some purposes included learning new things, we are interested in a topic, or enjoyment)

 Next, Ms. Havig put on a big pair of shoes.  She tried walking around the classroom, but kept tripping because the shoes were too big!  This would be like picking a book that doesn't 'fit' you!  You shouldn't read books during Read-to-Self time that are too hard  or too easy!




Next, we partnered up and tried on each other's shoes!  We realized very quickly that our friend's shoe doesn't always fit!  This demonstrated that everyone has a different sized foot- just like everyone has a different "Just Right" book level!  We talked about how each child needs to read "Just Right" books in order to become a better reader.  Wearing the wrong 'shoe' doesn't help!

We ended our week relating our shoe demonstrations to an I "Pick" poster for helping us to choose books.  

Word Work

We reviewed 5 words from K5 this week and added them to our word wall.  The words were:  I, can, at, am, the.

Here are some activities we did to practice these words!
 

Practicing on white boards.

Rainbow Writing

Using words in sentences for class books.

Our popcorn word wall!

 

Writer's Workshop

We launched our official Writer's Workshop this week.  We learned that authors get ideas from things they have done. The first thing we do as   authors is sketch our stories.  Then we add words.  We have a 'catchy' song for helping to remember.  Ask your child if they can sing you the song- Think Think Think, Think Think Think, Sketch and Write, Sketch and Write!

Here are some samples from our first day:

The next two days were spent discussing what to do when we think we are done writing.  We learned that in Writer's Workshop  when you think you're done, you've just begun! You can add to the picture, add to the words, or start a new piece.

Math

This week we focused on identifying numbers that came before & after.  We also reviewed using the number line to count and add on.  Here are two new games we learned to reinforce these concepts:

Playing "Bunny Hop"

Playing "Bunny Hop"

Playing "Top It"

Playing "Top It"

Playing "Top It"

Playing "Top It"

 

We ended our day on Friday by reading with our 3rd grade reading buddies!  We will get to read with them 2 times each month. This was a blast!

Don't forget...There is NO SCHOOL on Monday, September 17.  Have a great weekend :)

Love,
Ms. Havig