"Peek at the Week" September 9-13

We had a great first 'full' week of school this week!  We ended our week together with a school assembly.  Mrs. Grimm-Nilsen talked to our whole school about our three expectations- Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible.  Please be sure to remind your first graders about these rules periodically :)

Here is a look at what we were up to this week!

Reader's Workshop

We are still working on building our stamina and reading workshop routines.  This week we focused on:

Students' jobs during independent reading

1.  Read the whole time

2.  Get started right away

3.  Read quietly

4.  Stay in one place

Teacher's jobs during independent reading

1.  Read with students

2.  Teach small reading groups

3.  Conference with kids (or groups of kids)

How to handle distractions.

Where we can read in our classroom.

This week we built our class stamina to 8 minutes!  Our goal is to build at least 20 minutes of reading stamina.  Way to go first graders!!

Writers's Workshop

We launched our official writer's workshop this week!  I must say- I am *amazed* at how hard they all worked this week!  It is so fun to read all of their stories and get to know each of them as authors.  

Areas of focus included:

Writers think about a story (something they have done).  They sketch the story, label their sketches, and write the words. 

I model strategies by writing stories in front of the class.  As you can see, I am writing the sounds I hear in the words and am not worrying about spelling just like the kids are encouraged to do! 

Authors are never done writing!  When you think you're done...you've just begun!  Writers can add to the picture, add to the words, or start a new piece!

 Authors can think about things they do, people they know, and things they feel to get ideas for their writing. 

Writers include ALL the details of their stories in their illustrations.  

 Writers don't give up when they don't know how to draw their ideas.  They try their best and move on.

We will be focusing on writing personal narratives for most of the first trimester.  Kids are encouraged to write stories about experiences in their own lives- from small moments to big exciting ones! 

Word Work

We focused on recognizing our classmates names, alphabet recognition, and began review K5 word wall words!  We made a new book for our book bins- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

We also had 5 more Kings and Queens!

Math Workshop

We spent this week reviewing concepts from K5. We reviewed number writing, numbers before/after, concepts of more/less, and continued exploring math manipulatives.  Next week we will begin lessons from our new math program Math Expressions.  Jennifer Ganske (director of teaching and learning) will provide an overview on Thursday at 6:30pm for anyone interested in learning more about this program.  I am very excited for the opportunity to use this program this year!

Playing Top- It!  (a 1st grade favorite!)

Other news...

We spent a lot of time this week creating our classroom social contract.  I will be creating a copy of the contract to give to you during Parent Orientation.  Each child signed the contract to agree to follow these expectations.  This contract is hanging in our classroom, and is referred to often during our day :)  These expectations can carry over into any environment.  My hope is that you can remind your child of these expectations at all times! 

Don't forget- Parent orientation is on Tuesday from 5:00-6:00pm.  We will begin in the cafeteria.

Have a great week :)
Love,

Mrs. Hogue