"Peek at the Week" September 8-12

It certainly feels like September this week! We had a great first full week together and enjoyed this beautiful, but chilly, fall weather! 

We spent time this week practicing The Stormonth Way. Ask your child to tell you about 'Line Basics' and 'Give Me 5'.  

Here is a peek into the rest of our week!

Reader's Workshop 

We continued working on building our stamina!  We learned how readers choose spots in the classroom to read that will keep them focused. We also learned how to handle distractions that might occur when we are reading.  

We also learned a comprehension strategy called 'Check For Understanding'. It is important for readers to stop and check that they know who is in the story and what is happening. 

We will be using a CAFE board in our classroom this year to house all our reading strategies! CAFE stands for Comprehension 

(I understand what I read)

Accuracy

(I can read the words)

Fluency

(I can read the words with expression and understand what I am reading)

Expand Vocabulary 

(I know, find, and use interesting words)

It is important that children develop all these areas as they become stronger readers!

Math Workshop 

We completed our first Math Expression lesson this week. Our first unit will focus on number partners through totals of 10. Children are encouraged to begin seeing the numbers 6-10 as a 5 group 'and some more'. For example, the number 7 is 5 and 2 more.

Word Work

We continued learning about each other through our King and Queen of the day. 

 

We also reviewed our K5 word wall words and added them to our word wall. Next wee we will start adding first grade words to our wall!

Science

Our first unit in science is weather. We talked about the types of things we like to do in each type of weather. Then, we chose our favorite type of weather and drew a picture of ourselves to add to a class graph.

 

We had 6 friends like cold weather AND hot weather! 

As you can see we had a very busy week together!! I hope you found time to relax and enjoy the weekend!

Love,

Mrs. Hogue 

'Peek at the Week' September 2-5

We had a great first week of school! We spent a lot of our week getting to know each other and learning the routines and expectations of first grade!

Here is a summary of our week written by first graders during Writer's Workshop:

First grade is fun! We read “Wemberly Worried” and our class did a project about the book with watercolors.

Some kids got to be king or queen of the day. The smartboard picks who it will be. We are trying hard at reading. Every day, we add more minutes. We got to 5 minutes. We are trying for 20!

One of my goals this year is to have children help me co-author the blog so you can learn about parts of our week through the eyes of the children!

Here is a peek at the rest of our week!

Reader's Workshop

We launched reader's workshop this week! We leaned three ways that readers can read books. 

Children then had time to practice these types of reading while we worked on building our stamina. Ask your first grader if they know what stamina means! Stamina is reading long and strong. Just like runners need to run a little bit each day before they can run a mile, readers need to practice reading for longer periods of time in order to build their reading stamina. 

We learned what a first grade reader's job is during read-to-self and what Mrs. Hogue's job is.

We kept track of our stamina each day. This week we built 5 minutes of stamina! Our goal is to get to 20!

Math Workshop

This week we explored some tools that mathematicians use to help them solve problems or represent their thinking. 

 We can use unification cubes to represent patterns, help us add and subtract, compare, and make ten groups! 

  

We can use pattern blocks to help us learn about fractions and to make new shapes by combining differnt blocks!

We also looked at base 10 blocks. We can use these math tools to help us represent 2 digit numbers and to make ten groups.

Writer's Workshop

We got to know our friends in Mrs. Armstrong's class this week! Each of us were partnered with a new friend to interview

Look for our special projects out in the hallway next week!!

Other fun activities!

Did you hear about King and Queen of the day? Each day, we will crown a new friend to be our king or queen of the day! We will get to know them better by interviewing them and learning how to write their name! And the best part...you get to wear a crown all day!! We crowned two queens this week!

We also started a fun project to go along with the story Wemberly Worried.

Wemberly worried, worried, worried about everything! There are many thing to worry about when starting a new school year, but now that we have been in first grade for a week we don't have to worry as much! 

We used our water colors to paint our own versions of the cover of this book!

The Stormonth Way

Some of you may have heard your child talking about 'boot camp' held here at Stormonth this week! We are very excited that our school is now a PBIS school. That stands for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support. Basically what this means is that our ENTIRE school will be using consist language and expectations when teaching children about our rules at school. During 'boot camp' we leaned about Line Basics, Think 2, Voice Levels, and the expectations in the cafeteria and playground. 

               Practicing Line Basics

  Learning about Think 2 in the bathroom.

 Mrs. Grimm-Nilsen will be proving more information during Parent Orientation Night!

I hope your first grader enjoyed their first week in first grade! If they were anything like me, I bet they were very tired each night :) 

Enjoy your weekend!! 

Love, 

Mrs. Hogue

Welcome to First Grade

Welcome first graders and families!  My name is Mrs. Hogue, and I am so excited for our upcoming  year together.  First grade is so much fun!! We will learn to be strong readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists, and thinkers! We will also work hard to become a classroom family that is safe, responsible, and respectful.  Be sure to peek at posts from years' past to see all the fun things we do in first grade!

I cannot wait to meet all of you during our Meet and Greet on Thursday, August 28 from 8:30-9:30 am.  You can bring all your school supplies with you on this day.  You DO NOT need to label anything! 

If you have any questions or concerns you would like to discuss with me prior to the school year, please feel free to contact me:

jhogue@foxbay.k12.wi.us

(414) 247-4159

See you soon :)

Love,

Mrs. Hogue

We did it!

176.
That is how many days our class has spent together growing, learning, and laughing.

176.
That is how many days I have witnessed each child taking risks and trying new things.

176.
That is how many nights I laid awake thinking about how to better teach each child.

176.
That is how many days I have spent loving and caring for each child.

176.
It won't be a significant amount of days in your child's life, but for me it was.  Each of your children will forever hold a special place in my heart.  I could not do what I do everyday if it weren't for their smiling faces and for all the support you as families give to me.  I end another year with tears streaming down my face and my heart forever changed.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for trusting me with your most precious gift.


Love,
Mrs. Hogue

"Peek at the Week" May 12-16, 19-23, 26-30

It is hard to believe there are only 9 days left in this school year!! Where has the time gone!? 

We have been busy in Reader's and Writer's Workshop learning all about potey!

Writer'sWorkshop 

We learned that poets use their 'poet's eye' to look at ordinary objects in a new way. They think about things they notice, feel, and are reminded of.  We took notes of all our thinking and then used those to write poems!

Next, we learned that poets add moments of silence but using line breaks. We practiced this by putting the same poem together, but using different line breaks!

We also learned how poets use amazing words, patterns, and rhythm in poems they write.   

Reader's Workshop

Not only were we busy writing poetry- we were reading it too!

We kicked of the unit by finding poems we love! We marked these with sticky notes for others to enjoy!

We also leaned: 

Readers notice punctuation in poems.

Readers think about a poems message or meaning.

Readers can make inferences in poems they read.

Readers notice amazing words poets use.

We had a lot of fun sharing and reading poems together!

Math Workshop

We are wrapping up our final unit in math- double digit addition!! Math Expressions teaches many methods for solving double digit addition. Please be sure to use these terms with your child!

Ten Sticks and Circles

Children represent each 2 digit number with ten sticks and circles. Then they ring the new ten group.

New Group Above or New Group Below

(This has been called 'carrying' in the past) 

Children add the ones column. If there is a new ten, they put it above or below the tens colum- just like when they circled a new 10 group when representing with ten sticks and circles!

Show All Totals  

Children add the tens first, then the ones. Then they add both totals. Children can add the tens or ones first!

Audubon Field Trip

We lucked out with some rain free weather! We had so much fun learning about rocks and soil!

Dates to remember:

Wednesday, June 4- evacuation and reunification drill

Friday, June 6- First Grade Poetry picnic 11:00-12:30

Have a great weekend!

Love,

Mrs. Hogue