We survived!!

We survived our first early release day! It was a little crazy figuring things out with the kids, but we did it.  

Things we did today:
Reading:
     We read First Day Jitters and watched a video to introduce our reading unit called Back to School.  

Math:
     We use dice to write and create addition problems.  The kids rolled the dice individually and then added these numbers together.  We also used matching cards in small groups to find match up ten frames, numbers, word numbers, and number bonds.  Working in groups is a skill that some of us are still working on.  This type of learning can be as much about social learning as it is about the academic concept! : )

     Best idea ever from Pinterest!! I had a couple of these containers from The Dollar Store so I tried putting some of the dice in these little boxes.  AMAZING! The dice don't go flying everywhere, which is something I learned and experienced today with my little firsties! Oh, well.  Live and learn.  : )

Social Studies:  We read the book The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant.  This books helps to introduce our study of family and how we are all alike and yet different.  We will also do comparisons among families in this unit and lead into talking about culture.  We'll still talk about rules around our school and home, but we are now focusing on leaders, and in this case, we are talking about leaders in our home.

And just because...

I thought this was adorable.  And it's a great video to show what can be accomplished when we work together.  Maybe I should show this before doing group work?

And to go along with the video....
     I randomly bought this duct tape to use in our classroom:

Now just to figure out what to use it for!!

Tuesday, September 9

Best story of the day?
      How to curl your hair:  First you got to get married.  Then you've got to get a husband.  Then you take your husband's socks and sleep on them.  And when you wake up, your hair is curly!!

Too cute.  : )

Best comment of the day?
     Ms. Carter, guess what? We worked as a team and we were able to draw a great picture! And we did it all by working as a team!

Best new teacher tool of the day?
     Planbook.com
          I'm trying this out to write my lesson plans.  I have yet to find a template/program that I really like.  But so far I really like this one.  I would much rather type than write my lesson plans, but I have thought about just forgetting the whole technology thing and doing all my lesson plans for the week by hand.  But I think I'll give this website a try before I go completely old school.

Reading:  We were able to get A LOT done today in reading.  We pretty much caught up in Imagine It after not having our full reading time yesterday because of Dibels testing.  We'll start TRC testing very soon and this will give me an even closer look at the kids' reading levels and abilities.  Since I don't have many 1st grade level books, I've set up Razkids so that the kids can have access to books on their level at home to practice their reading.  Hopefully as the year goes on I can collect some more books for our room so the kids can have books in their hands.  The library book sale can't come soon enough!!

Oh, yeah.  We started discussing vowels today.  To help us learn our long vowel sounds, the kids and I sang "Apples and Bananas."  I definitely have a group of music lovers in my class, but I have to say, this song in particular was a hit from the moment I hit play.  They absolutely loved it! I think it will be a recurring song in our class through the year.  : )

Remember!! Early Release is tomorrow!!

Monday, September 8

Good news... our Dibels testing is almost done for the beginning of the year!!

Thank you to everyone who helped me get it done so quickly!! It was GREATLY appreciated.  : )

So now we can get back to learning fun!!

Today was quite the cloudy, drizzly day, and was actually a little chilly when we went outside.  Is summer finally over? It was a little too wet for us to play on the grass where we were supposed to be, so we joined some of the other first grades on the bus parking lot.  The kids are getting much better at inventing games to play without the playground equipment.  The first couple of days of school were challenging when the kids realized they would have to play 2 days out of the week without the benefit of the playground.  But they're becoming more creative about their entertainment!

We worked on our writing today during our workshop time while each of the kids was tested in Dibels.  We tried to get more smileys than frownies during this time by only whispering and not talking, but we weren't successful, even with the possible prize of 5 extra minutes of recess.  Maybe tomorrow??

In math we are working on addition.  We got out the math blocks and number bond mats.  The kids LOVED playing with the blocks, but we're definitely going to do more review with number bonds tomorrow.  I have a matching game for us to play in groups and we also have some games to play on the Promethean board.  I'm hoping to assess each child individual on their addition skills while the others are working on a number bond worksheet.  Well, that's the plan anyway... : )

FYI:  Homework sheets will be taken up on Mondays (when your teacher remembers!!) 

     I was so overly concerned about getting to our Dibels tests that I COMPLETELY forgot about any other classroom housekeeping!!

Also, I'm hoping to get Raz Kids up and running for you to use to read at home.  I'll send info ASAP.  

During our reading time today we got to hear from Lionel Lion again.  He's helping us with our phoneme segmentation skills.  We also learned some rhyming skills by singing the song Down by the bay.  

SPECIALS:  

     Today was science.

     Tomorrow is computers

Lunchtime:  We're continuing to work on our cafeteria procedures, specifically the skill of cleaning up the table.  The kids are getting better at it, but Ms. Carter is still a work in progress.  I'm still working out how to get the kids out of the cafeteria, their trash in the trash can, and the table and floor clean before 3rd grade comes in.  It's tight, but we're experimenting to figure out the best way to do it.  Hopefully I can train the kids to sweep soon!

We were able to get our 10th airplane today!! Yeah!! That means that we'll get our name announced over the "airwaves" during announcements.  The kids got REALLY quiet in the hallway when they saw the principal coming today.  I had told them that the principal and vice principal can see them everywhere and you never know when they'll catch you behaving and give us an airplane.  The kids were really wanting that 10th airplane.  I had really built it up.  And what do you know? The principal gave us one in the hallway! You should have seen our little line leader's face when she got to hold the airplane.  Priceless.  : )

Only a first grade teacher… would go digging through pancakes, syrup and chocolate milk to find a lost key for a crying child.  And I speak from experience.  : ) 

      That's what they make soap for, I guess.  And trust me, I scrubbed up to my elbows after that one. 

Our classroom wish list:  3M hooks, baby wipes, 1st grade books for our classroom library

Look what your teacher does over the weekend...

I found this pocket chart at the Educator's Warehouse and it was ... completely free! I had 35 points to spend on free stuff and this took 15 of my points, but I couldn't pass it up.  I thought it was too adorable.  I had no idea what to do with it... it's huge! But I've hung it out in the hallway and we're going to make rule posters to go in the windows.  I had planned to do this anyway, so I kind of just tweaked the lesson so I could go ahead and use this.
When you find something cute, find a way to use it!!

 Never thought I'd be doing this!!!

I'm Flint, the pirate in a local production of Peter Pan, Jr.  It's been a lot of fun this summer.  One more weekend of shows!

Finally...

I was able to finish this sign for our classroom door.  It took me FOREVER!! And it's already fallen and cracked the edge.  So I had to whip out my glue gun and glue that baby down.  It's hanging on the door now, but we'll see if it's still there in the morning.  Also, our balloons from our open house UP display keep falling off the walls because of the humidity, so that will need to be updated soon.  But I'm curious to see if this will still be hanging tomorrow...

Look who wanted her picture taken!!

It's the beginning of a great week!! 

Remember to make smart choices, get some sleep, and come in tomorrow ready to learn.  Smile! : )

Love, 

     Ms. Carter

We had a good day in 1st grade today! We're definitely getting to know each better this week and the kids are much more comfortable with me.  We've had to have a couple of talks about what school behavior should look like and what our words at school should sound like, but the kids seem enthusiastic about trying to make smart choices in our classroom.  We continue to review our classroom rules and the kids are at the point where they know these better than I do!! : )

They are such a sweet bunch and we enjoyed learning some new songs today.  Check these out!

The kids are working REALLY hard on their writing, so look for these writing posters based on the book I Like Myself to be hanging in the halls next week! They'll be sent home soon and I know the kids are extremely excited about showing everyone what they've been able to do.

This is the new behavior clip chart that I've hung in our room.

     Each student has a clothespin with their name on it.  They start out at Diving In and can move up or down based on their behavior.  I need to add colored circles to each level to show the kids what color they will color on their calendars each day.  So far I really like these calendar behavior idea.  The kids are able to see each day how they did and they haven't forgotten what their behavior was yet, so we can have a discussion about smarter choices that we can make.  

     We're still practicing our Whole Brain Teaching rules first thing in the morning, before lunch and after lunch.  Below is the list of reasons why we need rules that kids came up with.  Yesterday, (Tuesday) we read the book No, David! (hence, the reason for the first answer in the list) and then we had a class discussion about the necessity of rules.  

     We pulled out blocks and animal counters today so that we could use our ten frame workmats to show numbers through the teens.  The kids were really excited about having hands-on time with manipulatives.  We're still working on not playing with the blocks when we should be listening, but the kids did very well with this for their first time in first grade!

     We had another discussion this afternoon about what classroom behavior should look like.  We read The Monster Comes to School and then we came up with the list below as a class.  The kids did a great job! We also were able to do some of our me bag presentations this afternoon as well.  

Happy Tuesday!

     I was so happy to see the kiddos back in action this morning.  They have been enjoying coming into the classroom and getting to choose to either work on the computer, play on the carpet or start their morning work.  This has allowed for my early birds to not get started too early on their work, but to allow time for my late arrivals to get started about the same time.  Life is much easier this way! : )

     The kids were SO excited to see Lionel the Lion back in our class.  Lionel is a puppet that the kids absolutely LOVE.  He taught the kids about getting sleep and not talking back to mom, and the kids helped Lionel figure out what he should do about these problems.  The kids laugh HYSTERICALLY when they get to talk to Lionel.  We really can't have Lionel with us for too long in the morning because the kids want to talk to him about everything.  It really is adorable.

     Math has allowed us to review and deepen our thinking about ten frames.  We got to play some games on the Promethean board and then we got to cut and glue some examples of ten frames on our own.  We'll continue to review and learn more about ten frames for the rest of the week.

     This afternoon we learned about why we have rules.  After reading No, David, we then made a list as a class of reasons why we have rules.  The kids were very creative with their responses.  No, David was a hit in our class this afternoon.  The kids wanted to read it again because of one particular picture that finds David running down the street in a shocking way!

     We didn't get to go outside today because of the heat, but we got our wiggles out by doing dance videos on GoNoodle.com.  Our favorites? "The Cha-Cha Slide" and "Happy".

Pictures to come soon!!

 : )

SEE YOU TOMORROW!!!

Love, 

Ms. Carter