Open House

Thank you to all of the parents and students who joined us for Open House last night. We had a wonderful turnout and we enjoyed seeing everyone! Below is our "A Day in the Life of a First Grader" video we shared. Enjoy!

Our Puppeteers!

Part of our Reading Centers that we do everyday is the Dramatic Play Center. In this center, the students read from a play and perform it with their group members with puppets. This helps the students work on their intonation and expression while reading. It also helps them with fluency since they are rereading the same play a few times each week.

This week was the end of our first full round of centers. So, we chose the group that worked the best together during our center time to perform our first play in front of the class. Congratulations Group 7! They worked so well together and really read the play with intonation and expression! Here are a few snapshots of the group performing the play "Leaves Laugh".

Leaf puppet

The class watching on respectfully!

Behind the scenes of our puppeteers!

The puppeteers take a bow!

Group 7 did such an awesome job! We wonder which group will win next round? Keep on reading with expression! Practice at home with your nightly reading! :) 

Retelling

Retelling is the act of a student restating what happened in the story, being sure to include details from the beginning middle and end. Students have to recall the important details from the story. Retelling is a way to assess what students remember from and understand about a story, making it an excellent way to check for comprehension. Rog writes, "As a comprehension strategy, retelling encourages readers to attend to the meaning of the text; reinforces elements of story structure, such as characters, setting and plot; requires readers to distinguish between key ideas and supporting details; and encourages communication and oral language development" (pg 123). When students know that they are going to be asked to retell a story they listen more closely for the important details. In the early stages of reading, students should practice retelling as an after reading activity.

Try this with your kids at home or click here to use our "Shape GO!" Map to help them organize their thoughts :)

S-T-R-E-T-C-H-I-N-G Small Moments

During writing this week we have been learning a lot about ways we can make our writing better. One strategy we learned this week is to stretch a small moment. Instead of writing about our entire day, we focused our writing on one small moment and stretched that moment using our five senses. What did you see, hear, smell, taste or touch during this moment? Also, what were you feeling and thinking inside during this small moment?

First we turned and talked to our neighbor about our small moment and the five senses that went along with it. Then, we went back to our seats and wrote independently. When we were finished with our writing, we got to draw a detailed picture to go along with our story! Here is a great example of our writing:

"I went to disny wrold and i rode splashmoentn (Splash Mountain). I felt woter. I Heard woter splashing. I felt the seat. I sol the bote. I smelt aer (air). I felt glad." 

"I wus At Avngrlanding (Adventure Landing) I wet on the Gronup (grown-up) slide. And the wus a fish u liv (a live) fish. I had a loee pop (lollypop). Threr wus a pio (pillow) wen I fell But the pio cach me! And we wet on the prit ship (pirate ship)."

What great examples of writing what the saw, heard, smelled, touched, tasted and thought inside! Ask your child what the small moment they stretched was! Happy writing!

Superhero Scientists!

In Science we have started our unit on Matter. We have discussed what a scientist is and what one does and reviewed our five senses. On Wednesday, we went on a nature walk and collected three items. We got to choose one of our items and observe it with a hand lense. We then recorded our observations. On Friday, we sorted items and put them into groups based on shape, color, and texture. We are learning how to observe properties of objects and sort objects into groups by properties (standard SC.1.P.8.1). We can explain ways to sort objects with our classmates. Below are pictures of our Sorting and Classifying Objects exploration.



Sorting using property cards and objects in our "Things Bag"



Exploration sheet



Recording our observations and what we discovered



What a MARVEL-ous First Day!

Wow! What a fabulous first day of first grade! We started our day with a first day story and played the name game "Hickety-Pickety Bumble Bee" to introduce one another. Ask your child to recite it for you. We then had an assembly with special guest Omegaman! He was so strong! He ripped phone books in half and bent iron rods!  

In Readers' Workshop, we reviewed rituals and routines and read the book, The Kissing Hand. In Writers' Workshop, we created our superhero name, wrote what is means to be a superhero, and who our hero is. We finished our piece with an illustration of what we look like as a superhero. We have some very creative first graders!

We introduced the August elements of Calendar Math and explored pattern blocks, which kicked off our first Math Investigations Unit, Color, Shapes, and Number Patterns: Patterns and Functions. 

Your child's red home-school folder was sent home today containing our weekly classroom newsletter. Please be sure to read this each week, for it contains important dates, curriculum updates, and vital school/classroom information. The home-school folder is to be returned everyday. Be sure to use the communication log on the back of the folder if your child is going home a different way, was absent from school, you need to schedule a conference, or just have a question. :)

Tomorrow your child will receive and wear their own Chets Creek superhero t-shirt (a gift from PTA). These shirts will be worn on our field trips and flag raising Fridays, so please keep up with them and be sure not to lose them. They cannot be replaced.

We had a very successful and productive first day! We are very excited for the year ahead of us!

Participating in Hickety-Pickety Bumble Bee

Welcome Back!

We are so excited to begin the 2011-2012 school year! First grade orientation will be held this Friday, August 19th, at 11:00 AM in our classroom (room 120). Please remember to bring all of your required grade level supplies. Volunteer orientation will immediately follow, at 12:00 PM, in the Dining Room. Please make sure to attend this meeting if you would like to volunteer in the classroom/school or chaperone on our field trips. We cannot wait to see you Friday! :)