Tuesday, February 14

Happy Valentine's Day!!  Always such a fun day, filled with treats and excitement.  During language arts, we read Valentine stories and wrote some "love notes".  Our math for the day was graphing conversation hearts.  The kids had a great time reading them, sorting them, graphing them and eating them!  We also had a few minutes at the end of our party to play a valentine game!  

Thank you for all of the Valentines and snacks that you sent in!  The kids had a blast!

Friday, January 27

 It's so good to be back!  I missed seeing all of these adorable little faces every day!

 This week in math, we started working on tens and ones. Everyone did a great job with it! We played a lot of games to keep it fun!  This is one of the most difficult math concepts that we cover in first grade.  Any extra practice at home would be great!  

 We also worked on a writing project to get ready for Valentine's Day! We talked about the  people and things that we love the most, and then "filled" our hearts with them.  You all have some really sweet kids who have very full hearts!

 Just a reminder that our reading program starts on Monday! Make sure to keep track of all the minutes your kids are reading at home. Monday is also dress like a cow day for first grade. Can't wait to see my "herd"!!!

Friday, October 7

Lots of fun was had this week!

We started out on Monday by eating ice cream in our pajamas!  What could be better than that?  Everyone looked adorable and cozy in their jammies!

We also started our "Daily 5" rounds this week.  Daily 5 is a classroom management system that allows each child to work at their own pace and ability while I am teaching small group reading.  Each day, the students choose their own "rounds" which also gives them freedom and choice in their day.  Our rounds consist of...

Read to Self

Work on Writing

Read to Someone

Word Work

And coming soon...Listen to reading.  Again, this system gives me the opportunity to hold small group reading lessons at each child's individual reading level!

We ended our week with Apple Day!  This morning, each child got to peel the apple they brought and add it to the applesauce pot.  Our applesauce was warm and ready by the afternoon!  We tasted the applesauce, apple cider, and a slice of a red, yellow and green apple.  Everyone had a great time!

Pajama Day Tomorrow!!!

Just a reminder that tomorrow is our pajama/ice cream party!  Please remember to send your child in their pajamas and with a favorite stuffed friend.  Can't wait to see all the cute jammies!

Friday, September 23, 2016

Another couple of busy weeks for us here at school!  We are having a great time continuing getting to know each other.  We have been working very hard too!

We just finished our first math topic, which was addition.  We worked on making 6,7,8 and 9.  We also learned what the words addend, sum, part and whole mean.  We even learned about the "commutative property of addition".  Ask your kiddo about it and see if they can tell you!!!  We did take some time to play a few addition games.  Math is always more fun when you're playing!!!

We have also been working very hard in reading.  We talked about the different skills good readers use.  One of our very important reading skills is to be able to retell a story.  After reading, "Lily's Purple Plastic Purse," we used a story strip (with pictures from the book) to retell the story.  Retelling is an essential skill for first graders.  See if your child can retell the stories you read at home!

Here we are in our Brodhead attire!  Happy Homecoming!  Go Cardinals!!!!!!!!!

September 9, 2016

The first 6 days of first grade have been very busy!!!!  We have such a great group of kids in our class!  I can tell we are going to have tons of fun together!

We started our first day with a cup of "Jitter Juice".  This magical juice has bubbles that chased all of our first day butterflies and jitters away.  It worked great!

We have also started working in our journals.  Journals are an activity that we will do each morning in first grade.  The kids are already doing some really nice writing!

In reading we read, "Chrysanthemum".  This story is about a young mouse who isn't quite sure how her first name makes her feel.  By the end of the story, she loves it!  Then we did some fun activities using our first names!

In math we worked on number patterns and addition.  We have been playing some fun math games and everyone is doing a great job of working together!

Most of our time has been spent just getting to know each other!  We have talked A LOT about rules and what is expected of us in all the different areas in our school.  This year, the students are expected to do everything "The Cardinal Way." This means we are always responsible, respectful and safe!