Celebrating The Past and Present

We began our week by discussing how to choose "Just Right" books. Grade one children always seem to have some difficulty selecting books at their reading level; therefore, it is important that they are taught what to look for when choosing a book. We brought our learning to life by comparing our book selections to choosing shoes. Who doesn't love a good pair of shoes? Am I right ladies?

Anyways, I brought in a huge bag filled with different types of shoes (they couldn't see what was inside my bag). As I pulled out each pair, I talked to the children about why and where I would wear particular shoes. For example, I wouldn't wear high heels to gym class because they would be dangerous and I could trip or fall when I am running. Also, I wouldn't wear my husband's shoes to school because they would be uncomfortable, extremely big for me, and they are not my style.
 In comparison, the same is true when selecting a book. We don't want to choose books that are too easy for us because we wouldn't have a challenge or expand our reading vocabulary. On the other hand, we wouldn't pick too hard a book because we may not be able to understand what is happening in the story. Just right books are the right fit for us. Everyone may not be reading the same level; however, that level is "just right" for them. Just like shoes - what fits me and is my style may not be the same as someone else. We choose our books based on the I-Pick strategy.

 

 

I choose a book
 

Purpose - Why do I want to read it?
 

Interest - Does it interest me?
 

Comprehend - Am I understanding what I read?
 

Know - Do I know most of the words?

 

Overall, the children thought it was hilarious trying on different shoes and realizing that everyone doesn't have the same size of feet. Who knew? My husband, on the other hand, called me during the evening from work wondering where his shoes had gone. Oops...I failed to let him know my important lesson for that day required his shoes...haha...Makes me wonder what he finally did wear to work.
 

I believe the saying is true
If the shoe fits, wear it!
 

We also increased our reading stamina up to 12 minutes of uninterrupted reading time. Yeah!!
 

As the week progressed we found ourselves looking towards the future. Bellwood Public School was to celebrate its 25th anniversary on Wednesday, September 25th and we needed to leave our mark. Our grade one team put our heads together to decide what we wanted to do to share in the festivities. Bouncing ideas off each other, we finally came up with an old film theme. We chose Stars of the Future as our title and asked the children to tell us what they thought they would be in 25 years. The writing portion of the project was so cute. We had such diverse answers, from doctors and firefighters, to joining the spy kids team, and running an ice-cream truck. Very sweet answers!!

For the drawing portion of the project, the children were given a blown up photocopy of themselves. The boys were to draw mustaches and beards and the girls were asked to put makeup and jewellery on. They were so excited that cheers were heard down the hall. The makeup of the future is definitely heading towards shocking pinks and yellows and vibrant green (look out Revlon). A few girls even chose to dye their hair neon pink. Wow! I can't wait to see them in 25 years! To give them some ideas of what mustaches look like, they were able to try some on for size. Even the girls got in on the fun and let me tell you...it was so much fun my family had to get in on it.

Now I "mustache" you a question. Don't you think our first grade children are full of greatness?

On to planning our next week of wonder-filled learning!

Sight Word Rings 

 

This week, you should look forward to your child bringing home their sight word rings. When they can read the words fluently and confidently (not just in order), return them for the next word list.

Spelling



Your child will be bringing home 5 words to practise this week. Please have your child go over these words numerous times in order to prepare them for their spelling test on Friday.

Home Reading

 

Home reading begins this week! Your child will be bringing home a new book on Monday. Please have them read to everyone! Parents, friends, grandparents, pets, stuffed toys etc.. The more practice, the more confident and fluent they will become as a reader.

Weekly Math Focus (Apples)

 

Our math for this week will focus on patterning (AB, ABC, ABBA), reading and writing number words, graphing, as well as, one-to-one correspondence. We are celebrating apple week in room 109. We will be tasting different types of apples and graphing our favourites. We will be measuring the height of apples and investigating whether apples float or sink. We will also be reading many apple books and looking at the features of non-fiction. By the end of the week, we are looking forward to making applesauce together and using our 5 senses. It is going to be a fantastic week!!

Stop by our blog next weekend for a photo gallery of our learning experiences.



Fall into a good book this week!  

One Busy Week

I thought I would begin this post by explaining our morning routines. When the children first arrive, they hang up their belongings and hand in their note tote bags (zippered pouches holding agendas). They proceed to their desks and begin working through their "Rise and Shine" binders. These binders provide the children with daily writing practice of the following: their name, days of the week, months of the year, and number words. It also allows the children to gain rich learning experiences with tallying numbers, working with numbers (what comes before and after a particular number), and base ten practice (hundreds, tens ones). I have come to LOVE these binders! The children know the daily routine and what is expected of them. As the year goes on, I will continue to add more pages to these binders to increase their knowledge of concepts being taught, as well as to peek their interest. I have to send a big thank you to Reagan Tunstall at Tunstalls Tidbits for sharing a wonderful creation.

We have now completed our first week of Read to Self. The children have their own reading boxes where they go to find books at their instructional level. When they take their box, they find a special place to read by themselves. Our goals are to stay in one spot the whole time, read the whole time, and remain focused and quiet. We began charting our minutes on a graph and by Friday we reached 5 minutes of uninterrupted reading time. I know it doesn't seem like a long time; however, for 18 first grade children, it is a big accomplishment! The children were introduced to the word "stamina" and now refer to it often when talking about our goals for reading. Stamina = Sticking With It! We are working towards 10 minutes for this upcoming week! We can do it!! I know we can!!



In Science, we have been discussing the four seasons (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall). We have talked about the differences in temperature, how the weather affects animals (hibernation, migration), and how trees change with the seasons. This week we especially focused on clothing and how we choose what to wear depending on the weather and time of year. The children had a great time with our lesson. I brought in a bag full of mystery clothing. Four children were chosen to represent each season and as I pulled an item from the bag, the class helped decide which child had to wear it. Well, there were many laughs and giggles because many of the clothing items were either too big or too small.

Our math for the week focused around skip counting by 5's and 10's to 100, reading subitizing cards and ten frames, and working on grouping numbers by 5 to 25. On the 25th of September, Bellwood will be having its 25th anniversary. With this in mind, one of our lessons focused around the number 25. The children were placed in pairs and given a mat with 5 frames totalling 25. The children then were given a special box full of mystery items. Each box contained different items, such as: keys, jewels, shells, rocks, double sided beans, and buttons. The children were asked to sort the collections into groups of 5 and then count them by 5's. After a few minutes, they were then told to clean up and move to the nearest mystery box. The children rotated through the boxes numerous times and had a chance to explore different materials and practise counting by 5's.

By the end of the week, the children were ready to let loose. Our Terry Fox Run was changed to the morning due to a forecast of rain for the afternoon. Surprisingly, despite the cloudy outlook, the sun shone through and the children had a wonderful morning for running. I was so proud of my class and how hard they ran. They gave it their all and were so proud of their accomplishments! I'm sure there were some early bedtimes on Friday night, no need to persuade little ones to sleep.

Please continue to have your child practise skip counting by 5's and 10's, as well as counting backwards from 20 or any number below that. Extra practice printing letters and review of letter sounds is especially helpful at this point in the year. Beginning in October, our home reading program will begin. Thank you for your continued support of our WONDERFUL first graders!!

Fabulous First Photos

Well, our first full week together has come to an end; however, our journey has just begun. I am so thrilled with my little class this year! I am very blessed and honoured to be teaching such lovely children and to have the opportunity to share in their learning experiences. One of the reasons I enjoy first grade so much is due to the fact that even the smallest learning experiences are filled with excitement and joy. First graders come to school with smiles of anticipation and expectations for each day. I love seeing their eyes widen when they discover something new, and huge smiles when they meet new learning goals.
Our first few days of school were very busy. On day one, the children were presented with a magic ball of dough. The tag that went along with the dough told how, if it changed colour when they squeezed it, they would have a great year. Well of course, every single ball magically changed before their eyes and the whole class erupted with cheers. What a great kick-off to the year!

 

 

 

The first day of school can always bring with it a case of the jitters. And in our class, we were no exception. We decided that we needed to do something to calm the butterflies in our tummies. This was our introduction to the story "First Day Jitters" by Julie Danneberg. This story told about the worries of what we believed to have been a child on their first day of school. By the end of the book, we come to realize that it was not a child after all, rather the teacher. The story brought out many giggles and opened up great lines of communication about how they were feeling. We then created our own "Jitter Juice" as a class and amazingly the jitters seemed to disappear. There was a unanimous thumbs up from the crowd over the taste (sorbet, Sprite, cream soda). 

 



We spent a great deal of time learning about each other, our favourite things, and our names. We counted the letters in our names and made a class graph. We looked at who had the shortest name and the longest. We then continued by discussing consonants and vowels. We counted how many vowels and consonants were in their names and again charted our learning.
We made time each day to talk about rules and responsibilities. We talked about school rules and then made some class expectations. We used the book "No, David" by David Shannon as our literature connection. We then created David portraits and displayed some of the rules we learned in speech bubbles. This great idea came from the FirstGradeWow blog page (Thanks for sharing a wonderful lesson!). The children loved their creations and I have to admit, they turned out very cute!

 Overall, we have been very busy bees in room 109 and I can't wait to see what is ahead for us! Keep posted to view our learning adventures! This week we will be focusing on skip counting by 10's and 5's, one-to-one correspondence counting, graphing, and patterning. Our themes will be based around apples and weather/seasons.