Monday, February 29, 2016

A quick note...

We are starting a new ELA unit. This one is about making sense of our world. And this week is about sorting and categorizing. 

The phonics pattern is 'ar' and pretty fun to say when you close an eye and say it like a pirate. 

We practiced reading a story with partners. LOVE the blossoming readers that share our room...

Remember School House Rock? Conjunction Junction was my favorite and I was all too happy to watch it today as the intro to using 'and, but, or' to join two sentences. 

Math brought assessments and more two digit subtraction. Today I made a super HUGE deal of 'lining up the numbers.' And--they rocked it!!!!!

What a tremendous start to the end of first grade. Can you believe that?

I think we need to plan a place value party...

Friday, February 26, 2016

Thursday was full of reading. 

Writing how-to books. 

Reading our books to the class. 

And not panicking with math story problems. Here's our plan: read the problem. Draw a picture. Find the answer. Write the math problem. 

Friday brought something different. Collaborate work. Collaborative conversations to wrap up our five-week study of animals. 

We sat in the barn for two minutes in silence to observe the newborn lambs. 

The lambs were born over night/early morning. We are excited to see them next week. 

I was so happy to hug each student on Friday and wish you all a wonderful weekend!

Catch Up Day (February 24, 2016)

We've been so excited this week. Our ELA focus is "Helping Animals." The phonics pattern is final "y" and "ey" they both say "ee." Backpacks have a reading paper tonight. 

Math right now is amazing!!! 2 digit addition, and story problems (only 1 digit). It's great. Mrs. LaMar and I are jumping with excitement on the addition for sure!!

For the addition half of the kids draw "quick draws" to figure out the answer. We are ok with that, because that is semi-concrete. When they are able, they will become more abstract thinkers and not need the drawings. But for now, they are "seeing" the answer which will definitely help with place value and all math next year. 

In writing we've been working on "how to" stories. I was so impressed yesterday that we grabbed the stories and headed to Mrs. Friesen's class. They were kind and let us hang out for five minutes sharing what we've done. So Much Fun!

And today we made posters/signs for Mr. Voth's class. They start state assessments tomorrow so we are encouraging them. We snuck over, dropped the posters off and snuck out again. So Much Fun!

Some kids have asked to do notes for other classes as well. So Kind. 

What good and kind moments will we have tomorrow?

Friday, February 19, 2016

Friday's are always interesting. And this was no exception. 

In the morning we practiced and reviewed and practiced some more reading high frequency words, words with long i, adding suffixes to words and reading stories about animals. 

So a quick and little time showed up. Complete a task (make a train track in a figure eight, build a high tower of blocks and create a dominoe falling train). Kids were in groups having conversations. Working together to create, share ideas and succeed. I didn't get pictures of all of them. 

We spotted some green on the playground. 

And in math we did our best to add using place value. Despite many headaches. 

I think we got too much sun at recess. At least I hope not all of the raised hands (raised hands indicate a headache) will result in illness this weekend. 

Wishing you a sunny, relaxing and enjoyable weekend!!

Thursday, February 18, 2016

It's been two busy days in first grade. Some highlights...

Practicing reading phrases and sentences fluently.

Outside in the sunshine!

The firsties learned a grammar rule: drop the y and add ed or es, but not when adding ing.

Yikes! Why is grammar so tricky? But no worries, I think they are getting it!

A new critter showed up to help with reading words. Meet Flippy the Dolphin. He says, if there is only one vowel and it "should" be the short sound, but doesn't make sense, FLIP it and try the long sound. Pros, I tell you!!!

Math games are super fun and engaging!!! This one will be coming home tomorrow in the purple folder. They LOVED it and asked for a copy, so, this happy teacher will grant that request.

And then, dice. We love practicing addition with fun and different dice.

Tomorrow will be a great day, I'm sure! It's Fun Friday (seriously, it's not different, only given it a catchy name, and now they love it!).

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

There was a "buzz" of learning going on today!!!

Our fluency is on George Washington. What a great lesson. We will keep reading it all week.

Our reading essential question is about insects. So our stories are about insects. Today I read the story and they had to "visualize" the pictures. Later they had the opportunity to read the story on their own. And they did GREAT!!!

The last two weeks the kids wrote "reports, posters and books" about animals. Today was the last day for that unit, so they shared their writing with each other. So nice!

In math they continue to be wizards with knowing "tens and ones," and now we are sneaking in some addition with those bigger numbers.

The kids also seem pretty good at knowing which is greater than and less than. I am so pumped by this!

Let's just say--they are blowing my socks off!! Which lead to a dance party at 2:55! FUN!!

Cannot wait til tomorrow and see what bright learning happens.

Friday, February 12, 2016

Today was FUN!!! 

We had the party right away. 

Later we did some reading, looked for details that led to the main idea, and looked for open syllables. 

Practicing place value was fun, because there was a Valentine theme. 

And had some silliness. 

Have s great 3-day weekend!!!

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Talk about excitement!!!

The Valentine containers have been created. Now for adding the cards in the morning!

We were able to squeeze in reading (more of the Crows story), place value (using dimes and pennies today), and a birthday party.

Time to rest up for a big party day tomorrow!!!

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Today I was able to catch many good things on my phone/camera...

1. Practice reading a little story about crows in groups, then reading for the class.

2. Engaged with our wonderful Scholastic News about how crayons are made.

3. Documentation that the kids "thought critically" and determined details and the main idea of a story we have read.

4. Enjoying the warm afternoon, watering and feeding Violet.

5. Working with place value. Now we are adding a ten (or 2 or 3) to a 2-digit number.

6. Cloverbuds. Our group worked with the Kindergarten students to record some research about sheep.

See? A busy day. By the end the kids were tired of the camera. Maybe not...

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Today the kids practiced reading and writing long o words. 

Worked with place value to add and subtract groups of ten. 

And ended the day with an American Heart Association assembly.