September 21-25

Hello First Grade Families!
Well, let me tell you... we were really excited for our first Monday together! Everyone enjoyed their first trip to the library this year and came back with some great book selections! These book selections offer a great opportunity for you to read to your child. This way, they are hearing fluent reading. Ask your first grader to tell you what you should do before you read a book, while you're reading a book, and after you read a book.

During Writer's Workshop this week we looked to a couple mentor authors to see how they used details in their stories. We looked at The Relatives Came and The Kissing Hand. Have your first grader tell you about the details that the authors added on each of the following pages and how this made the stories more interesting.

The Relatives Came

The Kissing Hand

We also talked about how we can stay in the moment - even at the end of our stories! Oftentimes, we want to end our story by saying, "Then we went home," or "Then I went to bed." We looked at how some of our mentor authors stay in the moment by telling what was the VERY NEXT THING that happened. We looked another first grader's story about her brother's college graduation. The author, Heather, stayed in the moment - even at the end! Ask your first grader to tell you how Heather did that. What did YOUR first grader do this week to stay in the moment at the end of one of his/her stories?

We also set up writing partnerships and learned how we can story tell with a partner. Have your first grader tell you about each of the steps. You could even try this out together at home! When we're working without our partner, we learned that we need to think about what our partner would want to know and what questions they would ask us about our story. Then we try to answer those questions by adding to our writing.

A tricky thing for first graders to do is to stay in the moment at the end of their stories. Many of us want to end the story with "Then I went home," or "Then we went to bed." Instead, we need to ask ourselves "What is the very next thing that happened?"Again, this is very tricky! We'll spend quite a bit of time working on this!

In Reader's Workshop this week we were so excited to bring our Book Briefcases home for the very first time! Please remember to have your child read the book(s) in his/her briefcase. You should then sign the reading log and send it back to school the very next school day. It is very important that your child gets in the habit of spending this time reading to you daily.

Our lessons this week focused on the importance of rereading our books. Ask your first grader to tell you some reasons why rereading is so important and about how we can "scoop up" words.

We reread Ollie the Stomper and looked very closely at
the illustrations. Ask your first grader to tell you what they
noticed about this illustration. How did that help us to
understand better what happened next?

In math this week we began our first Math Expressions lessons and spent time talking about how we are a helping community. We are ALL learners and teachers who help each other understand and explain. We talked about how we thank people who make mistakes because those mistakes help us all learn how to recognize and correct mistakes. We learned, too, that it is brave to ask for help or say, "I don't understand."

We used a new tool in math this week: Stair Steps! Ask your first grade mathematician to tell you what we did with our Stair Steps and how we used them to learn about 1-more and 1-less patterns and partners of 2 through 5.

We also learned about how we can recognize numbers as a group of 5 and extra ones. 

We also used circle drawings to show our understanding of 5-groups and extra ones. Thanks so much for helping your first grader with his/her math homework this week! There will not be math homework on Fridays, but do feel free to have your child spend some time on Dreambox over the weekend. 

On Thursday we had our first round of MAP testing in the computer lab AND we visited the Book Fair! Thank you so much for adding to our coin collection every day! We raised just over $56! This is money I was able to use to purchase books for our classroom, and Scholastic matches this amount for a school in need! Thank you, Scholastic, and thank you as well to all of our Book Fair volunteers. We are so appreciative of their time and energy!

Mrs. Geinopolos joined us on Friday for another guidance lesson. We met "I Care Cat", read the book Odd Velvet, and talked about being respectful of others' differences. Ask your first grader to tell you all about it! We also saw "the most special thing" in a blue mystery box. Hmmm... what was it? Ask your first grader! And finally, we created a self-portrait to add to our Stormonth Time Capsule that most of us began in K4.

Here are this week's Kings and Queens...

We began our Weather unit on Friday! We talked about what weather is, read a couple poems about weather - a funny one by Shel Silverstein and another called Wonderful Weather. We also used our senses to record our observations of Friday afternoon's weather. We'll soon grow our vocabulary for describing the weather! As part of our lesson, we watched a BrainPop video about the four seasons and the type of weather in each.

And finally, our lockdown/reunification drill was on Friday. The kiddos did a great job while in lockdown, while making our way to our first stop, and again on our way to our reunification site.

Until next time...

Michelle Mullen

Mark Your Calendars:

MAP testing continues this week
PALS testing next week (literacy assessment)

October 7: School Picture Day

October 14 & 28: Early Release Days

October 22, 23 & 28: Parent/Teacher Conferences

September 15-18

Hello Families!

What a great way to end our week together - with our assembly honoring our police officers! Each of our friends created a card to say "Thank you for being a friend" that we passed along to the officers along with a poster that we all signed. It was a great way for our entire school community to gather together to say thank you to the men and women who do such a great job of helping to take care of us and keep us safe.

One of our read-alouds this week was Ralph Tells A Story.
Ask your first grader to tell you all about it! What did
Ralph discover about himself as a writer? How can
that help you as a writer?

In Writer's Workshop this week we continued writing our small moments stories. We thought about times when we had strong feelings; these are GREAT to write about! Revision strips or "flaps" helped us to add these strong feelings to stories we have already written. In fact, they were stories we thought were finished, but when we went back and reread them, we discovered that we could add more to them! We began with just adding our feelings and the feelings of others, but then discovered that there were other details we could add to our stories as well! We also spent a couple days on spelling strategies we can use when we come to tricky words. Ask your first grade writer to share with you some of the strategies s/he can use to help him/her spell tricky words. And finally, on Friday we focused our learning on zooming in on one small moment. We compared this to a "watermelon story" as opposed to a "seed story." Ask your first grader to tell you an example of a watermelon story and an example of a seed story.

We began our book shopping routine this week! Your child
has been assigned one day per week first thing in the
morning to choose JUST RIGHT books. Ask your reader
to tell you how s/he  knows if a book is JUST RIGHT.

In Readers' Workshop this week we continued to build our good reader habits by reading more and more. We didn't just read more and more; we also kept track of our reading by using a post-it note to tally how many times we read each book. We soon began to see that the more tally marks we had, the better we were reading the book! Practice, practice, practice! These tally marks allowed us to determine how many books we read in a day. From there we thought it would be a great idea to set a reading goal! Hmmm... yesterday I read 7 books... How many might I read today? What's my goal? So... we began setting goals for our reading time and discovered that we can spread that goal out across our day! We can read in the morning, we can read during the school day, we can read when we go to childcare or get home, AND we can read before bed! That's a lot of reading, and we all know... The more we read... (ask your reader to tell you the rest!).

 We received our first Scholastic News magazine this week and really enjoyed the lesson which included a short video clip, an online version of the magazine with opportunities for us to stop and talk about our learning, and an online activity. These magazines will come home after we have read them in class. Please revisit these with your first grader.

Our new poem this week came from Maurice Sendak's book Chicken Soup With Rice. It was the poem "September." We read it together, found words we learned in K5 and looked really closely at the word September. We clapped the syllables and found the vowels in each of those syllables. We also noticed that there is an -er at the end, and we've been noticing that -er EVERYWHERE!

Ask your first grader how they played
the new game "BUMP!"

Some of our friends have demonstrated understanding
of adding more than two single-digit numbers so they were
challenged with "LOVE BUG BUMP!" where they added
three dice together!

 In math this week we continued to work with partners to practice our math games and learn a new one. We also completed a packet with the numbers 3-9 where students had to come up with many different ways to show a number. These told me so much about your mathematicians in terms of what they know and can do, what is tricky for them, and what they're ready for next. The foundation we have laid the past few weeks will be invaluable as we begin our regular math routines next week. Students have been developing their independence in following the structure and expectations of our math workshop, and I have been learning so much about them as mathematicians in the process!

We were also introduced to our touchscreen Chromebooks! We each learned how to care for them and how to access and navigate on Dreambox.

Please be sure to check your child's Friday Folder next MONDAY as they will have their first Math Expressions math homework! They are all anxious to begin this first grade home routine!

Mrs. Geinopolos joined us for our first Guidance lesson this week. We talked about how there are no bad feelings - all feelings are OK. What's important is what we do with those feelings. She showed us our bin of Calming Tools. Ask your first grader to tell you about some of the calming items and why they might use them.

More fun with Brain Breaks this week to get our brains and bodies ready to learn!

We had another great week of Kings and Queens. Here they are...

Thanks to everyone who was able to make it for our Parent Information Night this past week! If you weren't able to make it and you have questions after reading through the packet that was sent home, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Thanks for stopping by the blog! Next week will be our first Monday together which means LIBRARY DAY - HOORAY! We're so excited!

Until then...

Michelle Mullen

IMPORTANT NOTE: Thank you to Iris' mom for already visiting Dreambox and bringing it to our attention that our iPad code has changed! Mrs. Hogue did some investigating for us and got our new code. Please make note of it: 

shxn/9wwa 

Mark Your Calendars:

MAP testing begins next week

Monday, September 21: Bring your DIMES in for our coin drive!

Tuesday, September 22: Bring your QUARTERS in for our coin drive!

Wednesday, September 23: NO SCHOOL

September 24-26: Scholastic Book Fair!

September 25: Reunification Drill

October 7: School Picture Day

October 14 & 28: Early Release Days

October 22, 23 & 28: Parent/Teacher Conferences

September 8-11

Hello Families!
Our second week found us busy continuing to learn our first grade routines as well as learning more about and practicing the Stormonth Way in our classroom, around the school, and on our playground. We are learning the importance of PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE all across our day. Hand in hand with that practice comes cooperation and awareness of all of the learners in our classroom.

In Reader's Workshop this week we continued to learn more about good habits that readers build. We spent a good deal of time learning about what readers do at the end, because "Readers do SOMETHING at the end." Ask your first grader to tell you some things that readers do when they finish a book. Our reading stamina this week was exceptional! In fact, it was so exceptional that we out-read our stamina chart! We read for 17 minutes without losing our stamina - WOW!

 During partner reading, we practiced doing something at the end together. Thankfully we have a partner to give us reminders if we forget to take a sneak peek, or to stop and think, or to do something when we finish each book!

Here is Sophia doing something at the end.
 She went back to reread her favorite part
to her reading partner.

This week we also talked about how we determine if a book is just right for us. We used the acronym IPICK...

I worked with a couple of our book shopping groups to assist them in selecting just right books. Soon, they'll be ready to select books on their own! We talked a lot about how many of us would LOVE to have a chapter book in our book bins even though it may not be a just right book. We know that we need to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE just right books and soon we'll be able to read those "wish" books!

We also created bookmarks to showcase our favorite books. On them, we wrote about why our favorite book was wonderful. Here's the book that inspired our "wonderful books" as well as a snapshot of all of OUR wonderful books...

In Writer's Workshop this week we read The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli. We learned that the best stories come from our hearts, from our own lives. Ask your first grader to tell you about this book and how it has helped him/her write small moments.

Thank you so much for helping your child to fill out the Small Moments Ideas sheet. Many of our authors have been busy checking ideas off of their lists! We've been busy learning about how we write small moment stories. We're even learning a little song to help us along... 

"Think, think, think,

think, think, think,

plan, sketch, write, 

plan, sketch write!"

(sung to the tune of "Shake, shake, shake...")

We learned that it's really important that during the planning phase of our writing, we touch and tell our story across the pages. Our goal  is to write our story across at least three pages. We had a sneak-peek at the kindergarten and first grade checklists this week so we can begin to think about where we are in our learning and to set goals for ourselves as writers of small moment stories. And finally, we began to talk about revising because... "When you're done, you've only just begun!" We learned that we can reread our stories and think about the questions: Who? Where? When? What? How? Why? This helps us to add on to our stories and our sketches. Ask your first grader to share with you what small moment story s/he wrote this week. If s/he added to it, what did s/he add and why?

In math we have continued with our focus on number sense through hands-on games to support and extend our understanding. Some of the hands-on activities we were involved with included One More, One Less...

Number Mats...

And Ten Frame Top-It...

Ask your first grader how we played each game and what s/he learned from each.

We took part in the the first annual Recess Rodeo. This was a time for us to learn about each of the areas on our playground and the equipment and rules that go with each of those areas. Ask your first grader to tell you about each.

Our random name chooser selected a week of Queens! Here they are...

On Friday we practiced our first fire drill of the year, and we did an AMAZING job! Everyone earned a bug for doing a terrific job being safe, respectful and responsible! 

Thanks for stopping by the blog!

Until next time,

Michelle Mullen 

Important Upcoming Dates 

Wednesday, September 16th Parent Information Night 6:00pm-8:00pm

Friday, September 18th Conference Sign-Up sheets come home

Wednesday, September 23rd No School

Thursday, Sept. 24th - Saturday, Sept. 26th PTO sponsored Book Fair

Friday, September 25 from 5:30-7:30pm PTO sponsored Movie Night 

Friday, September 25th (rain date October 6th) Lock-down/Evacuation/Reunification Drill

October 22nd (4:30-8pm), October 23rd (8am-4pm), October 28th (3-6:30pm) 

Parent-TeacherConferences

Our First Week Together!

Hello First Grade Families!

Welcome to our first blog post of the school year. I hope you'll visit weekly to discover all that we are learning in first grade! Please feel free to share our blog link with friends and family who might be interested in seeing what your child is up to during the school day. I encourage you to also use our blog for a conversation starter with your kiddo about his/her school day. Oftentimes, first graders don't share an awful lot about their day. Our blog will give you some insight into what we're doing so that you have a starting point for conversations. I encourage you to have a look at this great article as well - "23 Questions to Ask Instead of How Was Your Day at School."

http://www.familyshare.com/parenting/23-questions-to-ask-instead-of-how-was-your-day-at-school

On to our week!
This week was all about getting to know each other and beginning to learn our routines and expectations. During our assembly on the first day, all of our new staff and students were introduced then we learned about The Stormonth Way. Ask your child about the new green, yellow, red cup system in the lunchroom. Our focus in the lunchroom will be on MANNERS, and we learned that Miss Manners will come to visit throughout the year! Ask your child to tell you how s/he can show his/her best manners in the lunchroom. 

During Morning Meeting on our first day, we took turns sharing a little something about ourselves then later in the day played Find-a-Friend BINGO! We discovered that it is really important that we pay attention when others are speaking. For those that were, they were able to find friends quickly for each of the categories on their Bingo boards.

It was so much fun getting to know
more about our classmates!

We read the book If You Take a Mouse to School then created our own version of it...

 

We also began our Reader's Workshop routines. Each of us has our own book bin with just-right books in it. We spent time this week building our stamina while reading independently...

and while reading with a partner...

We also learned other ways that READERS BUILD GOOD HABITS. First we learned about how important it is for us to take a sneak-peek AND think BEFORE we read a book. This helps us to get the story in our head, to make predictions and to help us during reading if we get stuck on a tricky word. We also learned that DURING reading, we should check our sneak-peeks. Here we are taking sneak-peeks and thinking with a partner...

Next week we'll spend some more time with what readers do DURING reading and learn about what readers do AFTER reading. We'll also begin charting our READING STAMINA! 

We used our writing time this week to talk and write about what we hope to learn in first grade. I tied our conversation into setting goals for ourselves as learners. When you join us for Parent Information Night on Wednesday, September 16th, you'll be able to see what your child wrote! We also spent our writing time this week doing our first writing sample where we wrote about a small moment from our lives. This piece is being used to determine next steps in your child's learning and as a piece to look at again at the end of our Small Moments narrative writing unit. This way your child can see his/her growth and set new goals!

During math this week we explored some tools in our classroom and talked about the difference between tools and toys. Here we are exploring with unifix cubes and pattern blocks. 

We also learned some math games to practice working with a partner.

We learned how to play "Roll & Remove."
 To play, we rolled two dice, found the sum,
 then removed the penny from that number on our 2-12 number line. 

We also explored games independently...

Shake & Spill: Shake and spill ten double-sided counters.
Arrange them on the ten-frame. Write how many of each color.
Then write an addition equation to go with those numbers. 

Roll two dice. Write an equation to
go with your roll.

Roll & Build: Roll two dice. Create a unifix cube
tower to cover the number you rolled. 

Select a number card, then write an equation.

For those who wanted a challenge - and there were many of them - we extended their learning by writing addition and subtraction equations for games that didn't require it and turn-around facts to demonstrate their understanding of the commutative property of addition. Some even demonstrated their understanding of what the = symbol means by writing equations like this: 8 = 5 + 3. They really knocked my socks off with their mathematical thinking and in their desire to push themselves in their learning!

We spent one of our specials blocks this week learning about The Stormonth Way in the hallway...

In the bathrooms...

In our bus lines and on the bus...

and also in the lunchroom.

Ask your child about how s/he can be SAFE, RESPECTFUL & RESPONSIBLE 

in each of these areas.

We also began our King and Queen of the Week routine! This is a day that features one of our classmates. We learn a lot about their name and about them! First we begin by looking closely at their name. We say it, write it, cheer it, count it, clap it and fix it! 

Here we are building Lucia's name (fixing it)...

and then using what we know about her name to figure out the missing letters.

After we learn all about their name, we interview them. I type this up while the interview is being conducted. Next, we read the interview together. 

Our first Queen was Lucia...

and our first King was Harrison...

And, of course, we enjoyed some time outdoors with some old friends and new friends, too!

*Please remember to send your child with his/her FAVORITE BOOK this week. 

Please also be sure to sign the Highlights form I sent home even if you do not wish to order. We receive credit for YES and NO responses - the more responses returned, the more free items I can get for our classroom! We're hoping to get a new set of name tag holders as well as some fun bug stickers!

Thanks so much!

I'm looking forward to another fun week with your first grader next week!

Until then...

Michelle Mullen

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Monday, September 7th No School

Monday, September 14th No School

Wednesday, September 16th Parent Information Night 6:00pm-8:00pm

Wednesday, September 23rd No School