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