Weekly News!

It was so nice seeing you all at Curriculum Night last night! If you were unable to make it, I sent home a folder of information and a printout of my presentation slides, so if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me! I also forgot to put the reading bookmarks in the folders when I was stuffing them, so I am sending home a blue reading bookmark with reading prompts listed on it. These are a nice tool to use when reading with your child at home to discuss the book they are reading, or the book that you are reading to them.

This week, we began our September calendar folders. The students have enjoyed tracking the weather and graphing the temperatures. In math instruction, we learned how to play the game “Monster Squeeze” to practice counting up and counting back on the number line. We practiced playing this game on the iPads today as well, so the students should be Monster Squeeze aficionados! We explored our tool kits and learned about the various math tools we will be using this year. We learned another number line game called “Bunny Hop”, and practiced writing the numbers 1 and 2 in our nicest, neatest handwriting. At this point, the students are doing a nice job learning the math routines, and are starting to fall into the routine of finding their tool kit and packing it up and returning it to their hooks when they are finished with them.

As we have not started our formalized reading program just yet, I continued to assess the students’ reading levels this week. I am so impressed with each and every one of them! All of the students displayed promising reading behaviors, and they were so focused when reading to me. I will begin to group them for their small group reading assignments. These assignments will change throughout the year. Students may be with some of the same students, and some new each time we switch our reading groups. Meeting with the students in small groups allows me to really target skills and strategies that are most helpful to the individual students, and helps us to continue to improve their reading skills as well as their comprehension and thinking skills.

During our writing workshop this week, we introduced and practiced our writing workshop routines. (Are you noticing a trend yet? Routines, routines, routines! Setting the groundwork for routines at the beginning of the year is so helpful when we actually start all of our curricular subjects, as we can really hit the ground running once those routines are in place!) We learned that we are all authors, and that as authors in our writing workshop, we will “Think, Draw, Label, and Write” each time we begin a new writing piece. Students practiced this twice, one day writing about their family, and one day writing about what they are looking forward to most in first grade. Finally, we went back to add to both of these pieces. We added to the picture, added a label for that picture, and then added to the words (one or two more sentences about the newest part of the picture). Our handwriting instruction and practice has also taken off! Please remind students when practicing at home to start from the top line (or dashed middle line, depending on the letter) and move towards the bottom line when writing letters, rather than from the bottom and moving up.

Next week, we will begin to practice selecting books that are appropriate for ourselves as readers. This will tie into our independent reading time when we begin our Daily 5 routine the following week. We will begin writing our autobiographies during writing workshop time. In math, we will learn the game, “Top It”, which is an important game to learn as it is reintroduced several times throughout our year, with a different twist each time. So we will thoroughly cover the “Top It” basics! We will also work with tallies, graphing tallies, and equal outcomes. Our social studies unit will begin as we focus on Community Helpers.

Upcoming Events:
Monday, 9/5: Labor Day, No school
Monday, 9/12: Spirit Wear orders due
Tuesday, 9/13: Music for Youth demonstration concert 1:30 pm
Friday, 9/16: Constitution Day

Have a terrific Labor Day weekend!!

☺ Mrs. Glaser