Our bucket is full!

Important Dates:
September 19 - Picture Day
Wednesday - Library

Don't forget... picture day is Monday. 

The big news this week... WE FILLED OUR HEART BUCKET! Students earn hearts when they are honest, engaged, appropriate, responsible, and timely. We get a class celebration when the bucket is full and best of all, we get to add our hearts to the heart monitor by the JFK office. When the heart monitor fills up, we will have a school wide celebration! The entire school came and cheered us on as we added our hearts to the monitor. I forgot to take pictures... but next time I will! I promise!!

Literacy:
We published our hopes and dreams this week. By the of this coming week they will be hanging up. I will let you know when they are up so that you can come in and see them!
 
Independent Reading: 
The solar system is a popular subject for the Johnson Team! Everyday I find several students sharing their findings from my selection of books about the planets. Do we have some future astronauts in the class?




Math:

We are writing equations! We are building our understanding of addition and subtraction and the concept of equal. These are huge ideas that we will focus on throughout  first grade. We have played games, done partner work, acted out math stories, and worked independently on our equations. Super work mathematicians! 



Mindfulness:
Our class loves their mindfulness time. We come back from lunch and enjoy mindful choices such as quiet coloring or turtle  time. Then we come together on the carpet and work on focusing and relaxing together. Mindfulness even showed up in a hope and dream. 

Hopes and Dreams

Important Dates:
Wednesday - Library
September 14 - Early Dismissal 12:15
September 19 - Picture Day

Literacy:
This week we have focused on our hopes and dreams for first grade. We read books about characters that worked hard to reach their dreams:

Dream Big Little Pig, by Kristi Yamaguchi

The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Manus Pinkwater

We talked about why we come to school The class came up with great ideas! Then, the students thought about their hopes and dreams for the year. This list helped us generate our class rules. We continue to work on both of these this coming week.

Independent Reading:

The class is developing the routine of independent reading. This means,  we are learning how to take turns with books, choose books, look at books independently, share out what we read. It is fun to get to know each other as readers and learn what everyone likes  to read about. 









Math:

Wow! The mathematicians work so hard! We teach math using math best practices. This means the children learn different habits of mind and interaction to help them share their thinking. This week we worked on private reasoning time (taking time to think about the answer) and the joy of mistakes and stuck points. A mistake means you have the opportunity to learn! Hooray!

Miss  Sarah (Sarah Forbes the ELL teacher) co-teaches math with me. We have a great time planning and teaching together. She comes into our classroom everyday for math. 

We are working on the very important concept of counting and representing your thinking in an organized way. We are trying to organize our counting by using groups of ten and the tens frame tool. 

Great First Week!

It's been a great first week of school! The kids have worked hard we are getting to know each other.

Important Dates:
Wednesday - Library
September 5 - No School
September 14 - Early Dismissal 12:15
September 19 - Picture Day

As a class, we are building our classroom community. This means we are learning routines, expectations, and making decisions together. Here are a few things we worked on this week.

Literacy:
We love Pete the Cat! We enjoyed reading, singing, and dancing to Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes. Then, everyone made their own Pete the Cat. You can find these hanging up in the hallway.













HEART:
We have switched from stars to hearts this year! HEART stands for Honest, Engaged, Appropriate, Responsible, and Timely. Our class designed their own hearts to help kick off the theme and we hung those up outside our door.

 Playground Expectations:
There are clear expectations hung up throughout the school. Miss Osha, the students, and I reviewed the playground expectations before playing at recess.

Book order information

Scholastic Book Order 

I sent home the first book order of the year. You can order through the paper form I sent home or you can order your books right online.

Here is the link: http://scholastic.com/readingclub

Our class code is: DZPMV

Orders are due by September 9.

Thanks so much and let me know if you have any questions.