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.

June 5, 2016

Important Dates:
June 10: Last day of school, dismissal 11:00

Please send in a backpack each day during the week because we have a lot of stuff to bring home. 


Last week we had the Big Blue Trunk come to school for 2 hours of first grade fun! We had a blast! This was paid for by the PTO as our end of year field trip. After playing for 2 hours, we had pizza in the classroom. Everyone (teachers and students) had fun playing together, running around, getting faces painted, and air brushed tattoos. What a great day! I wish I had taken more pictures but I was having too much fun.


A group of teachers worked with a great group of women in the Family Literacy Class. These women worked on writing their autobiographies, giving the reader a glimpse of what life is like when fist arriving in a new country. New food, culture, weather, language. You can order your own copy of the book and $2 from every book will go directly back to our school to support more after school family literacy courses. You can order your book here: Our Autobiographies.

I can't believe the year is almost over! I will try to do some updates this week.

May 21, 2016

Important Dates and Reminders:

Tuesday: Library

May 25: Delayed Start
May 30: No School 
June 10: Last day of school, dismissal 11:00
 

We have had a busy couple of weeks, and I have not updated in a bit. Sorry!

Literacy:
We are back to studying nonfiction. Each child knows their interests and can find books to help them deepen their understanding. For example, Oliver discovered that there is a bat that has a wing sp
an of 6 feet! Yikes! The students have shared their new learning through discussion, posters, and making their own nonfiction fact books using nonfiction features.


Math:
Fantastic work in math! The mathematicians continue to push their thinking and rise to every challenge! They are learning to break apart, build, and compare double digit numbers, using tens and ones. I see them becoming more flexible in their mathematical reasoning everyday.







Science:
We examined life in the forest and in the pond on our wonderful field trip to Shelburne Farms. The staff there was fantastic! We hiked in the forest, turned over logs, picked up salamanders, frogs, bugs,  and worms. At the pond, we used nets to scoop mud and water so we could see what lives in the pond. We even were able to enjoy some beautiful views and roll down hills! We couldn't have asked for a better day!

Classroom Fun:
Oliver has been bringing his soccer ball to school and many of us (including me!) have been playing soccer at recess. It has been a blast!

April 30. 2016

Important Dates and Reminders:

Tuesday: Library 
May 10: Field Trip to Shelburne Farms
May 13: Field Trip to Flynn
May 25: Delayed Start
May 30: No School

We had a great week back from vacation. The students worked so hard in all subject areas! Super readers, writers, and mathematicians!





Literacy:
We finished up another fiction unit. Throughout this unit we worked on ways to talk about books and how to sound like a story teller when you read. I can tell you that everyone sounds like a storyteller! It gets pretty exciting during independent reading time! On Friday everyone created a character hat. Each student chose a character and then decorate their hat to represent that character. I think they would have worked on those hats all day long.


Math:
This place value math unit pushes the students' thinking and  they are loving it! We are discovering different ways to represent numbers while thinking about them using tens and ones. We also have started to work on telling  time to the hour and half hour. As usual, we do a lot of partner work and hands on activities to help the mathematicians make connections in their learning.

Classroom Fun:
We celebrated Green Up day at school on Friday. The kids did a great job greening up the playground. They filled our trash bag in no time at all! Good team work boys and girls!