Weekly Updates

Happy Friday!! Unfortunately, I had sick babies at my house this week and I had to be at home with them some this week! The students did a great job with the MAP test on Wednesday. I will have results from all of our MAP tests ready to share at our Fall Conference. Please see the weekly email from Mrs. Windham for more information regarding "Start with Hello Week" next week.

Word Study: We started lesson 2 in 95 Phonics! This is the start of new 1st grade learning. Students used chips and boxes to build CVC words. We also worked on finger stretching and finger tapping words to help us read and write. All of our words have been CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words with the V being short a.

Writing Workshop: We are continuing our daily King/Queen of the day routine. We are building our classroom community, stamina and working on drawing skills.

Math Workshop: This week we completed a esti-mystery and a 3 act task with Mrs. Messenger. During an esti-mystery, we look at a picture and make estimates and then narrow the estimates down to the correct number based on clues. We also worked on skip counting by 2's and completed and interpreted a graph.

Social Studies: We wrapped up our focus on the Zones of Regulation this week! We talked about the red zone and then celebrated our learning by watching Inside Out. The Zones of Regulation are used all throughout SCE and gives us all a common language.

Here are some books we read this week!

Another great week of 1st grade is behind us! We have now completed both the reading and math MAP test. Next week we will be completing the MAP Reading Fluency Dyslexia Screener. Mrs. Windham has included information about this in her weekly email to SCE families.

I will be sending information about Fall Conferences soon!

Word Study: This week we completed a formative spelling test that will help me plan instruction for your child. We also finished up lesson 1 in 95 Phonics.

Math Workshop: We had a special guest, Mrs. Messenger, come in to teach us a new math thinking routine- counting collections! Students worked on choral counting, noticing patterns and speaking and listening to other mathematicians.

Social Studies: We continued our work with the Zones of Regulation this week! We really focused on the blue zone and the yellow zone. Ask your child how they might be feeling if they are in the yellow or blue zone. Next week, we will talk all about the red zone.

Here are some books we read this week!

Word Study: This week we started our new Word Study program, 95 phonics! Lesson 1 is a kindergarten review unit, focused on letter naming, letter sound recognition, sight words and manipulating syllables. The letters we reviewed include: f, n, p, t, a, s, d, l, w, i, b, j, m, k, o, h, c, g, x and e.

Writing Workshop: We are continuing with the King/Queen of the day routine. We are building stamina and working on drawing skills.

Math Workshop: We began exploring math manipulatives as a mathematician rather than using them as toys.

Social Studies: This week we began learning all about the Zones of Regulation. Emotional awareness is a huge skill for 1st graders! This week we talked all about feelings in general and the green zone. Ask your child how they might be feeling if they are in the green zone. Ask them how they can tell if someone else is in the green zone.

Here are some books we read this week!

We made it through the 1st five day week of First Grade! This week we continued to build school stamina and our classroom community!

We talked a lot about how we wanted our classroom to look, sound and feel. After coming up with lots of ideas, we picked out some of the most important words and wrote a class promise with them. You can read our class promise below!

We also talked a lot about being kind. We made a couple of charts showing ways we can be kind and then each child thought about and wrote about times they have been kind.

We completed an experiment with toothpaste to remind ourselves not to blurt out our words. Once our words are out, we can't put them back in!

We started a writing routine called King/Queen of the day! The kids love it and can't wait for their turn to be the king or queen of the day!

We talked about what Scientists do and became scientists in our classroom by growing gummy bears! We made hypotheses on Thursday and then checked them on Friday.

Here are some books we read this week!