Just Right Books, Apples, Inventions - Oh My!

These past few weeks your child has been learning how to use our classroom library. It's important that they are familiar with the organization of the library (by topic, author, and guided reading level) as well as how to choose a book that is "Just Right" for their current reading skills. We read the book Goldisocks and the Three Libearians (yup, that's the correct spelling!) and learned Goldisocks' 5 Finger Rule for choosing a "Just Right Book". Each child also has a book mark in their bag to help them remember the 5 Finger Rule. On Friday, the students brought their book bags home so they could Read Every Day over the weekend and record their books in their R.E.D. folders. I hope you have all had a chance to see and read with your child the books from their "Just Right Book" bag. Please send these back to school on Monday! We discussed the importance of being responsible for our classroom books and bringing the bag with all the books inside back to school. We are working hard to develop personal responsibility and to keep our classroom library intact. Thank you for your support with this!

New Scholastic book orders are coming home tomorrow, October 1st, and our September order should be arriving this week. There are some great categories (such as Science and Guided Reading Level) to look over.  Please visit my Scholastic informational page for instructions. #readingmakesusgreatstudents

Our religion series Pflaum Gospel Weeklies: PROMISE is under way! (Pronounced FLOM) The Pflaum Gospel Weeklies are a liturgically-based catechetical program that helps parents participate in their important role as the first educators of your children. Please visit the Pflaum website as it is designed for busy families and has GREAT resources for parents. You'll find a short description of the Sunday Gospel plus suggested activities and discussion starters for each age level. (So if you have younger or older children at home, you can reference appropriate discussion points for them, too.) In class, we remember: God first, family second, friends third. It's a life-long lesson.

We had our first Star of the Week this past week: Valerie! As long as we have a full week of school, a STAR will be showcased. If it's a particularly busy week (ie: Homecoming, a week with a lot of assemblies or special schedules) we will not have a star in order to give everyone a full week to enjoy their time in the limelight. :) Information about Star of the Week is on my website, and I send home everything your child will need to be the STAR.

In Science we launched science centers with our study of APPLES. We assembled our Science notebooks; learned about Scientists and organized our learning using the tree map "Scientists CAN, HAVE, ARE"; watched a Brain Pop Jr. video about the observation method and will observe and record our data for what happens to an apple that is cut open and left out for six days; learned about what plants need and that apple trees need BEES for POLLINATION. We'll continue our science centers about apples this week and will segue into our study of pumpkin plants next week.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

1. Field Trip Form - SHREK THE MUSICAL - We will see Shrek the Musical on Thursday, December 6th at the Marriott Lincolnshire Theater. Please return the form this week as we must plan for purchasing tickets in advance. To chaperone, sign up here. Thank you!
2. Timeline Project: Due this Tuesday, October 2nd
3. Inventions/Inventors: Due Friday, October 12th
4. No spelling tests the next TWO weeks. This coming week is Unit 1 Review and Assessment for ELA (English/Language Arts: comprehension, phonics, vocabulary, spelling). The following week, October 8-12, is St. Mary's homecoming week with NO SCHOOL on Monday, October 8th in observation of Columbus Day. 
5. We still need 2 more volunteers from our class for our field trip to Goebbert's Farm this month. Please sign up here. It's a super fun day!

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog and to stay informed on important classroom happenings! Our September bulletin board items will come home tomorrow to be proudly displayed at home. Enjoy our "classroom snapshots" below. :)

 Rocket Math and S.T.E.M. Bin Rotation

 

 Practice Finding "Just Right Books" - 5 Finger Rule

Writers' Workshop: Our Pictures Tell a Story

Buddy Reading: Gus Takes the Train

Up, Up and Away in First Grade!

We have had a fantastic few weeks getting to know one another in Room 109 and learning our classroom rules, expectations, and routines. It was also lovely seeing many parents at Meet the Teacher Night, and I hope everyone is taking advantage of my website to view our Week at a Glance and Daily Homework. The Week at a Glance tells what skills the students are to master within each subject area.  The Daily Homework section is helpful if your child comes home and can't find or can't remember what the homework for the day was. I hope this will be a valuable resource for you!

Our literature the first two weeks of school included themes related to back-to-school, school rules, friendship, and social behaviors. If you are interested in purchasing any of this literature, here are the titles of our favorites: First Day Jitters, The Night Before First Grade, Officer Buckle and Gloria, Froggy Goes to School, My Mouth is a Volcano, Personal Space Camp, Chrysanthemum, Peanut Butter & Cupcake, You Get What You Get, Have You Filled a Bucket Today? and If You Take a Mouse to School.

We kicked of Social Studies with an in-depth look at Pledge of Allegiance. We learned the vocabulary behind "big words" such as pledge, allegiance, nation, liberty, justice and indivisible. We also sequenced the Pledge with a cut and paste activity, making a correctly colored flag as the final result. We know that there are 13 stripes on the flag, beginning and ending with red, representing the first 13 states of our nation. We know that there are 50 stars, each representing the 50 states of America, and the blue representing the night sky.

We are mastering our Guided Reading centers and daily academic routines. We have learned all 4 word work stations, phonics, write the room, spelling (pyramid words, texting words - more to come!) and our Spelling City website, Listening Lab, and the Invisible Teacher (ask your child about that!). In the upcoming weeks we will add Independent Library and Just Right Books, poetry center (currently whole group), decoding strategies and fluency practice. We have "launched" rocket math  as well. There are currently two groups: one group who is ready to begin mastering math facts and another group who will work on mastering writing their numerals fluently and accurately before moving on to addition mastery. They're doing GREAT, and I look forward to seeing their progress. I've sent home an informational sheet about Rocket Math on golden paper. This pertains to practicing and mastering addition facts.

Today we had our first classroom store. On these days, the students get their treasure chests and count the number of golden tickets they earned. Each ticket is worth $0.01, and tickets are used as currency for the store. We utilize calculators during this time to add totals and subtract differences. There are so many amazing skills being learned and practiced during our store times! I hope your child can tell you all about the items they purchased, their cost, and their hopes and dreams for the next special purchase they want to earn!

Remember that tomorrow is St. Mary School's Jingle Jubilee Pancake Breakfast in the lunchroom. Come on out and enjoy good food and community while supporting a great cause - our amazing sc school! Mark your calendars for Friday, September 21st - no school (teacher in-service day). Field trip forms for Goebbert's Farm came home this week (bright orange paper). Please return the bottom portion as soon as possible. Do NOT send money; your FACTS account will be billed. If you would like to be a chaperone for our trip, please sign up here.

Enjoy some photos from our first few weeks...

Painting treasure chests to "Build the Kingdom of God" through our good choices

 

Using our Chrysanthemum flip puppets: How do words make us feel?

Making new friends in first grade: We go together like Peanut Butter & Jelly!