Jacob

This is Jacob.  He is our student of the week this week!  Jacob's favorite color is BLUE.  He would like to visit Canada someday.  Jacob likes to watch Ninjago on television.  When he grows up, Jacob would like to be a mechanical engineer.  He has 21 pets in an aquarium - 20 fish and one frog.  Jacob's favorite book is Merry Christmas Curious George.  His favorite sport is baseball. Jacob likes to eat buffalo steak, which his dad made from a buffalo he shot!  Jacob is special because he is a really good kid, but the VERY BEST thing about Jacob is that he is good at stuff like fishing and running!

Jacquelin

Jacquelin is our new Student of the Week.  Her favorite color is PURPLE.  Jacquelin would like to visit California someday.  Her favorite television program is Sponge Bob Square Pants.  When Jacquelin grows up, she would like to be a doctor.  She does not have any pets, but hopes to get a puppy for her birthday when she turns 8.  The book Jacquelin loves to read the most is "The Cat in the Hat".  Her favorite sport is softball and her favorite food is pizza and wings.  Jacquelin is special because she is friendly and likes to help others.  The VERY BEST things about Jacquelin are that she is friendly, sweet and generous!

Clifford Day!

Did you hear?  We celebrated Clifford, the Big Red Dog's birthday today! Although I am certain you heard all about our day from your child, it is fun to see the action first hand as well.  Enjoy!

We had a special Clifford Day treat!  Thank you to Mrs. Hoogeveen,
Mrs. Jordan, and Mrs. Carlson for providing our goodies!

Bridger passes the muffins.

Cool Clifford ears were made and worn while fun sheets
were being colored.

We made a Clifford craft to decorate one of our bulletin boards.

Here are our completed Clifford dogs hanging
on the wall to remind us of our fun day.

We made Clifford paper bag puppets.  The six bones had
sentences printed on them, so we read the bones as we
fed them to our puppets!

Completed puppets!

We used real dog treats to compete in a fun relay.  The kids had to use
a spoon (and no hands allowed) to transport the bones from one bowl
to the other one two times.  We then played a game to see who could
balance a treat on their nose the longest.  It took many standing on one
foot or turning in circles to be eliminated! Mrs. Peterson used the treats in
P.E. class as well to extend the fun.

We ended our day with some real 'Scooby snacks", which were graham
cracker shaped dog treats! We also enjoyed a Clifford movie.

Happy birthday Clifford!

"The funny one" 

Elijah

This is Elijah!  He is our Student of the Week this week.  Elijah's favorite color is RED.  The place Elijah would like to visit most is heaven.  His favorite television program is Transformers.  When Elijah grows up, he would like to work on old cars and be a mechanic.  He has lots of pets: one dog, two cats, turtles and fish.  Elijah's favorite book is "Monsters Inc."  His favorite sport is soccer.  Elijah loves to eat macaroni and cheese.  He is special because he is nice, but the very best thing about Elijah is that he is smart!  

2013-14 First Graders!

Welcome to First Grade!  We are off to a great start! I am enjoying getting to know all the kids and can tell it's going to be a wonderful group of children.  Thank you for sharing your precious children with me this year. I am looking forward to partnering with you.

Here is our class!

Bailey, Ashlynn, Aubanie

Bridger, Chloe, Brayden

Isaac, Elijah, Do'olo

Jacob, Kylee, Jaden

Reece, Owen D.

Ryleigh, Taylor, Tristan

Jacquelin, William

Owen L., Clayton

* Missing from photos: Aiden


We will be participating in The Daily 5 in first grade.  The 5 areas include Read to Self, Read to Someone, Work on Writing, Word Work, and Listen to Reading. For the first month or so of first grade, we will need to build our stamina after we learn about each area.

The first thing we learned was how to pick 'good-fit books'. We have a small poster in our room entitled "IPICK".

I (I choose a book)
P (Purpose: Why do you want to read it?)
I (Interest: Does it interest me?)
C (Comprehend: Am I understanding what I am reading?)
K (Know: Do you know most of the words?)

We spent 30+ minutes 'shopping' for books in our classroom library.  Each child has a book box to place 6 good-fit books and 1 challenging/interesting book or magazine in. (See below)

Many of the children will need help choosing good-fit books. We discussed how to open the book to a page in the middle and start to read it. If you count 5 words you do not know, it is not a good fit for you. First graders often tell me they can read it, but when we try it together, they realize it is too difficult for them. You can help out at home! Have your child look for a good-fit book from your home library. If it can be read fluently or with only a few minor mistakes and can be comprehended, it is a good fit! If the reading is choppy, words are unknown or your child reads the words incorrectly and there is little or no comprehension, it is too hard to read alone. Research shows that when children read good-fit books, they are more interested in reading and learn to read quicker and better and find the love of reading! Books that are not a good fit can be enjoyed if a parent or older sibling reads it aloud, which is great too! In fact, listening to a fluent, expressive reader helps children understand what we are working toward!

Once we learned how to pick out good-fit books, our next goal was to learn about the three ways to read a book. Did you know that you can not only read the words in books, but you can also read the pictures or retell a story you have read before? We practiced these ways using our book boxes and began to work on our stamina when reading to ourselves. Our goal is to be able to read for 25-30 minutes without stopping. So far we have only worked up to about 5 minutes, but the kids have been very excited about it. (See below)

Next week we will start the process of 'Read to Self'. The kids will work on their stamina and learn to read using pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, and read in many areas of the room. If we are ready, we will then learn about how to 'Read to Someone' as well. What an exciting time in first grade.

Thanks for taking the time to read about our first week of school! I will be updating our blog 1-3 times per week depending upon what is going on in our class. I usually also send out an email to parents when I update the blog as well.