Today we got the opportunity to have Rocky students who are learning how to be teachers come into all three first grade classes and teach science. All of their lessons aligned with our Project Lead the Way curriculum we are currently being trained to teach starting in January. The kids loved it! Check out our slide show of the centers below.
Argh! We had such fun learning about how to become a pirate on Monday. The official "Talk Like A Pirate Day" was on Saturday. Click here to learn the history of "Talk Like a Pirate Day." Even a couple days late, we had fun, pirate-y learning going on. We read How I Became a Pirate and then made a class book titled If I were a pirate... to practice our writing. Some of the kids ideas were quite funny. One student said if they were a pirate they would never brush their teeth! Lots of students said they would find LOTS of treasure. In math we learned how to add like a pirate. Here is a fun video the kids watched to learn if pirates add the same way kids do! In reading, we are starting a unit on making friends. This week we discussed how being a good friend starts with being kind to ourselves. In addition to learning the song below, we read the wonderful book Rainbow Fish (click on the title to see a video of the book read aloud). In Rainbow Fish, the fish has all these sparkly scales, but he is not truly happy until he shares that special part of himself with others. We talked about the things that makes each of us special, our likes and dislikes, and our similarities and differences. We even made a glyph to represent some of these things. Look for that coming home soon! We will continue this unit for another two weeks, but the focus will be on families and what makes them special and different. We are working on hard on the addition portion of this important math standard. We are building a strong foundation for addition. This week we focused on decomposing numbers into pairs and the commutative property or the "flip flop" property as I like to tell the kiddos. We played the game "Spill the Counters" to discover the many combinations for the numbers 5 through 10. We also built a number wall to record our discoveries. Here is a free app to practice addition combinations. In the game Hungry Fish, students have to feed the fish a certain number. They have to combine bubbles to make the designated number so the fish with eat it. Click Hungry Fish to be linked to the game in the app store.
We are off and running in first grade. We are starting the year by reviewing letters. We are working on handwriting, knowing the letter sounds, matching capital and lower case, distinguishing beginning and ending sounds, and reading and writing words beginning with the focus letter.
We have developed a phonics routine to review and develop these skills. First, we watch and sing Jack Hartman's Letter Sound Song. Then, we introduce the focus letter. The children are really enjoying watching the StoryBots video clips for each focus letter. After, the focus letter is introduced we work on our whiteboards by writing the letter and deciding where in words we hear the letter. No Meanies Allowed!
In these first weeks of school, we have been working hard at establishing rules and procedures. We read a fun story about the Meanies. The Meanies are just that, mean little monsters who don't know the rules. To keep the "meanies" away, we established four important classroom rules: 1. Show respect and manners. 2. Keep hands, feet, and objects to yourself. 3. Follow directions quickly. 4. Work hard and do your best. Pretty awesome thinking. Our four rules keep us safe and help us learn. The first day of first grade was fabulous! What a terrific group of enthusiastic learners! I am so excited to be teaching these 18 amazing children. It is going to be an great year! We were busy, busy, busy today! The day started by learning others' names. We sang a song called "Hickety Tickety Bumblebee." Then, the students used the interactive whiteboard to pull their names out of a beehive. The children were excited to be using the interactive tools and were naturals. We also made a book of the "Hickety Tickety" song. All the students made a beautiful name page to add to the book.
Between these fun activities, lunch, three recesses, a school tour, and learning rules and procedures our day was packed. In the afternoon, we were all a little tired so we read a fun story called First Day Jitters. Then we discussed what we all had jitters about. The students were surprised that the "kid" in the story having jitters was actually a teacher! |
Katie DaveyThis is my tenth year teaching. I love first grade and I am excited for a fantastic year. Archives
March 2016
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