Greetings from room 119! It was a crazy week, from fire drills and ambulances to A LOT more first graders in our room... but we're getting ahead of ourselves...
The beginning of the week was quite 'normal'. We added a new song to our "Word Family Songbook" and enjoyed singing songs from weeks past. We enjoyed our workshops and Mrs. D. was happy to hear that more of us are practicing our fluency at home with the take-home books. She has begun testing us in reading. When not testing, she is working with us on fluency and comprehension. One of the things we began this week, and will continue to work on next week, is trying to find 'why' an author wrote a book and try to see what message they were trying to send the reader. This can be a very hard concept, especially for first graders, but many of us are reading at levels where these questions will come up during testing!
We did some more poetry this week too. We sometimes worked in pairs. We really enjoyed experimenting with poetry and trying out different forms. Mrs. D. read us a lot of poetry this week and while she tells us not to 'list' things in our writing, she said it is ok to list things in poetry (boy, this writing stuff can be confusing). While some of our poetry will go in our portfolios, some of it will be coming home next week in our Everyday Folders.
Mrs. D. had a meeting early on Wednesday morning so Ms. Smith came to teach us in the morning. With Bus evacuation causing a later start to the day, we didn't really miss too much instructional time with Mrs. D. We love Ms. Smith and were happy that she could stay a while so Mrs. D. could test one of us in reading. We decided we would love if Ms. Smith and Mrs. D. could teach us together!
Just as we learned that poetry can have different rules then the ones we are used to, we learned that some
words have different rules too. We learned that some words are really two words pushed together. They are called compound words. It can be difficult for us to know which words are compound and which need spaces but we had fun talking about them. Mrs. D. said that one of the best ways to start recognizing compound words is to see them in our reading- so read on!
Speaking of reading, a lot of us have new reading material this week thanks to the Scholastic Book Fair that took place in our media center! We had a lot of fun shopping though it did take a while. Many of us didn't pay attention to how much things cost at first and we learned a great lesson in money and that it is important for us to have an idea of how much things cost. We call that estimating!
Evan didn't just buy things for himself, he got two special books for Mrs. Doran to have. She will be able to read them for years to come and who knows, since she has had Evan's big brother, maybe she will also have his little sister one day and be able to read these books to her. We LOVED the book "Swim, Swim" and learned how readers can change their voices to fit the mood of what is happening in the story. We've always wondered how Mrs. D. can do that but after a few times reading the story ourselves, we were old pros! Evan's mom also brought in a safe snack and juice to celebrate her time with us! She has been a faithful volunteer all year during our Reader's Workshop but will no longer be able to come in. We've been so lucky to have her! We know how busy people can be! Thank you!
We had more thank you's to give this week! Mrs. Turek and Mrs. Doran heard that it was secretary's day and so we worked with our buddies to make something special for them. We each traced our hand and wrote special messages for them thanking them for all they do. We are so lucky to have Mrs. Kain and Mrs. Buscemi in our school! Thanks for all you do!
We said earlier that it was a crazy week- that was because we had a lot of distractions in our learning from the Book Fair, to a tornado drill to ambulances outside our window! During recess there was a boy who hurt his leg and an ambulance had to be called. We were sitting in the gathering place but when Mrs. D. realized that we were really interested in what was happening outside, she let us look and get our curiosity out of our system so we could get back to work!
We worked on a math test on Chapter 8 this week and we are getting really good at taking tests independently and at the same time. We showed our tests to Mrs. D. before turning them in and most of us had all of the answers completed. We really have come so far in this area since the beginning of the year! Our tests will come home in next week's Everyday Folders.
Friday was another odd day! Mrs. Tisdall's class did not have a substitute teacher and so half of her class came to learn with us for the day. We had over 30 students in our room and it was CROWDED! One of us was in tears because there were just too many people! We did do a nice job making room for our friends and got some work done. It was not a typical day in our class and because Mrs. D. was proud of us, she took us outside a little early for recess!
Friday ended the way it is supposed to- with our Mystery Reader! Sofia's God-parents came in and read to us! They have lived in many countries and shared some of their stories with us in addition to reading to us! Sofia had shared with us that they were visiting so by the last clue we all knew that it was Sofia's Godparents! We were thankful that her mom brought them in to show them our classroom and read us a great book! After a strange day, we ended it as the great class we are with some great people!
Greetings from room 119! It was a crazy week, from fire drills and ambulances to A LOT more first graders in our room... but we're getting ahead of ourselves...
The beginning of the week was quite 'normal'. We added a new song to our "Word Family Songbook" and enjoyed singing songs from weeks past. We enjoyed our workshops and Mrs. D. was happy to hear that more of us are practicing our fluency at home with the take-home books. She has begun testing us in reading. When not testing, she is working with us on fluency and comprehension. One of the things we began this week, and will continue to work on next week, is trying to find 'why' an author wrote a book and try to see what message they were trying to send the reader. This can be a very hard concept, especially for first graders, but many of us are reading at levels where these questions will come up during testing! 
We did some more poetry this week too. We sometimes worked in pairs. We really enjoyed experimenting with poetry and trying out different forms. Mrs. D. read us a lot of poetry this week and while she tells us not to 'list' things in our writing, she said it is ok to list things in poetry (boy, this writing stuff can be confusing). While some of our poetry will go in our portfolios, some of it will be coming home next week in our Everyday Folders.
Mrs. D. had a meeting early on Wednesday morning so Ms. Smith came to teach us in the morning. With Bus evacuation causing a later start to the day, we didn't really miss too much instructional time with Mrs. D. We love Ms. Smith and were happy that she could stay a while so Mrs. D. could test one of us in reading. We decided we would love if Ms. Smith and Mrs. D. could teach us together! 
Just as we learned that poetry can have different rules then the ones we are used to, we learned that some words have different rules too. We learned that some words are really two words pushed together. They are called compound words. It can be difficult for us to know which words are compound and which need spaces but we had fun talking about them. Mrs. D. said that one of the best ways to start recognizing compound words is to see them in our reading- so read on!
Speaking of reading, a lot of us have new reading material this week thanks to the Scholastic Book Fair that took place in our media center! We had a lot of fun shopping though it did take a while. Many of us didn't pay attention to how much things cost at first and we learned a great lesson in money and that it is important for us to have an idea of how much things cost. We call that estimating!
Evan didn't just buy things for himself, he got two special books for Mrs. Doran to have. She will be able to read them for years to come and who knows, since she has had Evan's big brother, maybe she will also have his little sister one day and be able to read these books to her. We LOVED the book "Swim, Swim" and learned how readers can change their voices to fit the mood of what is happening in the story. We've always wondered how Mrs. D. can do that but after a few times reading the story ourselves, we were old pros! Evan's mom also brought in a safe snack and juice to celebrate her time with us! She has been a faithful volunteer all year during our Reader's Workshop but will no longer be able to come in. We've been so lucky to have her! We know how busy people can be! Thank you!
We had more thank you's to give this week! Mrs. Turek and Mrs. Doran heard that it was secretary's day and so we worked with our buddies to make something special for them. We each traced our hand and wrote special messages for them thanking them for all they do. We are so lucky to have Mrs. Kain and Mrs. Buscemi in our school! Thanks for all you do!
We said earlier that it was a crazy week- that was because we had a lot of distractions in our learning from the Book Fair, to a tornado drill to ambulances outside our window! During recess there was a boy who hurt his leg and an ambulance had to be called. We were sitting in the gathering place but when Mrs. D. realized that we were really interested in what was happening outside, she let us look and get our curiosity out of our system so we could get back to work!
We worked on a math test on Chapter 8 this week and we are getting really good at taking tests independently and at the same time. We showed our tests to Mrs. D. before turning them in and most of us had all of the answers completed. We really have come so far in this area since the beginning of the year! Our tests will come home in next week's Everyday Folders.
Friday was another odd day! Mrs. Tisdall's class did not have a substitute teacher and so half of her class came to learn with us for the day. We had over 30 students in our room and it was CROWDED! One of us was in tears because there were just too many people! We did do a nice job making room for our friends and got some work done. It was not a typical day in our class and because Mrs. D. was proud of us, she took us outside a little early for recess!
Friday ended the way it is supposed to- with our Mystery Reader! Sofia's God-parents came in and read to us! They have lived in many countries and shared some of their stories with us in addition to reading to us! Sofia had shared with us that they were visiting so by the last clue we all knew that it was Sofia's Godparents! We were thankful that her mom brought them in to show them our classroom and read us a great book! After a strange day, we ended it as the great class we are with some great people!
What an exciting week! No wonder Emily was so tired on Friday!
ReplyDelete-Emily's Mom