Week 8 in Review

Greetings from room 119! We had a great week which ended with a Fun Run and Halloween Parade and Party. Mrs. D took a lot of pictures this week so she has made multiple slide shows for your viewing pleasure. Please make sure to check them out below.
We started our day on Monday with a familiar face on our television news. Taryn had a PBS ticket pulled on last week's news so was able to share her PBS story on the news this week! She did a great job reading her story! Way to go Taryn!

We learned about short vowels this week. Short vowels can be difficult for first graders, so first we learned that long vowels are vowels that say their name (like in cake or team). We learned some key words that start with short vowels to help us remember to try that sound when we are decoding words in writing (apple, elephant, igloo, octopus & umbrella). We also made a short vowel wheel and practiced reading the words and making rhymes.

We are getting better at writing the sounds we hear in words. Our Writers' Workshop has become one of our favorite times of the day. We are also enjoying using "WOW" words in our writing to make our pieces more interesting. Some of us are trying our hand at writing fiction stories. Mrs. D. loves how we are able to clarify if our writing is fiction or nonfiction. The best thing about Writer's Workshop is sharing our writing with others. We share our writing at least once a week with the entire class.

In reading this week, we focused on making connections in text. This helps us build our comprehension as we read. While we partner read, we would stop and share any connections we made with our partner. Later in the week as we read, Mrs. D. also encouraged us to make connections with the "Just Right" texts we read during Readers' Workshop. We then shared our connections with the class at the end of workshop.

Connections that we make when we read may be things that remind us of something we have experienced in life and sometimes a connection may be made from another book we have read. We love sharing our connections and have gotten quite good at it. Mrs. D. is stressing making GOOD connections. For example, knowing someone with the same name as a character in a book is not a good connection. Knowing someone with the same characteristics as the character in a book may be a good connection. We added this strategy to our CAFE' board this week.

With Halloween coming, Mrs. D. wanted us to have some fun so she got creative. We made math jack-o-lanterns. We put one number in each of our jack-o-lantern's eyes, a sign (+, - or x) in the jack-o-lantern's nose, and the answer to the math problem we created in the jack-o-lantern's mouth. When we were done, some of us wanted to add a stem and/or vine to our jack-o-lantern. We went through everyone's pumpkin and checked to make sure they were correct. Overall we did a great job and followed all of the directions. Some of us referenced the directions Mrs. D. wrote to make sure we were doing everything correctly.
Also in math we worked more with clocks and told time to the nearest half hour. This was difficult for some of us. We need to remember to "start with the short hand" to help us tell time. When we say this first, we usually do really well. Some of us are reading time now to the minute. Telling time is something you can practice with us at home using the clocks that we made last month in our homework folders. We also learned about frame and arrow problems. More on that next week!

When we got to school on Monday, we thought we had a new teacher because Mrs. D. had her hair colored dark. Though we thought this may be just for Halloween, it wasn't. We weren't too distracted by Mrs. D's new look because we had a very busy day. In the morning, we ran in the Fun Run. The PTA gave us each a bandana and we did a wonderful job running to help raise money for our school (Mrs. D. has more pictures in the slide show below).

We had 3 students who ran 13 LAPS in the Fun Run! Izzy, Luke G. and Sarah didn't let up once and kept running! All of us did our best and after our apples and water, we were very tired and quiet when we got back to our classroom. Mrs. D. read to us and we enjoyed resting after all of our hard work.

In the afternoon we had our Halloween Parade and Party. We had a Mummy-Making Race, played "Hot Pumpkin", had a penny toss and passed bats back and forth using straws. At the end of the party, we decorated and sugared up some apples which were delicious with the juice we drank. Thank you to all of the amazing volunteers as well as everyone who sent in donations for our party! We had a great time!

Happy Halloween!!

To view our Halloween video on You Tube, click here.

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Week 7 in Review

Greetings from room 119! Thankfully Mrs. Doran is feeling a bit better (finally) and we survived another week! It was a busy one! Even though Mrs. Doran didn't miss a day, we had a Guest Teacher (along with the other first grade teachers) on Tuesday so she could work on our Writing Assessments and test some of us on literacy skills.
On Wednesday, we went on our field trip to the Outdoor Center and had a GREAT time! The rain held off and we had fun learning about spiders, insects, soil and camouflage! Mrs. D. took over 190 pictures and videos and put them together in a video below with more details from the day. We learned a lot and had a great time spending time with each other outside the walls of room 119. Mrs. D. was with us the whole time and our behavior was awesome! One of the teachers said that we were one of her best classes ever!!

This was great because as a group we still are getting reports from our FAPES (fine arts and PE) teachers that we need a lot of reminders on how to act and that we need to work on our transition times. We are a smart bunch though and know what it is we need to do. We do get caught using the 5 Rs and this week we were represented on the morning news. Nathan had the opportunity to share one of his PBS stories with all of our school and he did a great job!

This week we had a new student join our classroom. Derek has come to learn with us (and I apologize Derek for not getting a better picture of your great smile- next week). He is fitting right in and has already made a lot of friends in room 119. We showed him around and taught him all of our routines.

One routine we are getting better at is building our stamina in both Readers' and Writers' workshops. In Readers' Workshop we talked a little about making connections when you read and will focus more on that next week. In writing, many of us are working on adding more detail to our writing. Some of us wrote stories this week that had a lot of detail and took us multiple days to write. Sharing our writing each day is one of the highlights for us. Writing for an audience really helps us do our best. We love sharing our writing with others.

Sometimes our writing can be difficult to read so we spend some time each day working on our handwriting. Going slow and taking our time makes a huge difference. Right now we are working with letters that have vertical lines like L and T and I. We will practice more with similar strokes next week (and Mrs. D. is going to make it fun for us so stay tuned...).

In math this week we spent time learning about odd and even numbers and we got REALLY good at it. In fact, Mrs. Doran would write these really long numbers for us (numbers so long she couldn't read them) to see if we could tell her if the number was odd or even. She tried to stump us, but it was no use. Try writing out a long number for us and asking us if it is odd or even, then ask us how we know!

We also did some work with patterns. Some of the patterns we worked with were counting by twos which also helped us by reinforcing even and odd numbers. We had some great parents again come in and volunteer in the classroom. They did a great job! We also took our Unit 2 test and it will come home early next week. Most of us did a great job on this review unit!

On Friday we took a little of what we are learning in math (even numbers) and a little of what we learned on our Field Trip (about spiders) and put them together to make some really cool spiders. Mrs. Doran will hang up the spiders on Monday to get our room ready for our party next week! A note came home about the Halloween Party, but if you still have questions, let Mrs. D. know and she can put you in touch with one of our room moms.

After working with our fifth grade buddies we had our Mystery Reader. Vasu was so excited when Mrs. D. read the final clue and he learned that it was HIS mom that had come in to read to us. His sister came too and was able to see what our first grade classroom looks like. Remember if you would like to be a Mystery Reader check out the link on the right and let Mrs. D. know. Don't forget to check out the video and slide show below and leave us a comment on what you think about our learning!

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Week 6 in Review (finally)

Greetings from room 119, where a very sick Mrs. Doran is on the road to recovery, though certainly far from 100%. She usually takes a nice group photo of us each Friday, but because she was ill on Friday, no photo was taken (hence the clip art).
We were able to witness history when we joined our school in watching a short video clip of President Obama's speech to us (the children of the United States). While the middle and high schools watched the speech in it's entirety, Elementary students (like us) saw a shorter clip edited by our district (considering our ages and attention span). We learned a lot about perseverance and resilience from our President which are things we also learn about in school.

Not only did we witness an event in history, we learned about one. Monday was Columbus Day. We learned a little about the history of Columbus, and while Christopher Columbus was not the first European to land in America, his voyage was the first to have a lasting European contact with America. Mrs. Doran told us that some say that Columbus was the reason for one of the first tribes that the Spanish had contact with dying out because of overwork and European diseases. She read us a story about him and showed us a video about him which is shown below. We learned the route he traveled with the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria and a song to help us remember when this historical event happened.
We also read about Columbus in our Scholastic News Magazines and learned a little about maps. Also in reading this week, we went book shopping (see photos in the slide show) and Mrs. Doran FINALLY finished all of our reading testing. This means that she will be starting guided reading groups soon. Groups will be based on capability and need.

When one test is over however, another always seems to begin. We took a writing assessment called the DWA (Developmental Writing Assessment). We planned our writing and then wrote a story about an animal. Mrs. Doran will use this assessment to dig even deeper into our writing and will share it with you at conferences along with other pieces. Speaking of writing, Mrs. D. has updated our writing blog and you can see our spectacular Halloween writing by clicking here or at the link at the top right of this blog.

In math this week, Mrs. D. focused mostly on money. After assessing where we were at, she broke us into groups based on ability. For the Unit 2 Assessment we will take, we are expected to count nickels and pennies at this time in the year. Many of us were able to count multiple types of coins and Mrs. D. even showed some of us how to make change. We also had our WONDERFUL volunteers come in to help this week (on those days Mrs. D. wasn't ill) and she snapped some quick pictures to show they were there which can be seen below. This is always a busy time in the classroom and it can be hard to get a picture.
We did a lot with rhyme in our word study this week and enjoyed the activities we did to reinforce rhyme. We had pumpkin rhymes and also learned the nursery rhyme, "Old Mother Hubbard" which many of us had never heard before. You will soon see the rhyming cupboards we made coming home to see how we did. Rhyme often (but not always) has the same spelling pattern or "word family". Mrs. D. got some video of us singing some word family songs that you can view in this week's slide show.

Unfortunately we did NOT end our week with a Mystery Reader due to Mrs. D. being sick, but since Mrs. D. was late in getting this blog out she was able to include what should have been Week 6's Reader. Luke G's mom came in and read a wonderful book to us called, "The Bear Snored On". She did a wonderful job! We were all surprised that she was our reader since moments earlier she had been one of our parent volunteers. Thanks again for coming in! Remember there are still many slots open for Mystery Readers so take a look and consider signing up! If you have already signed up once, consider signing up another member of the family to give it a go!

Above is a quick movie about Christopher Columbus.

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Week 6 in Review... delayed

I apologize for not having the Week 6 in Review blog finished for you by the weekend. As you may have heard, I came down with a horrible flu Thursday night which has lasted through Sunday and completely wiped me out. I am hopeful to make it to school tomorrow and finish the blog after my children go to bed Monday evening. My absence on Friday was not expected so all graded work will come home on Monday. Thank you for your understanding.

Also, it was my intention to send home a reminder slip about the upcoming field trip next week. If you have not yet turned in your $10 and permission slip, please do so as soon as possible. I will send a written reminder home in your child's Everyday Folder tomorrow.

Week 5 in Review

Greetings from Room 119! We did a lot this week so make sure to check out the slideshow below for more details (Mrs. D. didn't want this blog to be longer than it already is).
EEKK, may sound like something you say when you see a spider, but in room 119, EEKK means something else. EEKK stands for Elbow, Elbow, Knee, Knee- which is how we sit when we are reading with a buddy. Mrs. D. partnered us up with a buddy (or buddies) and we practiced reading together. Each Monday, we will practice the books we bring home with a buddy.

Reading with a buddy is fun. It allows us to read out loud and practice fluency with someone else. We get to help a friend use the strategies we've been learning to help us with unknown words, and we get to check with a friend to make sure that we are reading for understanding. Mrs. D. is not quite finished testing all of us in reading, but hopes to have it done by next week so she can let you all know what she has learned about us as readers.

We also learned the difference between fiction and nonfiction writing. A way that we can remember this is that fiction means 'fake' and nonfiction means 'not-fake'. We also talked about some features we usually see in nonfiction text that we don't always see in fiction text. One thing we practiced in our Scholastic News magazines (thank you PTA) was finding captions and answering questions about them. We did this as a group and then practiced at our seats. Ask us what a caption is!

A big focus in math this week was telling time. Right now in first grade the only expectation is that we tell time on an analog clock to the hour. Some of us are ready for more so Mrs. Doran did a quick mini-lesson with time. We all say, "Start with the short hand." Next we write down the number that the short hand is pointing at and two dots (colon). Next we start at the 12 and count by fives until we get to the long (or minute) hand. We practiced this a lot together with Mrs. D's guidance. For some of us, this clicked right away and for others we weren't quite ready yet. This is very normal.

In order to meet different needs in the classroom, Mrs. Doran often makes up practice sheets for us at different levels. We get to choose what page we think is right for us. Most of us choose the same page that Mrs. D. would choose for us. The green is the page we are expected to know which is telling time to the nearest hour. The yellow page was a little harder. It asked us to tell time to the hour and half hour. Finally the red pages had clocks that told time to the hours, halves and quarters. We each choose our papers one a a time so that no one else knows where we are in our learning.

Fridays are always busy days for us but if there is one thing Mrs. D. has learned in school it is to be flexible. We learned mid-day on Friday that it would be Carter's last day learning with us, so we changed our original learning plans. We were all really sad that he is leaving, so we made him cards wishing him well at his new school. Mrs. D. was going to take us outside to play together, but we didn't have time because at the end of the day we had an assembly.

Our assembly was all about the Fun Run that we will be having at the end of the month on the 29th. It is our school's main fundraiser and the PTA has set a goal and asked that each student try to raise $60 for our school. The PTA does so much for us. Though we know many of us are in hard financial times, the PTA has given us lots of time to ask those that we know if they'd be willing to pledge some money. Top earners from our school will also get some cool prizes! There is a video on this week's slideshow of some of the amazing prizes (grown-ups, you may want to raise some more money after seeing some of the prizes- signed sports memorabilia included-)!
After the assembly, we went back to our room to make an art project that the PTA provided to further advertise the Fun Run. We did a really good job following Mrs. D's directions and you can see all our Loon's getting their "motor running" in shoes that we decorated that are now outside our classroom.

We always end the week right with a visit from a secret Mystery Reader. This week, our Mystery Reader was Matthew's mom. She did a great job reading a "Mystery" book about a wonderful character named "Nate the Great". We were an awesome audience. There are still many slots open for Mystery Readers. We would love to have everyone in our classroom represented so if you haven't signed up yet, let Mrs. D. know. Also we haven't had any dads, grandpas or uncles sign up yet... Come on men! We need to let the boys and girls of room 119 know that you like to read books too!
For more pictures from the week (and the videos from the assembly) please check out the slideshow below.

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