Week 4 in Review

Greetings from Room 119!  We had another great week!  Because we didn't have school on Thursday due the Jewish holiday, we pushed Thoughtful Thursday to Friday.  To hear about this week's recipient, Gage, and his fight, click HERE.  

The highlight of our week had to be APPLE DAY!  We read about apples, tasted apples, made graphs about apples, did a science experiment about apples, made family (apple) trees (social studies), taste tested apples, painted with apples and of course wrote about our day!  To see the fun we had, click HERE.

On Wednesday, we had a guest teacher, but Mrs. Doran was at school!  She had the opportunity to read with a little over half of us to find our 'just right' books and learn our strengths as readers and set goals for the future.  She will be meeting with us one on one during Readers' Workshop until she has read with all of us and then small group instruction will begin.  Our target this week was using pictures to help us solve words.

We continue to build stamina in writing.  We have done well with using capitals only in the first letter of a sentence, names and days of the week.  We also continue to work on hearing sounds in words especially short vowel sounds.

In math we worked with finding sums of ten.  We used chips, put the numbers in a graph and looked for patterns.  Understanding sums of ten will help us in many areas of math which is why we work so much with them.

We had a visit from two of our favorite PTA moms (one is a mom in Room 119).  They came to tell us all about the Fun Run which is a Color Run this year.  The prizes they showed us were really cool!  Be sure to check out the flier that was sent home and help us raise money for the school!

This week was picture day and we all came looking great and with our smiles for the big day! Room 119 has a lot of good looking kids in it!
It also has two new 7 year olds!!  We enjoyed celebrating with Sophia and Claire!

We ended the way we love to with a special Mystery Reader!  Liam's mom came in and did a wonderful job reading one of his favorite books.  We were a great audience, too!  If you have not yet signed up to be a Mystery Reader, please do!  Mrs. D. will be sending out emails next week in hopes to sign up Mystery Readers and schedule Conference times with those she has not heard from.

Of course this is just a snapshot of what we did this week!  To see more, click HERE.

Don't forget to "Like" Mrs. Doran's Class on Facebook and follow Mrs. Doran on Twitter. Laura Doran@LLEMrsDoran.

Week 3 in Review

Greetings from Room 119!  We had a bit of a crazy week with Mrs. Doran out for doctors' appointments on Monday, extra students from Mrs. Bandy's class on Wednesday and Mrs. D out at an awesome training on Thursday!  We had a great week!  This week's Thoughtful Thursday project goes out to 2 1/2 year old Mackenzie.  To see what we did, click HERE.

One of the highlights of the week was that we did AWESOME on our Reading Stamina!  Lucky for us, our guest teacher Mrs. O. (whose children used to learn in Room 119) told us that when we read for 20 minutes, Mrs. D. does a cartwheel (she didn't know that Mrs. D. hung up her cartwheel days after seeing stars a few years ago).  We were so motivated by that cartwheel that we not only made 20 minutes when Mrs. D. came back, we read for 24 MINUTES!  Well, Mrs. D. could hardly say no to us so we went out and she did a cartwheel!  There's no picture, but we assure you she looked exactly like those gymnasts at the Olympics (and thankfully~ no stars this time).

On Wednesday we celebrated Constitution Day!  We learned what the Constitution is (ask us) and we also looked closely (and translated) the preamble to the Constitution.  We enjoyed singing the Schoolhouse Rock version of it.  Mrs. D. can no longer say the Preamble without singing to THIS familiar tune.

Our Writing Stamina is also growing in Room 119 and many of us are now getting down multiple sentences.  Starting next week, we are going to have individual targets to work on in writing, so be sure to ask us what they are.

 Mrs. D. forgot to take any pictures of math workshop this week.  We worked with the hundreds grid and Tens Frames.  If you're wondering what Ten Frames is, click HERE to see a little video Mrs. D. made last year along with some practice for us!

Happy Birthday Shannon!

Happy Birthday Nolan!

 We ended the week Mrs. Doran's FAVORITE way... with a MYSTERY READER!  Austin's grandma came in and read a wonderful book (that Mrs. Doran is going to have to buy because it was so good) called, "Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler."  It went along beautifully with what we are doing in our classroom meetings and with our Thoughtful Thursdays!  She did a wonderful job and we were so glad to have her come in! If you haven't signed up to be a Mystery Reader yet, check out available times on the blog.

Just a reminder that there is no school on Thursday for the holiday!  Also, don't forget to bring your apple on Tuesday for APPLE DAY!  This post (as always) was just a snapshot of what we did this week.  To see more pictures, click HERE.

Week 2 in Review

Greetings from Room 119!  We had a great week and are really growing into an amazing learning community.  We have done a great job being kind to one another and our learning focused on the importance of being a good listener in our classroom meetings.

 Mrs. D. was thankful to have many of you attend Curriculum Night.  If you could not make it, please check out the handouts on the blog, or email Mrs. D. to send you home a printout.  Also on the blog are opportunities to sign up for Parent Teacher Conferences and Mystery Reader.  Please find a time that works for you and contact Mrs. Doran at lauradoran@wlcsd.org.

We had our first assembly this week.  We were visited by friends of the Redwings who taught us about Education and Dedication.  Some of us were chosen to answer questions and we got neat prizes.  We also all had a Redwing folder go home with special opportunities.  Be sure to check it out!

Last week we talked about the three ways to read a book; Read the pictures, retell the story and read the words.  In order to read the words, we need to practice in "Just Right" books. Just like if Mrs. Doran is going to work on improving her running she needs the 'right' shoe, we need the 'right' books to help us improve our reading.  Mrs. Doran read the notes from our last year's teachers to give us books that are around our level.

 We practiced reading them and building our stamina.  We are now over 10 minutes.  Next week Mrs. D. is going to begin reading with each of us so she can truly find our 'just right' books.  This will also help her when planning our reading instruction.

 In writing we continue to work on our stamina and adding more detail to our pictures and words. Many of us wrote multiple sentences this week on one topic.  We used great sounds and most of us are doing a great job with spacing too!  We wrote our first portfolio piece all about our family which we can't wait to show you.  It is currently up in our hallway and then will go in our portfolios.

We are getting better at our Readers' and Writers' Workshops so Mrs. Doran added Math Workshop to the equation.  We did rotations that included working with patterns and we also learned about tallies.  Tallies help us count data faster. We will continue to work on tallies next week.

We are very happy to announce that this year in Room 119 we will be having Thoughtful Thursdays where we take about a half hour to learn about someone who may need to know others care.  This week we made cards for Cassie who has alopecia.  You can see a video of what we did by clicking HERE.

We revisited the class rules we came up with and were able to condense them into three things.  We will respect ourselves, respect each other and respect our class and school.  We reviewed PBIS and continued to work on our behavior in the hallways and bathrooms.

This is just a snapshot of what we did this week.  If you would like to see more, click HERE.  Also, please note that homework will come home on MONDAY.  Click HERE to learn more about homework (especially if you missed Curriculum Night).
Have a great week!

Don't forget to follow Mrs. D on Twitter at Laura Doran @LLEMrsDoran

Week 1 in Review

Greetings from Room 119 and welcome to our Classroom Blog.  We hope you will find this to be a helpful tool to see what we are up to in our classroom.  Please share it with family and friends who may want to see what we're doing, too.  The purpose of this is to open communication.  Please contact Mrs. Doran by email or comment here if you have any questions or comments. She appreciates all feedback. She made a little tweak to the writing video she made to help you with the homework.  To see the new video (if you haven't already looked at the old one), click HERE.

 As most of us have probably told you, humans aren't the only ones learning in Room 119.  Mrs. D's Parrotlet (Little Blue) also joined us for most of the week and will continue to join us so long as the weather is nice and we remember to keep our volume in control for his little ears.  We're looking forward to seeing him on Monday.

We've spent a lot of time this week learning routines and, of course, learning about our new classmates.  We went outside to play a ball game to learn more about each other.  It was a lot of fun!

 We also started passing around a "Me-Box."  Everyone in Room 119 will have a chance to get the Me-Box.  In the box we put things that tell a little bit about us.  We've been able to share those things with each other.  Then we make a book for the person with the Me-Box.  We are practicing drawing with detail and writing names with one capital letter at the beginning and the rest of the letters lower-case.

 We also began our Readers' Workshop.  We learned there are 3 ways to read a book.  Those ways are to retell a familiar story (we brought in a favorite book from home), to read the pictures (here we are shopping on the 'genre' shelves in Room 119 for books that look interesting) and the third way (which we will work on more next week) is to read the words.

 The big thing in first grade is to work on our STAMINA.  We are trying very hard to read our books.  This week we got up to 8 minutes as a group where we were all focused on our books.  Soon we build our stamina and Mrs. D. will begin working with individuals and groups of students during this time.

We also started our Writers' Workshop.  We learned the routine for how we write in Room 119.  We think. We draw a line to separate our page. We draw a detailed picture. Finally, we write our words.  This week we focused on drawing a detailed picture and getting down some sounds.  We loved sharing and celebrating each other's writing.  (Ask us how we celebrate!)

In math this week we learned all about graphs!  We made graphs together and learned that we can answer a lot of questions by reading graphs.  We made graphs on how we get home, how many pets we have and how many people are in our family.  Next week Mrs. D. will start teaching us the routine for Math Workshop.

Our friend, Heather, turned six this week and we had a fun time celebrating with her.  If you have a birthday coming up, please contact Mrs. D. if you would like us to celebrate it in school.  We can NOT have edible treats as it is against our school-wide policy.  To see all the other fun ways we celebrate, check out the "Birthday" page at the top of Mrs. D's Blog.

 On Friday, we got to meet some really cool 5th graders!  We are going to be buddies with Mrs. Turek's 5th graders.  We talked about our wishes for a great school year and made a little project to show off those wishes.  Ask us about it!

This is just a snapshot of what we did this week.  If you're interested in seeing more, click HERE to see a video.  Also, be sure to mark your calendars!  Curriculum Night is Tuesday, September 9th from 5:30- 6:30.  Remember this is a night for adults, so try to find a sitter if you can.

Writer's Notebook Homework:

How to Create a Writer's Notebook

You should see your child's Composition Notebook, a sheet of clear contact paper and some simple directions on how to decorate your child's notebook coming home today (Friday).  I ask that you complete the notebook and return it to school on Monday.  If you have have any questions, please email me.
Writer's Notebooks are great! Once we talk about how we will use them, I encourage students to take them everywhere and write, write, write! This is a picture of an old Writer's Notebook of mine. Additional directions on how to construct your notebook are below.  Please pay attention to the underlined portion.

First, I printed off two pages of pictures for my notebook. Some like these were pictures of my family. I also used google images (clip art) to search for things I like (food, movies, books, holidays...). You may also choose to use real pictures, magazines, stickers or drawings.

Next I used scissors to cut out all of my pictures. I organized the pictures on a piece of paper that fit over my composition notebook. I taped down my pictures and then used a marker to label all of my pictures. Please make sure that you write all of your words with PERFECT spelling, as this will be a great resource for your stories! Then tape the papers to your composition notebooks (front and back) to keep them in place.

Next lay out the contact paper I provided. Peel off the back and place the notebook on one end of the contact paper.

Next press down one side of your writer's notebook.

Then cover the other side of your notebook. Use your hand to smooth out the contact paper as best you can.  There may be some lines.  That's OK because you can still read the words and see the pictures.

Finally, fold down the edges like you are wrapping a present. You may need to tape down the edges to secure it or do some trimming with scissors.

When the notebook is complete, please return it to school. I would like all of the notebooks in class this coming Monday.  If you don't finish the notebook, PLEASE SEND IT BACK ANYWAY.  We write in our Notebooks every day.  As always, if you have questions, please contact me or leave me a comment here where I can respond. I hope you enjoy this activity. I had a wonderful time creating notebooks with my children.

I also made a video tutorial on how to do this for those of you who are visual learners.  You can see it by clicking HERE.