Writer's Notebooks

In addition to the awesome Math Journals, every student also has a Writer's Notebook. At the beginning of the year, each student created their own heart map to write down ideas that were close to their hearts. Almost everyday during Writer's Workshop, each student writes in their notebook. I usually don't give them a topic that they have to write about (although I do give a 2-3 suggestions for those that have a hard time deciding) so they are always writing about things they love! We had a lesson a few weeks ago about drawing awesome illustrations! We don't just draw with pencil or stick figures anymore! Here are a few examples:

 

Some days we have 15-20 minutes to write. Some days we end up with only 5! However, this notebook entry shows that incomplete entries are ok! Because if you finish one entry one day and you have extra time, you can go back and reread what you write and finish your illustrations!

Aren't they already great authors?

Math Journals

Everyday during math, the students get a paper strip with a math sentence on it. They glue these short sentences into their math journals and then draw, write, label, etc. to show what they learned. These sentences are related to the day's lesson and provide me with a quick way to assess what each child took away from the math block. So far, we have pretty much done all the prompt together using my document camera, although this week I gave them a little more freedom on how to illustrate their addition problem sentences. Check out a few of the pages from various students' math journals:

 

So far I really enjoy watching the students show their learning in their math journals and they love showing me what they have learned! Double win!

 

Stations

Last week we started doing reading stations. If you don't know, stations are a big deal! The kids love them and they have been asking about when we were going to start them. So finally, this week we started! Right now, the students visit four stations a day, and each station is 15 minutes. When students are at stations, I meet with different groups to practice reading skills (which is called guided reading). I also am lucky enough to have another adult in the room for 30 minutes, helping two groups out! Those two groups are doing a great job with Mrs. Ortega!

Students visit different stations like computer:

poetry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtjGuio7OpM

magnetic words:

and reading corner:

They visit several other stations as well that work on skills with spelling, phonics, word wall words, and reading comprehension. This pretty much turns out to be the highlight of their day sometimes!

Patriot Day!

Last Friday, Chapel Glen celebrated Patriot Day since we are not in school today. We read a book about the events of September 11th and talked about patriotism, rememberance, and celebration. We watched a video on Brain Pop Jr. about American symbols and then the students created their own flags. Before dismissal, the school played patriotic music that the children sang to and we ended the day with a silent dismissal.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAoMdv33HOA

Books!

This year we have already read over 20 books! If you would like to keep up with what we are reading in the classroom, check out the Shelfari widget I have on the right side of the blog. You can browse our bookshelf and see the wonderful stories we've read. What books are your favorite?

Fun Friday!

Friday was a busy day! We had our first spelling test! The kids were a little nervous but they did great! We read our first story in our reading series, called Pam and Sam. So we had a little fun on Friday and made some really cute scenes from the story. Each student had a bird and a rabbit to color and put together (Pam and Sam were animals). They they glued the animals on large paper and wrote a sentence about their scene from the story. They really looked good!

I am glad that we are just about into our regular weekly routine. Soon we are going to start math and reading stations, which the students all love! I am ready for another fun and busy week!

Number Rock

Last week we worked with numbers 1-20. We watched this fun video to help us count! Enjoy!

 

Back To School Night!

Tomorrow (Thursday) is Back to School Night at Chapel Glen! I hope to see all my new parents! The night will start in the cafeteria at 6:00. Mr. Coapstick will have a quick introduction session and then parents will be released to their child's classroom. There are 2 sessions if you have more than one child. Our classroom (room 37) is downstairs. Look for the jungle and I hope to see you there!

Full Week!

This is our first full week of the year and we sure have a lot planned! To start off, we are reviewing many concepts that our students learned in kindergarten. We are reading simple stories that use common sight words. Each child will bring home a bag of words on Wednesday that I will check next week. Please review these words with your child. If they are having trouble reading any, these words are a great place to start practicing!

We are also reviewing numbers 1-20 this week. We are practicing writing numbers 1-9 with touchpoints as well as reading them in word form. Next week we will starting working on groups of numbers and objects. We will make groups of 2, 5, and 10. We will wrap up our review next week by comparing groups by using the words more, fewer, and the same. Look for these math concepts next week on homework!

We starting using our Writer's Notebooks this week as well. The children all made their first page titled "All About Me". The wrote a description of themselves and/or some things they like and drew great self-portraits! We talked about how we write about things that we love and created heart maps to glue inside our notebooks. That way each student has a 'map' reminder of things they like to write about!

Donor's Choose

There is a fantastic website called Donor's Choose. It is a place for teachers t post projects or ideas that they would love to have for the classroom but don't have the money to provide. I have used this website for the last three years and have received many wonderful classroom supplies: books on tape, big books, a document camera, and video cameras. Over the summer I had a project fulfilled to receive a webcam! I currently have a project title Games for First Grade Brains! You can check out the project and donate here. It would be really awesome if you could share the link to my project so that hopefully it can be fulfilled soon! As a newer teacher, I still don't have as many resources as I would like to have in my classroom. This project will help me have ample games for the children to use during math and reading stations. Projects are funded through donations of all sizes! It doesn't matter how much someone can give whether it's $5 or $50. I know there are generous people out there that will help bring these wonderful materials to our classroom! I can't wait to get them and share them with the kids!