I am so exhilarated from our first few days! What a great group of students, I can already tell we are going to have a fabulous year in first grade. This week we focused on getting many of our daily routines into place for reading and writing workshop along with using iPads in the classroom. We used the app Educreations to create short clips on what we are experts on in first grade. We will continue to work on these clips and refine them this coming week. In reading, we worked on developing our stamina during read to self time. This stamina means we all find a quiet place and read the whole time. On Friday, we were able to read to self for 7 minutes! A great start for the first week of school. In writing, we have been working on telling true stories from our lives. One way families can support this story telling at home, is by telling stories from your family life with your child. This activity supports language development and strengthens students story telling skills.
A couple of notes about our classroom:
- Please pack a healthy snack daily for your child. Due to food allergies and food preferences, I find it is easier to have each child bring their own snack.
- Rebecca Hoyt is our room parent.
- Please return the family photos for the writing folder on Monday, September 8th.
- I will send out our PE/Art/Music schedule when we know the permanent schedule. Currently, we are following a temporary schedule until a music teacher is hired.
- Please feel free to contact me anytime. Email is usually the best, followed by stopping by the classroom before or after school. If you email before 8:30pm, I will usually respond that day however, I do go to bed early so if you email after 8:30pm, I won’t respond until the following morning.
- Please have your child meet me on the playground at 9:25 at the first bell. I like to reserve my mornings for prep and meeting with families as necessary.
- If you have not followed our class on Twitter, please do so! @MsSmith_QAE