So sorry that it has taken since Sunday to post about our week!  It has been a crazy weekend and I have barely been home long enough to post about it, but I am finally doing it and that is what matters.  This week we practiced saying, writing, and reading words that had the short /i/ sound.  We are also starting to learn harder things in Math, and I am looking forward to next week so we can finally get started adding numbers together!  I can tell the kids are getting bored in math, and I am too.  Friday was a CRAZY day!  We had our first FAME lesson (Fine Arts Music Education) in the morning, then we had the Hillcrest Homecoming Parade, followed by a fire drill, followed by the library.  Crazy crazy day, and I'm glad it's over.  Starting tomorrow, we are going to begin saying, writing, and reading words that have the short /o/ in it, and we are going to start doing art projects that involve Halloween!  We actually started that already this week, and it was such a fun project!  We made Frankenstein.  They are all so different and I know I have said this before and you will hear me say it many more times, but I love the way that you can tell children's personality through their art.  It is so much fun to come to school every day and see all of those wonderful Frankensteins.

Next week is going to be another fun week and I am looking forward to Halloween!  I love all of the fun things that we can do for Halloween!  Thanks again parents for all that you do!  You are the best. :)

Short a

 We had a blast this week learning more about short /a/, Johnny Appleseed, and doing art projects.  Last week, we finished reading our big book about story land!  It is like the last big book we read (with the monster and alphabet island) but it is about 3 kids going to story land.  The kids LOVED reading these books, and I am sad that there are no more books.  In the big book we just finished, there was a character named "know-it-all".  He knew everything about writing and putting words together to make sentences.  His name was perfect for him.  The students got to draw a picture of know-it-all and the other characters that that story was about.  These are some GREAT pictures and I smile every time I look at them!  I have said this before, but our class is full of wonderful artists!

 

This week in reading and language arts, we have been reading and blending short /a/ words.

This was an art project that had to do with colors and short /a/.  They had to fill in the blanks on the paper under the cat.  All of the blanks were supposed to be an /a/, and they figured that out pretty quickly.  The note on the cat says, "I am a cat.  I have on a hat.  The hat is _____________."

They got to choose whatever color they wanted to for the blank.  We even had a rainbow hat!  I loved it!  Each cat was so unique.  I love to see what is going on in the kids minds through their art.

During centers, we made Pam the Lamb to help us with our /a/ sound.

They finally got to use their liquid Elmers Glue for this project.  

The excitement on their face when they found out what kind of glue they were using was priceless.

It is so cute to see what 6 year olds get excited about.  

I wish I would get excited about things like that!

 We also started writing in our journals.  I let them have journals in their desk that they can work in after they are done with their work, but I have special journals that they can only use when I give them to them.  We learned how to write in a journal, what we write about, and we worked on our writing skills.  While I was cleaning my classroom at the end of last year, I found these wonderful spacers!  The students can use them when they need help making spaces in between words.  I almost bought some, so I am really glad that I found some in the room from before!

Finally, JOHNNY APPLESEED DAY!!!!  Technically Wednesday is Johnny Appleseed Day because that's when his birthday is, but I decided that we should celebrate it on Friday, and it was a BLAST!  We all had such a fun time.  We made Apple Pancakes during math time.  We learned about reading a recipe and how to put the ingredients in.  Everyone got a chance to put something in the bowl for the ingredients.  I was really nervous that everyone wasn't going to get a chance...but it worked out just fine!  And everyone got to stir it 5 times each. 

 I was really impressed with some of their egg cracking skills!  They did a great job and didn't get any of the shell in the pancake mix.

 We even did Johnny Appleseed centers!  For the apple book I was supposed to bring an apple seed...but I forgot.  Oops.  Maybe one of these years I will remember.  We still learned about the life cycle of an apple!  I think everyone really enjoyed making a Johnny Appleseed puppet.

 These are the books that we read yesterday.  The Johnny Appleseed book is such a good book to introduce Johnny to the class.

It was a very fun week and I just smile thinking about how much fun everyone had learning!

I love being a teacher!

I hope everyone had fun at the school carnival last night!

Thanks for all you do, parents!

First Full Week!

We made it through our first FULL week of school!  It was a long week full of learning and fun.  We have been reviewing our color words, practicing how to read a book, practicing our writing skills, and learning a lot of new skills in math!  We are really starting to get into the routine, and hopefully next week will all run smoothly with centers, library, P.E., music, etc.  We are so busy every day! 

Each morning when the students come into class, they take out their homework folder and their "punch a bunch" (picture below).  I come around with a hole punch and if they did their reading/skills sheet and math the night before (sometimes just reading/skills sheet) then they get a bee punched out.

When all of the bees have been punched out, they get a "Homework Pass".  They can use this homework pass whenever they want to, but I can't replace it if they loose it.  This can be used for one nights of homework (both math and reading).  Maybe they have something going on a night (football practice, dance, piano, etc.) and they go right to bed.  This is the time to use the homework pass!  But it is all up to you, the parent, and your child.  They may use it whenever they want to!  OR if you keep ALL of the homework passes and don't use any of them, then your child will get a special treat at the end of the year.  If you are going to use the homework pass, make sure that you send that pass with the homework so I can keep track of who has used their passes and who has not.

Here are our first 5 that got a homework pass!  Congrats!

Since we have been working on our colors this week, we made a "Colorful Cow" with a cute poem that goes with it.  They thought that it was so much fun to make these and were so excited to hang them on the wall.

Next week we will be celebrating Johnny Appleseed day, and don't forget about the carnival on the 21st!  Remember to send items to school with your child that go with the theme of our basket.  The theme is "touchdown"!  So anything that has to do with the Denver Broncos or football can go in our basket.

I am excited for next week and there will be lots of pictures to post.  :)  Thanks again parents for being such a big help!  I couldn't ask for a better class with such wonderful parents!!!

Week 2!

We had a fun week of learning and reviewing!  

This week we were still reviewing letters and numbers from Kindergarten, and I am ready to get to the first grade stuff, and so is the rest of the class.

Here is a little look at what we have been doing in the classroom this week!

We finally got to make our "Welcome to First Grade" book!  I wanted to do it last week, but we ran out of time.  I loved getting to know all of the kids better through these books.

 I also introduced our Daily 5 this week.  We learned how to "Read to Self".  I have little book tubs for each of them with their names on them, and there are 5 books in each bucket, each appropriate for their reading level.  When they finish their work early, they can read a book from one of these buckets.  Soon, this will be one of our Daily 5 centers, but right now we are just getting used to reading to ourselves the right way.  In each of their buckets I have a "whisper phone".  It has been working like magic with this class and they are loving the phones.  It helps to keep the class quiet so others can focus on the work they are finishing, or so others can focus on reading without distractions.

 One of the letters that we reviewed this week was the letter "L", so we made a few crafts to go with that letter.  First we made Loud Leo Lion.  The students had to follow the directions on the sheet and do what it told them to do.

Next, we did an Ll Pocket.  They cut out words that had the letter L in them, and put them in the Lion pocket that they made as they said the words out loud.

 We have finished the first 2 books of "Letter Island", and now we are learning about "Story Land".  In "Story Land" they make the sounds of the letters and put the letters together to make words.  It is a great introduction to what we are going to be learning this week.  After we finished the 2nd book, they got to color the monster that was in that book.  They were SO excited to color him and loved it!

 On one of the days in math, we learned about calendars and we got to make our own calendar for the month of September, and they will be able to make one every month until school is out.

One day this week, EVERYONE was as high as they could go on our "Bee"havior Chart.  I was SO excited, and so were the kids.  It was a good day.  :)

We have had a pretty good week and I am so happy with how smoothly things are

Week one is done!

The first week is over.  I know all of the kids were nervous at first, and so was I, but after the first day it all went very smoothly.  What a wonderful  first week! I am really excited for this year.  We have a wonderful class this year and I am really looking forward to it!  This year is going to be so much fun. It really is going to be a great year. Lets take a look at what we did this week!

We have really been focusing on our rules, or our five bees promise. Every day, we stand up and recite our rules together as a class so we can remember them.

 To get to know one another, everyone drew some of their favorite things on their own honey combs and we put them all together.  Everyone also made their own paper doll of themselves and I hung them up by the honeycombs.  I think they turned out really cute!  This is going to be a fun class!

 To help us review our alphabet, we have been reading a story about "letter island".  It is a story that the kids LOVE, and I love it too!  It is a great review of the letters.

 These are some pictures from what the students drew.  It says, "Here I am on my first day of first grade."  I love how you can tell every child's personality through their art.  You will come to find throughout the year that I love art projects for that reason.  I also believe that every child has such a wonderful imagination, and drawing about it is the a wonderful way to see it.

Since we have been simply reviewing the alphabet this week, we made an alphabet worm.  They had to put them in order from A-Z and make a worm!  They all did a great job and worked really hard!

If your child is absent one day, please remember to check their backpack for this folder:

It will have all of their work that they missed that day.  The most important thing that I need back is the math sheet, but I will still need everything back.  :)  You do not have to do it all in one night.  I don't want you to feel stressed trying to get them caught up on work that they missed.  Send back the work as your child finishes it.  Don't rush though it!  :)

 We made it through the first week, so give yourself a pat on the back!  It was a great week and I am really looking forward to the rest of the school year.  I have a lot of fun things planned this year!  Thank you parents for all that you do!