The days are flying by...
With the second week of school well underway, the students seem very comfortable with the daily routine. They all know where to go and what to do; transitions from one activity to the next are smooth and seamless, and the group doesn't miss a beat.Thank you so much to every family for making time on their Saturday last weekend to come to school for the Parent-Intake Conference. It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to meet you and discuss your wonderful children. Next up on the agenda is Open House on Wednesday, August 29th, 6:00-8:00 pm. I look forward to seeing you there!
Our silent reading period in the morning continues to get longer! Each student reads on their own for 30-40 minutes while I take turns reading with students individually. Reading Logs will be sent home this Friday so that the children can keep track of all the terrific books they are reading at home.
In math, the first graders have been focusing on Counting, Quantity, and Comparing. Now that they are familiar with many of the materials we will be using (pattern blocks, unifix cubes, geoblocks, power polygons, and various counters), we can begin some great activities during math workshop. Stay tuned for letters about our Investigations math program that will periodically be sent home with your child.
This week, the students brainstormed questions they would like to know the answers to about their classmates. Questions that focused on "favorites" were quite popular. For example, the class was interested in learning about everyone's favorite book, movie, subject in school, activity outside of school, sports, color, games, food, and places to travel. We also covered the important background information such as date of birth, siblings, pets, and where everyone lives. We compiled this list and created an "Introducing _____________" poster for each child to fill out. At Open House, you will have the opportunity to read our "Introductions" wall and learn more about each child in our class.
Since community building has been the major focus these first two weeks, self-portraits add another dimension to exploring who we are as individuals and how we come together to create a community. Thanks to years of studying art techniques with Ms. Jordan and Ms. Brooks, the students are very knowledgeable about the process of drawing a self-portrait. We discussed the importance of looking closely at the details on our face and the relative location of our facial features. The students used a photograph of themselves to first sketch their self-portrait. Next, they drew an outline of the head and shoulders (no knees or toes). After mixing paint colors to create their own unique skin tone, the students painted their face and t-shirts (on the portrait, hopefully not on their clothing). This leaves us at our current stage - adding the eyes and ears and mouth and nose (you can sing along) to their head and shoulders. We look forward to hanging the finished products on our classroom walls.
Inquiry on Hurricanes has truly been enhanced with the SmartBoard and up-to-the-minute weather reports on Hurricane Flossie and Hurricane Dean. We have been tracking the path of Hurricane Dean and discussing how hurricanes lose strength as they leave the warm waters and the storms move onto land. We also watched a video about Hurrican Iniki with Ms. Revard's class. After seeing footage of Hurricane Iniki, the students made predictions about the aftermath on Kauai. Their hypotheses were:
- roofs blown away
- downed electric poles and wires
- objects blown far away
- homes destroyed
- streets torn up
- floods
- storm surge could take away cars and home
- boats on land
- wood on street
- dead birds and fish
- people on the streets and workers helping outside
The first homework assignment this week was to get into the daily routine of reading for at least 15-20 minutes. The students also wrote me a letter describing the details about where and when they plan on doing their homework. I look forward to reading all of the letters in their homework journals. Starting tomorrow, homework will be sent home on Fridays and will be due the following Thursday. This will be our homework schedule for the year so that the students can do some (or all) of their homework over the weekend to reduce the nighttime crunch during the week.
Thank you to all the families who have generously donated to our classroom: The Home Depot Gift Card from the Adams family, cupcakes from the Loos, mochi ice cream and chex mix from the Chens, a book from the A. Wong family, and snacks from the Handa family. We also had delicious birthday cupcakes to celebrate ZC's birthday. EM donated two great books to the class library to celebrate her summer birthday. Thank you for your generosity!
Posted on August 23, 2007 10:11 AM | Permalink