First Grade News

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Posted by Alissa | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on September 30, 2015

Reading Workshop is up and running and soon you should see reading plans coming home that look like this, if you haven’t received one yet.  While children are working with me in small groups for reading instruction, the rest of the class is working independently on reading related activities.  When the kids finish their reading plans, it is sent home and they start a new one.  Here is a glimpse of some of the things they are doing:

IMG_3694IMG_3688 Handwriting PracticeIMG_3689Reading quietly on their own IMG_3690 Reading quietly with a partnerIMG_3691Writing or rereading one of their own stories IMG_3692Pebble Go (non-fiction stories on the computer) IMG_3693 Lexia

This week we also started meeting with our 4th grade reading buddies.  We will get together with them many times this year to read together, attend assemblies together, share our writing or other final project work celebrations.

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Very exciting news!  Our butterflies have emerged!  Overnight at least 8 caterpillars left their chrysalis stage and now we have new butterflies to observe and talk about.IMG_3710

 

This week for 2nd Step (our social curriculum) we talked about how to show kindness to others in our classroom.  Each child met with a partner to brainstorm three ways to be kind to another friend.  Then each team presented their answers to the group.  Look for this coming home in the folders.  It’s a great way to begin a conversation with your child about how to be kind to others at school.  IMG_3711 IMG_3712 IMG_3713

 

Today was a very busy day in first grade.  We looked through books to come up with a list of what insects need to survive in their habitat.  Then using paper, oil pastels and watercolors, each child made an insect habitat triorama.  Tomorrow we will glue in all the real bugs we have found and attach labels to them.  We will show them to you next Wednesday at Open House!  Looking forward to seeing you there!

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This week in first grade!

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Posted by Alissa | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on September 24, 2015

Our first graders are slowly coming together as a class and working more everyday!  We have many of our routines established and everyone is learning our classroom expectations such as these:  IMG_3659  This is our classroom rules poster the kids worked together to illustrate.

In math we are learning that there are lots of ways to come to the same answer and many different strategies can help us.  This week we worked on different counting strategies.  Math homework will begin on Monday!IMG_3662

 

Children worked together with a partner to count a group of objects using two different strategies.  IMG_3663 IMG_3664 IMG_3665 IMG_3666

We discussed some guidelines we will follow when we work with a partner and come back together to talk about our math work…..

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We also learned some new math games.  Here we are playing Penny Dice Game, Bunny Hop, and Top It.  Ask your child about these games!

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We also started our weekly “VIP” sharing.  Each week a different child will be our “Very Important Person” and be given the chance to come to the teacher’s chair to share something special from home.  This week we had a beautiful drawing we put under the document camera and all the kids asked questions and gave comments to our VIP about a favorite pet he drew.

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We also started Fundations this week.  This will be our spelling, phonics and handwriting program.  IMG_3678 IMG_3679 IMG_3680 IMG_3681 IMG_3682 IMG_3683

On Wednesday we had butterfly center day in honor of our caterpillars who have gone into a chrysalis.  We are watching this life cycle right before our eyes and it is very exciting!  You should have seen a poster like this one come home with our big “grown up science word” on it.  IMG_3686

Our Writer’s Workshop is also up and running.  We are seeing kids becoming more independent in their writing everyday.  This week we have been talking about different strategies we can use to spell words.  We encourage “inventive spelling”, or having kids spell the best they can and keep on going, as much as possible.  This encourages their independence and builds their confidence as writers.

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Harvest Festival is coming up!  We need a parent volunteer who would be willing to coordinate the 1st Grade booth at the fair.  Most classes sell some kind of food item.  Any ideas?  Willing to coordinate?  Please be in touch!

THANK YOU!!  It’s been so much fun getting to know your first grader!

Bugs!

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Posted by Alissa | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on September 18, 2015

Our bugs have arrived!  As part of our unit on insects, we ordered some caterpillars and milkweed bugs.  We will watch them grow as they change into adults and we will learn about the life cycle.  IMG_3641  IMG_3655

On Wednesday we had insect discovery centers.  We browsed through books on bugs, searching for specific pictures of the parts of a bug.  IMG_3656

IMG_3657   We looked closely at illustrations of bugs and illustrated our favorite ones.  IMG_3658  Our puzzles came out.   IMG_3652 We learned how insects rely on their antenna for many of their senses and then we made some pretend antenna of our own.  IMG_3653

IMG_3654   We’ve even seen lots of butterflies, caterpillars and insects come out of our choice time when we work with clay and building materials.IMG_3647   IMG_3650IMG_3636  IMG_3639

We also read a book on all the ways insects move.  We made our own small insect books and then went out to the playground so we could MOVE like insects (hopping, swimming, walking, flying, crawling) in a relay game.  Ask your child about it.  It was a lot of fun!  And a great way to work some movement into a very hot day!

 

This may sound like a strange request, but we need more real bugs that are no longer alive.  Someone brought in a beautiful, found dragonfly that had died and the kids loved looking at its parts up closely.  If you discover any of these outside or in windowsills, please send them in for our science center!

This week we illustrated our class rules.  You can see them at Open House.  We worked in partners to discuss what each rule means to us and how we can make it happen in our classroom.IMG_3651

Our Everyday Math curriculum is up and running.  Daily math homework sheets will begin coming home at the end of the month with more information.  You should have already received a parent letter that introduces you to the program.  Here are some boys sorting, counting and building patterns with some of the manipulatives we’ve started working with.  IMG_3645

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I’ve been busy this week reading with each child so I can get to know your child as a reader.  I’ll use this information to begin small reading group instruction.  Once homework begins, you will see your child bring home one book a night to read to you.  We’ve been doing lots of practice learning how to work independently in the classroom so we will be ready for Reading Workshop to start soon.

As a class, we’re making great progress.  We even came up with a class name:  First Grade Cardinals!

What did you do in school today?

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Posted by Alissa | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on September 9, 2015

Today is our 5th day of school.  We have been busy getting to know each other, getting to know the routines of our classroom,  and building our community of 1st grade learners! Here are some important rules we talked about and colored to make posters to hang in our room as reminders to:  Be Kind, Be Brave, Try Your Best and Have Fun!  School should be a fun place where we can all play and learn together.  We are learning how to make that happen these first few days.

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We’ve been taking out some of our math materials and beginning to explore some new games that will be a part of our math workshop time.

Here is our 100 Board.IMG_3571 IMG_3581IMG_3588

Beautiful pattern blocks.   IMG_3573IMG_3587

Racing Dice IMG_3574

Sorting Shapes  IMG_3578

Unifix Cubes

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Every day we have been going out to our circle of stones on the playground to play a new game and work together as a class.  It’s also been a place for us to learn new things about each other and share some fun things we did this summer.  IMG_3583

Even in first grade we take some quiet time after lunch.  The lights are off, the soft music is on, and we have some time to rest or read quietly. IMG_3584 IMG_3585 Sometimes we even take a deep breath and strike a yoga pose to help us relax and refocus for the afternoon.  Here we are trying to make the letter A!  IMG_3589

Last Friday we took our Writer’s Workshop to the woods!  We are learning how writers write about PEOPLE, PLACES and THINGS that are important to them.  I took them to a cool stone wall behind our school because I thought it could be the start of a great story.  On the way we looked for THINGS in the woods that we could write about.  AND…..how fun to get outside and hike together as a class, if even for a short time.  It was a perfect way to end our first week together.

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Today we started our unit on insects.  The kids grabbed some nets and we headed outside to look for bugs living around our greenhouse.  We found a few nestled in the grass or hiding under rocks.  We are learning what it means to be a scientist by observing our world around us.

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Welcome To First Grade!

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Posted by Alissa | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on September 2, 2015

Welcome to our first grade blog!  We had a fun day together today.  This is a picture of our classroom, all ready for the kids to arrive!

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My name is Alissa Alteri Shea and the kids call me Alissa.  I am the classroom teacher.  Standing to the right of me is Deb Brazeau, who is our full time classroom assistant.  We are so lucky to have Deb with us.  The kids love working with her and so do I!

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We started the day making name tags and greeting our friends after a long summer break.  We also welcomed Simar and Kaleb, who are joining our class new this year. IMG_3546

Slowly we will start opening up different centers in the room.  Today we opened up a fun one:  Construction Center.  This is where kids get to build and create using all kinds of different manipulatives.

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We also went outside to gather on our circle of stones on the “big kid” playground.  We talked about ways to stay safe at recess time and then after a time checking out the playground, we came inside to have lunch with our friends.  IMG_3560

This is (most) of the first graders getting ready to go home.

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It was wonderful meeting everyone today and tomorrow we’ll all be back for more fun!

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