Back To School Night

Nineteen out of thirty families were represented this past Thursday during Back-To-School-Night.  The main message I wanted to give was that I am really enjoying the students and wish them their academic best.
Working together with parents, we can all meet the goal of providing the most effective education for our children.

Here are some pictures in the classroom I am able to share thanks to parental permission.  The first few examples show paper dolls the students made to represent themselves.  Then, using a simple hierarchy frame, they wrote three sentences about themselves using the doll as an aid.

A view of the back wall:

A closer look at the pigs which all have their own personality:

These piggies bring a smile to my face, and deepen my appreciation for all of the students who created them.  Students had a copy of the poem to take home which was practiced and recited by memory in class.

The district began addressing common core standards in math with the concept of place value.  The following picture demonstrates our exploration of the meaning of tens and ones:

Tens and ones is a very difficult concept for the students to grasp.  Particularly, the idea of what a number (beyond ten or twenty) itself represents is still challenging  for most students to comprehend and verbally communicate. We will continue to discuss and practice it for the remainder of the six week unit.  However, it is important to emphasize that this concept will also be revisited throughout the year as students grow in their understanding of number sense (one-to-one correspondence, counting, writing, and identifying).  

Below are some visuals I have used to help students think about beginning, middle, and ending sounds.  We have been working on those skills for the past three weeks.

We have also been discussing transportation, practicing the use of vocabulary, and reading non-fiction books about a truck, a freight train, and boats.  We used the pocket chart to classify forms of transportation that go in the air, land, and water.  This scaffolding of information will prepare students for when they are asked to comprehend stories that include elements of transportation.

We have also been practicing vocabulary for classroom objects or nouns.  Students then use the vocabulary cards (which have the words written on the back of them) to write three things about the object or noun.  During the past three weeks we have practiced this orally, through guided practice with the teacher, and in independent practice.  The students also tried it on their own this past Friday when centers were implemented.  I plan to circulate the room during center work for a while.  Most students did well on the assignment.  A few are not yet able to write a complete sentence and did not head their paper properly. That is why we continue to practice, and the teacher continues to monitor progress.  Later I hope to meet with reading groups.  Working with a guided reading group is one of my favorite things to do as a teacher.  

Here is a song we sang together.  It talks about the wide variety of people we have in the world.  It teaches us that when we work together and live in harmony the world is beautiful.  The song is the perfect companion to a book I also share with the kids, "A Rainbow of Friends."  The book is signed by the author, so I get to show the kids how special that is, too.  Here are the lyrics to the song and some other books we have shared in class:

We have been working very hard to learn how to communicate who the characters and setting of a story are.  Now, when I ask students to tell me the "character" or "setting" they know what I am asking.  To work on a sense of place and who, we created scenery and puppets to retell the story of The Little Red Hen.  I was so happy when I taught them how to fold their scenery paper into thirds.  They wanted to know why.  I showed them by propping my paper up on a desk.  It stands.  There were oohs and ahhs, and one very loud, "Oh!" Reactions like this is why first grade remains my favorite place to be.    They were so cute using different voices to mimic the characters in their retelling.  It was a lovely activity with most students able to follow the general structure of the story.    Here you see a sample of the scenery, the green folder for parent information, part of the sequencing paper, and the pig poem.  

Finally, I would like to share with you some of the beautiful faces I get to see in the morning.  Thank you to parents who granted permission.

Smiles are contagious.  Looking forward to Monday.  

Perks and Back to School Night

PERKS:

1.  A student who has producing some lovely work created a writing I was very pleased with this morning. Wanting to show her my appreciation, I stamped her paper with a small Lion King stamp.  She immediately dug into her small pink purse and asked me if I had any children who were boys.  I told her I had four daughters.  She began counting out four stickers, one for each daughter she said, and another one for me.  My tiny act of kindness was returned fourfold.   

2.  I was given an anonymous note and found it on my desk before taking roll:

  

   The note made my day.  When leaving I showed it to the after school program staff in the office.  They all  

   laughed and smiled with me.  I can honestly say the day ended on a good note.  ; )

BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT:

Tomorrow evening will be Back-to-School Night on campus.  I have drawn the students into the event with the activity depicted elsewhere in this blog based upon the story, The Little Red Hen.  They are looking forward to retelling it to their parents/guardians.  

Here is the basic agenda:

I like the green handbook that is included in the homework folder.  However, next year I will need to add a table of contents along with a more thorough explanation of its purpose.   The resources in the green folder include an alphabet page with upper and lowercase letters in random order to practice letter and sound identification, an entry keypad to practice student ID numbers, a hundreds chart to practice counting to 120 and number identification, a list of sound patterns and short corresponding word lists, a list of all sight words to be covered during the year, a tens and ones mat, and a ten frame mat.   I will be sure to give a full explanation over the uses of these materials during Back-to-School Night.   I will also give parents a simple sheet of suggestions for helping their students and a list of reading strategies to use when reading with them.  

I am very excited to meet everyone and look forward to tomorrow evening. Pictures of the classroom coming soon.