Lights Out!

What an adventurous day we had, with the electricity going out!  Things got very dark outside and even darker inside, but the kids did great!  They told "rain" stories in gym and music… no one cried…. and all thought maybe this was the best school day ever!  Well…. we did have a great week learning at school too.  This week was a continuation of learning the routines.  It takes a LONG time to establish independence with routines, so we are taking this slowly.  We have learned all 5 steps of the Daily 5 (Read with a Buddy, Read to Self, Listen to Reading, Word Work and Work on Writing).  I think one of the biggest adjustments to first grade is realizing that all of our work needs to get finished.  I check in everything!  It helps the kids establish accountability and learn time management.  They are doing a wonderful job of keeping up with me!  A big routine this week was checking off the front of our Daily 5 Work Folder.  This helps us see how we are using our time.  At the end of the week, we can see all we accomplished and set some goals for the following week.  Below is the chart all 1-3 kids have on the front of their folders.  We are still taking time as a class to check these off, but eventually this will become independent.

This week we started spelling pretests and will have our first spelling test on Friday.  Please visit the OMS First Grade Blog (link on the right) for the spelling words AND reading comprehension strategies we will be focusing this week.  This will be updated every Monday after our pretest.  Also, this week I will begin testing the kids 1-1 to determine reading levels.  I HOPE to start reading groups next week! :)  In writing we began Weekend News.  The kids write about what they did "On Friday…", "On Saturday…" and "On Sunday…" so it would be helpful to your child to remind them of the events of THEIR weekend before coming to school on Monday!  NEXT week we will have our first math test, I think on Tuesday.  I'll let you know for sure via email after our first grade team meets to finalize this date.  Unit 1 has been a lot of kindergarten review, with a focus on tally marks.  I will send home a parent letter introducing Unit 2 and the concepts we will cover in that unit.  Fridays are Game Day in Math, so NO homework will be given on Fridays.  Here are some pictures from this week… enjoy!

Playing Name Bingo to learn new friends!
The person whose name was called had to stand up.

Playing the Math Game Bunny Hop, which helps us add and subtract to 20.

New friends Tucker and Bradley playing Bunny Hop in Math.

Learning how to "Listen to Reading" on the iPad site
www.storylineonline.net.  Colette is demonstrating this perfectly!

Bradley :)

Listen to Reading all around the room.

Practicing Read to Self… a very cozy time after lunch.
We have selected books for our bin and have learned
we don't get up during reading time; we only sway books
after reading time is all over.

Audrey :)

Elliot :)

Jacob & Tucker :)

Wyatt :)