Bathroom Stamina

We've been working hard on building our reading and writing stamina.  Today we discussed building another type of stamina... bathroom stamina.  The class giggled when I mentioned it, but I explained this was one of the important things to build.  Our time is precious so we can't waste it in the restroom!  I have a handful of children who ask to go quite often.  Our goal is to try to use the bathroom, even if we don't feel like we have to go, at appropriate times so when we are in the middle of a lesson we won't feel the need.  I understand there are emergency situations, but I think a lot of the trips that are happening are due to work avoidance.  The class seemed excited about our bathroom stamina building, so hopefully we'll build it quickly!

Ketchup/Pickle Time

We ended our day with a little ketchup/pickle time.  Students who had work to finish up had a chance to catch-up.  Students who had work complete got to pick an activity of their choice. Most students who had pickle time chose to go out for an extra recess with Mrs. Green; a few students decided to stay in and play with our marble set.  We will try to  have ketchup/pickle time regularly. 

*I forgot to send the weekly newsletter home today.It will come home Monday.  Here are the upcoming spelling words if your child is looking to get a head start.... thing   long   bring   clang   stung   strong   find   she   cold   both

Have a great weekend!

Good Fit Books

The class and I have talked a lot about choosing good fit books.  Students think about the following things when picking a good fit: 

I choose a book.
Purpose: Why do I want to read it?
Interest: Does it interest me?
Comprehend: Do I understand what I am reading?
Know: Do I know most of the  words?

Having good fit books is helpful in making the most of our learning.  It is also one of the hardest things I've found to have children want to do.  They don't like to take the time to find what is best fit; they'd rather grab a book with an interesting cover or full of cool pictures.  When you read books together at home, ask your child about how to find good fit books.  Encourage them to look for books that help their learning.

I added a story to the "kids quotes" page today after our book discussion!

Tree Measurements

We did make it back out to the Nature Study Site to measure our tree.  The class learned the difference between the trunk, main branches and secondary branches. Below are pictures of the class posing with the tree.  We've been lucky to have such great weather for our work outdoors. 

Tree observation

We picked "our" tree.  "Our" tree is what we will be observing now, in the winter, and in the spring.  It is in the Nature Study Site.  We had to record how the tree looked, smelled, felt, and sounded.  The class had some great observations!  Our time was limited so we will go back out tomorrow to do more observing and measuring.  Plus, I'll bring my camera and snap some pictures!

Writing with no pencils

I told my class to put away their pencils because we were going to start writing time.  As you can imagine, I got a lot of strange looks!  The point of my lesson was that sometime writers need to think things through before they start putting their ideas on paper.  We then broke up into small groups to brainstorm how first grade and second grade are alike and different.  We got back together and listed some of the ideas on the board using an adapted Venn diagram (square's tend to work better than circles for us).  We'll continue with this topic for the next few days.

Newsletter

Your child should have in his/her folder tonight our classroom newsletter.  It provides information on what we will be learning about in the following week.  It includes spelling words for the upcoming week.  If you child struggles with spelling, use this list to get a head start practicing.  I want the newsletter to be useful to you.  If there is something you would like to see in it that is missing, please let me know.  Your comments are welcome.  (Have you noticed yet that I value communication?!)  Happy weekend!

Read to Someone

We worked on a new Daily 5 rotation, read to someone.  The students practiced finding a partner to read with, getting started right away, reading the whole time, and checking for understanding.  This is one of their favorite Daily 5 rounds.  We have already worked on reading to self and working on writing.  Our final two will be word work (which they keep begging me to start) and listen to reading.  They are doing a great job remembering the expectations from last year.  We are continuing to work on building our reading and writing stamina.

Indoor Recess

It's only day three and we've already had a chance to try out some of our indoor recess activities.  Luckily, the class seemed pretty excited about what was in the room. Some of the most popular items were the marble tracks, castle, Twister, and our art center.

Here we go!

Today was our first day of "real work".  They class did a nice job with our introduction to new spelling words as well as our first math lesson.  We worked hard picking out good-fit books.  This is not an easy task; I'll explain more about that later.  I think we are going to have a good time this  year!  Plus...they are super cute!