I would like to welcom Miss Anna R. to our classroom. She helped balance out numbers and comes to us from Mrs. C. Williams! We look forward to having a new friend!
Well...The past two days our purpose for reading has been for FUN! We have noticed some things about "how" we read when we are reading just for fun! Our voice sometimes changes, we may get louder or softer, the speed of our reading also changes! We also have observed when we use EXPRESSION to read for fun our audience often giggles, interacts and enjoys the story! We have been reading King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood.
We have been having a lot of FUN! It has a repeating phrase which allows us all to participate! "King Bidgood's in the bathtub, and he won't get out! Oh, who knows what to do?" Today when I read the book I read very monotone. The students noticed right away that there were NO GIGGLES and the book was not very fun...because I wasn't using "funny voices"! So...we talked about quotation marks and how I need to make my voice different when I see those! We practiced by reading the following: (maybe your family can take a part and practice too!)
"Help! Help!" cried the girl when the dinner was served. "King Dan's in the bathroom, and won't come out. I don't know what to do!"
"Don't worry," cried the Prince when the lights were low. "Hey, Dad, it's time to eat."
"No worries my son, I'm on my way." "I don't want dinner in the tub!"
After our mini lesson I saw many students applying this new focus in their own reading! I heard some reading with expression... (I really hope this video works!!!)
Not only did I hear some expression today but I also had several friends start to notice speech bubbles and talking marks in the books that they were reading! Boy is it going to be fun to add those to our writing as well!
As promised I took some pictures of the writing station today! We are writing our First Grade Favorites. I will share a couple...Parents, do you know your child?
 |
| Who wrote this? |
 |
| Is this your child? |
 |
| Anna is busy writing "tortulene" as her favorite food! |
After lunch it was math and science time! We introduced some new math stations today.
 |
| Clear the Board. |
 |
| Data Collection and Organization Clear the Board: We start with 5 cubes and place them anywhere on our board. Then we take turn rolling two dice or die ( never get that right!) We have to add the two together...IF we have a cube on that number we can take it off! If not it's OKAY and the next person's turn! This goes on until someone clears their board! Data Collection and Organization: We have several questions to answer...collect the data (tallies) then organize that data on our graph and complete some statements about our graph! Here is a quick overview of math time! |
After math we watched a power point about Science Journal EXPECTATIONS. We are all so excited to start Science...COMING SOON...
Behavior Chart
We've had some questions about our behavior chart/colors/consquences and rewards!
I thought I would address that today!
All of you have (or should have seen) your child's behavior calendar. All of first grade uses a color system. Every child starts on green each morning and green is equal to 5 WOW bucks. If your child has repeated an undesirable behavior after several warnings he/she will be asked to move their clip to purple. Purple is a warning and is equal to 4 WOW bucks. If your child continues with this behavior or another he/she will move clip to blue. Blue is equal to 3 WOW bucks...Green, Purple and Blue are all within the "normal" first grade behavior continuum...However, once they start getting to Yellow, Orange or Red...the behaviors have become too frequent or severe. Yellow is 2 WOW bucks, Orange is 1 WOW buck and unfortunately if your child ends his or her day on Red there will be 0 WOW bucks for that day. In the behavior folder you can also see that there are consequences for each color. We try very hard to make our classroom a positive one! We realize that there are students that may NEVER have to move their clip...and some that may move it daily! In first grade we do not allow students to "earn" a color back. However, we do not want a child to feel DEFEATED if they have moved it! And we also want those who never move it to be rewarded as well. Therefore, this year we have gone to the "punch card" when we see your child doing something GREAT we award them a punch. These are recorded as + however many punches they got that day in their behavior folder. (When a child fills his/her punch card he or she will recieve 20 WOW bucks) So...all those pluses you see in your child's folder are a GOOD THING! We will have a WOW BUCKS SUPER STORE 1-2 Fridays a month. The other Fridays will be BANK days (your child will need to count bucks and "trade them in for the least amount of bills) Look at the math!!!
Have a wonderful evening! As always...if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me! I absolutely love our 45 puppies!!! We are off to a WONDERFUL start!
