Miss Roberts First Grade
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Our First Grade learning
When we returned from Christmas break we started working on a class book. First, we read a story called "Giraffes Can't Dance" about a giraffe named Gerald who gets frustrated that he can't dance like all of the other animals. By the end of the story he realizes that if he just puts his mind to it and works hard to can achieve whatever he wants. We spent time talking about all the things that are hard for us that we can't do yet. Then we talked about how we may not be able to do it yet, but there are things we can do to help us reach those goals! We hope to have our class book completed soon and students will be able to take turns taking it home to share with their families.
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We spent a lot of time learning about Advent in the weeks leading put to Christmas break. We even had an "Advent Angel" visit our classroom. She left a note each day with a different kindness task she wanted the class to complete. The first graders really enjoyed spreading kindness around the school and learning about Advent.
We were so lucky to have Cindi Clawson a meteorologist from WNDU come read to our class as well as the kindergartners and second graders! All the students were very attentive to the story and ejoyed her visit. Cindi talked wtith the kids about the importance of reading and using reading skills for so many wonderful career options!
Last week we spent the whole week learning about bats! We labeled the different parts of a bat, learned who to draw a bat, learned about all the different types of bat, we studied echolocation and even went to school in a classroom that looked like a bat cave! On the last day of the bat week we read books about bats in the dark with flashlights as if were were in a real bat cave! It was so much fun!
We completed our first social studies unit by reading about the different people, places and activities in a community. We talked and wrote about different parts of the community of Elkhart and complete a write the room activity to sort which cards told about places, people or activities in a community. We all agreed that some our our favorite activities in the Elkhart community were the 4H fair, Walk Park, OxBow Park and going to Lake Michigan. We spend a couple of weeks learning about what makes a complete sentences. We talked a lot about how a sentence has to be a complete thought with a subject and an action. We also were all sentence doctors! We took parts of sentences and made them complete again with a bandage and some glue! Shields! So, big feelings are hard for young minds! We have been working hard to come up with ways to not let something some else may say bother us! Our school counselor, Mrs. Spurgeon, visited our classroom and taught a lesson on using an invisible shield to not let things bother us and how to handle frustrations appropriately. We then created our own shields to show that we are all different but we treat others as Jesus would no matter what! We have begun working in our data folders! We will be using our data folders all year long to track our learning progress. Each first grader keeps a data folder and tracks their assessments and learning. We track several different things including NWEA testing, STAR testing, math facts, AR points and behavior. Each student also sets goals for themselves in their data folder. Your child will present their data folder to you at parent teacher conferences. If you join our class on BLOOMZ I will periodically post pictures of your child's data folder directly to you on BLOOMZ.
We have all the survived the first week of first grade! I think the first graders were even more exhausted than Miss Roberts! On Thursday afternoon it was so dark and gloomy outside and a few of the first graders, bless their little hearts, asked why were still at school if it is nighttime. These kiddos were worn out! We stayed busy all week! We have worked hard on understanding some important basic concepts that will set us up for success all school year long! We discussed self control and making good self control choices even when we don't want to. We also talked about respect and what it means to be respectful. We worked to together to make a list and pictures illustrating what respect looks like in the classroom, in the hallways, at lunch, at recess and more! On the very first day of school we read a book called First Grade Jitters and talked about what it feels like to have the jitters! We even drank something called jitter juice to help make all of our jitters go away! We also spent some time talking about what is important about being in first grade. We talked about how first grade is different than kindergarten. We all work together to come up with this chart about first grade.
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AuthorWelcome to our first grade blog! Read here to learn about all of the adventures in our classroom! Archives
January 2017
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