I bet your kids are tired today because I am! We started the day with Show & Tell. Samantha dressed up her in Dad's lab coat and safety glasses, then showed us how an energy ball works. The children held hands around the circle, but Samantha and Allison finished the circle by put a finger on the energy ball. When everyone was linked, the ball lit up and made a noise. If people broke the circle, the ball went quiet. You can see it on this video clip:
Woodlands Walk
The class is ready to write down all the people/stores they see in the neighborhood
Thanks to all the parents who came with us as we identified lots of people working in our local neighborhood. We saw hair salons, doctors, hardware stores, key cutters, fishmongers (we had to hold our noses at that one!), nail salons, a paint shop, electronics stores, hawker stall, dress shops, and many more. You can see photos of our walk here. (I'm sorry some of them are sideways - I rotated them but they are still sideways.)
The pet store was popular
The fish shop was stinky!
We spent the afternoon making dioramas of shops we saw on our walk. The children were very creative and worked very hard for more than an hour, making their shops. Thank goodness we had some Moms helping us with this! There are some photos here.
Jemma's candy shop
And just for fun, here are a couple of You Tube clips we've been watching/singing to this week.
WARNING: this song gets firmly stuck in your head for the rest of the day!!!!
This week, I have put a range of photos into an album simply called September 16.You can find them all here.
Here are a few of them:
Some children presented the Readers Theater version of The Gingerbread Man
In math we were learning that numbers have many names e.g. 5 is 2+3, 10-5, 2+4 etc. To introduce the idea, we all listed the many names people have for us and wrote each one on a sticky note, then attached it to ourselves. It was hilarious!
Today we celebrated the end of our first reading unit "Readers Build Good Habits." Six classes went to the group room for a "Silent Reading-athon" to show how we are building our reading stamina.
We also had our first assembly for the year. Julia, Jemma, Samantha and Zoe went on stage to celebrate the August/September birthdays. Allison and Kai also went up to receive their certificates for great work this month.
And here is a link to a math game they have loved playing this week, making sums that add up to 10: Save the Whale
Another fun week of learning is over. I am truly enjoying this class.
WILD THINGS - I read "Where the Wild Things Are" to the class, then the students all made Wild Thing costumes. The next day, they got together in groups and made up Wild Things number stories. Of course, to finish off, we had to have WILD RUMPUS too. Here's a video of our work:
Friday was an especially busy day. In the morning a Grade 1 teacher from a Cambodian school came to visit. She was surprised that my class was able to write, and that they were so quiet.
In the afternoon, Zoe's Mom brought baby Hannah for Zoe's Show & Tell, then we celebrated Zoe's 7th birthday. As soon as that was finished, we joined 2 other classes for a Wild Rumpus to finish our work on "Where the Wild Things Are." (See the video below) If the Cambodian teacher had still been with us, she would NOT have seen such a quiet class!!
SOCIAL STUDIES: The current Social Studies unit is “What is a Community?” We began by talking about ourselves and getting to know each other then discussed the word community. We decided that our classroom is a community so the children wrote a list of rules to ensure our community runs well. This week we will talk about the people who work/help us in our school community, and who works/helps us in the Woodlands Community. We will also go on our first field trip, walking around the local community to see who works there.
Zoe's Mom was a fabulous story reader. Let me know if other parents want to read to the class!
Poem of the week: I can write about kings, and stings And hippopotamuses' wings. I can write about me And you. I'm a writer - wackydoo!
Celebrating Writing
On Friday we had some special visitors come in to hear everyone read their first published piece of writing for this year. Mrs. Donaghey (Literacy Coach for Primary School), Ms. Cheryl (Principal's secretary) and Ms Elise (resource teacher) really enjoyed being part of our celebrations and happily handed out stickers to children for all their efforts. At the end of the sharing time we made a 'toast' and said "Cheers!" with our fruit punch. (Some children thought we were going to make a toast with bread and a toaster!!)
Phew! We made it through our first full week. I’m sending home some tired children. I love the enthusiasm of this class! They are loving learning some new, silly songs, and they beg to have more and more stories read to them. They’ve done a great job of learning new names, new routines etc. This week they have been writing and reading every day, begun the math program and completed several Social Studies tasks about themselves. You can see their work on the walls next Wednesday night when you come for the Parent Night.
In Grade 1 we learn increase our reading stamina. To do that, we read quietly for longer and longer periods each day. This week, they also chose 'book nooks' which are quiet areas in the room to sit and read for 15 minutes. They do this very happily - and I love the quiet time too!!
Happy Birthday – this week we celebrated 3 birthdays! Amanda turned 6 in July, Jemma turned 6 on Wednesday, and Samantha turned 7 yesterday. As you will see in these photos, some children had a lot of fun with Jemma's chocolate-frosted cupcakes...
Guess who likes chocolate frosting?
Happy birthday Amanda!
We put a candle on top of Samantha's birthday popsicles!
You can see lots more photos of our week, in several different albums if you click here. Thanks for giving me such fun kids to teach!! Debbie
Wow- our first week of school is finished! The students are figuring out our routines and finding all the different classrooms for their special activities. They have been very enthusiastic about all our activities. Thanks so much for your support and enthusiasm for school. I am having a great time with this class and look forward to getting to know them (and you) even better.
In the homework pouch you will find a Me Bag and instructions for what to do with it. Please make sure your child brings the Me Bag back to school on Monday morning. You will also find a ‘Grade One’ pencil present from Ms Lyn and myself – in recognition of the children doing a great job during their first week of being First Graders!
Mr Hoss, our principal reads a clue to us.
GINGERBREAD MAN
On Friday afternoon we had a huge surprise. At the end of the Gingerbread Man book there was a envelope that said "READ ME." In it was a clue of where the Gingerbread Man had run away to. We chased that naughty guy all over the place: to the bathrooms, computer room, the library, counselor's office, nurses' office, and principal's office. At each place, we found another clue from the Gingerbread Man. We wanted to "Run, run as fast as we could..." but we remembered the rules and walked quietly in the hallways. Some children were sure they saw his footprints on the ground, while others said they saw him running away around the corner. The final clue took us back to the classroom where we found a Gingerbread Man on each desk! Most children ate his legs first so he couldn't run away again!! It was a fun way for us to find our way around the school. You can see photos of it here.
Mr Palmer, our librarian, reads a clue and complains about Gingerbread crumbs in his library...
Our first day of school was wonderful! I met everyone as they arrived at school. Some looked nervous at first, but they were soon smiling when they found me. After unpacking and introducing ourselves we had a quick assembly with all 276 First Grade children. Later, I read "Don't Eat the Teacher" to the class, and they wrote speech bubbles to go with the story.
Lunch time went smoothly for my class. Ms. Lyn had sorted all the lunch orders out, and the SASCards worked perfectly.
After lunch we did some math then everyone had a chance to play with equipment in the room. Soon it was time for afternoon snack, science lab then home. Many children are looking very tired - but so am I!
You can see more photos of our day if you click here
Thanks for having your children so well prepared for their first day.
