Week one!

Wow! What a week!  It has been a pleasure to meet all of your wonderful children!  I think it will be a very exciting year!!

Please remember to complete the 3 forms that were sent home (one blue, one yellow, and one purple).   

Also, please don't forget:

1) water bottles 

2) indoor running shoes to keep at school

3) WEEKLY ADVENTURE LOGS ARE DUE MONDAY!

Over this past week we have been busy building a classroom community. Here are a few activities we have done.  Please take the time to ask your child about these activities. 

1) Brainstorming classroom expectations which were used to create a classroom pledge (promise). 

2) Reading and discussing the following books:



         

      

    

Please take the time to ask your child about these books; what the messages were; and why they were important.

3) Learning Activities:

Graphing for math.  Our first math unit will be on data management. We have been getting to know each other through the collection of data.  Once we have the data, we have been using the information to create pictographs and bar graphs.  Please see pictures of our graphs and information.

Toothpaste activity:  Students had a great time with this activity. They were asked to empty and entire tube of toothpaste onto a paper plate.  Once empty, they were then asked to put the toothpaste back into the tube using a toothpick.  Without knowing the purpose behind this activity we then had a discussion about words or phrases that have been said to them that have hurt them.   We referred to these words as "toothpaste words". 

When I asked them to squeeze the toothpaste, it was like the words that sometimes come out of your mouth, some of which are hurtful. When I asked them to put the toothpaste back into the tube, students noticed they couldn't put the paste completely back in.  That is because when we use "toothpaste" words, we can't take them back. People cannot forget hurtful words, even if they forgive. 

We discussed how carefully we need to choose our words, even when we are angry.  

Working with Words: I gave the groups little baggies with letter inside, for them to work together as a team.  Students were to arrange the letters to create 2 letter words or longer. They came up with quite a few words.  Unfortunately due to time, they didn't have a chance to discover the back to school mystery word.  Hopefully we will continue this activity next week.

Writing: 

Students completed a few writing activities this week.

- First day jitters-  Students wrote about how they felt on the first day of school and why.

- All about me posters.

- We started our writers workshop. Students wrote a short writing piece on a "small" moment over the summer.  Students first draw a quick picture of something they did over the summer. The next step is to label the picture with important, key words.  Students were asked to sound out the words and use class resources (try to write without asking me).  Students were then asked to write about that small moment.  Students were asked to write and sound out unfamiliar wards.  The last step was to circle any words they were not sure the spelling of .  

We will start to share some of these small moment writing pieces in the upcoming days.

These are just a few of the activities we have completed this week!

Looking forward to week 2!

** Please note:  Once I have all of the permission forms back from the students, I will be adding learning activity photos on the blog under the "Class photos of our learning adventures" link.  Please check back soon!!