Getting Acquainted and Learning to Work Together

For the first few days of school we played some "interview" type games to get acquainted with each other. This got us up and moving around the room, helped us learn each other's names, what we did over the summer, and our favorite foods, colors, sports, etc. These activities helped to create a feeling of community in our room from day one.

 

We graphed our names to compare how many letters were in each.  This helped us learn how to recognize and spell each other's names.

We practice spelling words with a variety of partners to help get better aquainted and to feel more comfortable working with each other.

 

During journal time the boys and girls confer with partners.  They read their writing to a partner who then asks questions and offers suggestions for improvement.  The two also edit each others journal writing for the conventions of capitalization and punctuation.

As shown in an earlier post, students read with each other at times, sharing favorite books and coaching each other to become better readers.

 

During math students play games with partners and work with each other to solve problems.

 

Our little classroom is really beginning to feel like a team in which everyone is working well together and our year is off to a great beginning!

A New School Year Begins!

We are off to a great start in Mrs. Nelson's first grade classroom!  It has been very warm in our classroom, but we are managing with many trips to the water fountain!
Backpack night was fun as I got to meet parents and siblings as the families helped bring in supplies for their special first grader. There are 16 students in our room made up of 10 boys and 6 girls.

The first few days were filled with activities to help my kiddos get acquainted with one another and learn how to work with a partner.  Of course, we reviewed our school's PBIS expectations.  I was so proud of my "firsties" as they exhibited wonderful behavior and could recite most of the rules. We use Class Dojo, an online classroom management tool, and the boys and girls were very excited to see their own special "avatar."  Even though we have only used it a couple of days, the kiddos are already setting class and personal goals, as well as, looking forward to seeing the results at the end of each day.

I am very excited at the prospects for each and everyone of my special first graders.  I know it is going to be a wonderful year filled with lots of fun, learning, and growth for each child. 

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1st Days of School!

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First Days!

We are off to a great start and hope you enjoy this glimpse into our first days of  school!

The First Days of School 2013-14

We are off to a great start in Mrs. Nelson's first grade classroom!  It has been very warm in our classroom, but we are managing with many trips to the water fountain and some icy cold popcicles!
Backpack night was fun as I got to meet parents and siblings as the families helped bring in supplies for their special first grader. There are 20 students in our room made up of 11 boys and 9 girls.

The first few days were filled with activities to help my kiddos get acquainted with one another and learn how to work with a partner.  Of course, we reviewed our school's PBIS expectations.  I was so proud of my "firsties" as they exhibited wonderful behavior and could recite most of the rules. We use Class Dojo, an online classroom management tool, and the boys and girls were very excited to see their own special "avatar."  Even though we have only used it a couple of days, the kiddos are already setting class and personal goals, as well as, looking forward to seeing the results at the end of each day.

I am very excited at the prospects for each and everyone of my special first graders.  I know it is going to be a wonderful year filled with lots of fun, learning, and growth for each child.

Here is a peek into our first few days:

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It's Already September!

We are off to a great start in Mrs. Nelson's classroom!  We have made many new friends and are learning the routines to make our day run smoothly.
When reading and writing we use the "Daily 5"  format. We learn what it "feels like", "looks like", and "sounds like" when we are doing our work.  So far we have practiced "Read to Self" and "Work on Writing" making classroom charts to refer to throughout the year.  We are building our stamina each and every day!  This means that we are training our brain and body "muscles" to be able to work quietly for a longer and longer time with each round of "Daily 5" we have.  We are learning to "get started right away" and "work the whole time."
We are reviewing the "Six Traits of Writing" and focusing right now on two of those traits.  One quality of good writing is using good conventions. In our daily journals we practice editing for spaces, using the correct spelling of word wall words,using capital letters at the beginning of sentences, and choosing the correct ending marks.  We are also learning about choosing the best topic and how to add details in our writing to make it more interesting.  When reading we are listening for "interesting" words that we can use in our writing.  We are planning to start using the website "Wall Wisher" to post the new, interesting words we find.  For more on this check out the "Wall Wisher" page on our classroom website. We have been amazed at the sentences our friends are writing already!
As you can see we have been very busy!  We will tell you what we have been working on in math next time!