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!

Get Ready! Get Set! Read!

  Our book boxes are full of "good fit" books now that reading assessments are complete.  These are books that we can read easily in order to practice fluency, expression, and comprehension.  Students also get to pick out one or two books of high interest. These may or may not be at the student's reading level, but are topics they love.  We want to make sure that reading time is very enjoyable!

 

We practice reading to increase stamina and become better readers.  Sometimes we read to a partner. Our partner asks questions, helps with unknown words, and gives us "stars" (things done well) and "wishes" (things they wish were done, or things that need more practice).

 Our reading stamina is increasing each and every day!

 

 

Our "Book-in-a-Bag" program will begin this week.  Students will be taking home four books on Monday to practice during the week.  These will be returned on Friday when a new set of books will be chosen by the students.  Our school participates in the Pizza Hut Book-It program, so, the boys and girls can earn coupons for a free personal pan pizza each month, October through March, if they meet the goal of 4 books read at home each week. We appreciate all of the encouragement and help families give our 1st graders at home.

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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