Establishing Routines and Exploring Our Schoolyard Habitat

We have been busy establishing routines in our classroom these first couple of weeks of school.  Even though it has been extremely hot we did manage to accomplish quite a bit! We even practiced bus safety!

Our morning begins with "Wake Up" work.  Students settle in first thing and work on practicing their word wall words, math problems, handwriting, etc.

"Wake Up" Work

The majority of our morning is spent with the "Daily 5" where students are working on reading, spelling, and writing.  We are working on building stamina as we establish and practice the expectations for each routine.

"Read to Self" 

 

"Read to Someone"

Another important part of the Daily 5 is "Work on Writing."  Students choose any topic to write about in their monthly journals.  Right now we are working on developing an idea or topic.

"Work on Writing" - August Journals

 One of our word wall words was the word "as" which can be kind of tricky for 1st graders.  After we read the book "Easy as Pie", students wrote one of the sayings from the book and illustrated it.

 

We explored our schoolyard habitat using our five senses.  We discussed how scientists always record or document their findings and how they use special tools to explore nature.  Then, students used a special habitat booklet to draw what they experienced.  They even got to use magnifying glasses and binoculars!  Later on, back in the classroom the boys and girls wrote sentences about their pictures. 

Another part of our beginning of the year ritual is the school bus safety review.  The kiddos did a great job!  Here they are practicing exiting the bus safely.

As you can see we have been very busy!!

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!