Drum roll please........!!
Here are the students in Mrs. Brown's class for 2016-2017 school year!
Reading:
This week in reading we started to learn about our 90 minute reading block and what we do during our reading time. We talked about Daily 5/CAFE and how we are becoming readers. One of the first lessons we completed was learning that we, even as brand new kindergarten students are already readers! Yes, they could not believe it when I told them this news. We practiced reading the 3 ways to read a book....Read the Pictures, Read the Words and Retell Familiar Stories. They were so in shock when they realized that reading the pictures in a book was in fact READING! Woo hoo!
We then introduced the STAMINA chart. This chart records the minutes of reading stamina we, as a class, were able to complete without stopping. Our very first try we made it to 1 minute. I was absolutely shocked and excited at how well we did the very first try! The next day we made it all the way to 5 minutes and then the next round 7 minutes! I fell on the floor I was so shocked at how well they are already doing as beginning readers!
We created our very first I-Chart this week! This chart focused on the student's job and my job during our first Daily 5 choice "Read to Self". The class and I came up with the jobs that are needed in order to have a smooth round of daily five where we all do our jobs! One way we teach the correct way of building our reading stamina is to model, model, model. This week we also had a couple of students model the INCORRECT way to read to self, followed by the correct way. The class got a kick out of seeing students do the wrong thing!
Have I mentioned how amazed I am at these kids and how well they are already reading to self? Just take a look at several of the pictures I took this week to prove it!
One of our favorite lessons when introducing Read to Self is all about doing the right thing vs the wrong thing. Both myself and students model doing the wrong things first and then switching to the correct thing. It's pretty funny to see the wrong thing happening and then exciting to see the right thing!
Wrong way! Having all the books out on the floor!
The right way! One book out at a time and reading!
Wrong way! Not reading ANY books at all.
Right way! Reading one book!
Wrong way! Not treating the books nicely.
Right way! Treating the books nicely and reading!
ATTENTION, ATTENTION, ATTENTION!
The class you see in the picture below made it all the way to 7, yes you read that right, 7 minutes of reading stamina! I could not be any more proud to be their teacher today! Way to go boys and girls!
Writing:
During our writing time this week, we practiced finding different letters in the alphabet during our shared writing of our morning message. The class did an exceptional job finding letters to circle. We also wrote our names on a class chart. We wrote the date at the top of the chart so we can write our names again in a few months to see how much we have improved!
We completed two shared writings this week. The first was all about what they think makes a good teacher and the second was what makes a good student! They had wonderful ideas on both writings!
Math:
During math time this week, we focused on exploring and using our creativity with our tubs of math tools. I saw very many creative and imaginative minds at work! We also sang several songs, counted as high as could and discussed a lot of topics we will learn about in math this year.
Content:
This week we only had one real content lesson because the rest of the time we spent learning procedures around the school. We read the story The Kissing Hand and completed a craft to go along with the book that helped us share how we felt on the first day of school. In the story, the main character Chester the raccoon is scared and sad about going to school because he will miss his mom. She gives him a kiss in his palm and tells him that if he ever misses her to put his hand to his cheek. He was so excited that he went to school and had a great time!
Next Week:
- In reading we will continue building reading stamina and trying to reach our goal of 15 minutes of stamina!
- In math we will be focusing on the numbers 0-8 and learning how to show them in various ways, what they look like and counting objects.
- In writing we will begin focusing on a specific letter of the alphabet every day.
- Our theme next week is GETTING TO KNOW YOU.I will be sending home a bag on Monday for you to complete with your child.
Important Dates/Information:
- 8/25 Meet the Teacher Classroom Information NIght 5:30-7:15
- 9/5 Labor Day NO SCHOOL
- 9/19 School Pictures
