A Great First Day!

Well, our first day of school has already come and gone.  If your child was as tired as I was by the end of the day they may have had a difficult time even staying awake through dinner.  Although the first few days are always filled with lots of discussions about routines and expectations we also managed to get in quite a few fun activities!  We won't be fully into our regular daily schedule for a couple of weeks, but I will try to post lots of pictures and some blurbs that explain what we are working on and learning about!  As always, if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me! 

Here are a few questions that might help generate some discussion at home about what's going on at school: (as we move into our regular routine I'll give you some questions specific to certain curriculum areas)
1. What songs did you learn today?
2. What special did you have? What did you do while you were there?
3. What is BrainPopJr. and who are Moby and Annie (robot and little girl)?
4. How did you decorate your nametag?

We enjoyed a nice cool treat outside this afternoon with Mrs. Sorenson's class! 

After a busy (and VERY successful first day) we earned a popsicle!

As part of our first science theme 'All About Me' students began to decorate large nametags that will hang below their self-portraits.  This is a wonderful project that we will spend quite a bit of time on these first few weeks.  I'll make sure that they are completed and on display for Open House!

More work on colorful and jazzy nametags.

These girls went right for the writing station during choice time.

Our new, foam blocks were a big hit!

I love to see first graders working together!

Open House

I want to thank all of you who were able to attend Open House this morning at school. We had a great turnout and it was so much fun to watch the boys and girls reconnect with friends they've missed! If you were not able to join us this morning don't worry! There will be a more formal Open House in October (date to come) when your son/daughter will get to show you what they have been working on and learning about up to that point.

I took a lot of photos this morning, but will only post pictures of our classroom for now. I want to make sure that I have received permission to post photographs of students before doing so (a blog permission form was sent home in the green home/school folder). I hope these photos give you an idea what our room looks like - for now anyway!

This is the view of our classroom as you come through the front door.

This is our writing station area and word wall. 

Our classroom library has different sections for different purposes.  This is our leveled library where students self-select 'good fit' books.

Another section of our classroom library (you can see the edge of the reading tub...I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of that!)

More books! (these are grouped by genre)

This is our calendar area (although we keep track of a lot more than just the date in first grade)

Our interactive whiteboard was a BIG hit this morning!  This is new for all students because the kindergarten classrooms don't have them yet.  The board is an incredible learning tool which we will use a lot this year!

The beginning of our CAFE (comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expanding vocabulary) bulletin board.  We will refer to this bulletin board a lot as reading workshop progresses and students begin to develop reading goals.

Welcome Back!

I am so excited about our upcoming school year!  We are going to be busy learning starting the first day of school, but I know we'll have a lot of fun along the way!  I hope that this blog along with monthly newsletters helps to keep you informed as to what is happening in first grade.  I look forward to meeting you all!