Morning Message

Our Morning Message is a helpful tool that builds fluency and reading skills for all students!

Every morning during our morning meeting, we read the Morning Message.  We read the same message every day for an entire week.  The students build their fluency skills by rereading the message every day.     

After we choral read the message, the students look for words in the message!  This week we looked for punctuation marks, capital letters, 3 or more syllable words, and no-excuse words. 

On Friday, after we complete our Morning Message activity, we raffle off the chart paper to a lucky winner!   This week it went home with Mariska! 
           

We are Scientists!

This week in science, we learned about Force and Motion.  The four types of motion we learned are:  circular, back and forth, side to side, and up and down. 

We also learned how to be a scientist!  The students learned the steps to the Scientific Method!  We completed our first experiment this week while also recording our information in a science journal.

To demonstate up and down motion, we did the Diet Coke/Mentos experiment.  This is a super fun and easy experiment that you can do at home! 

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/original-mentos-diet-coke-geyser  

     

Independent Workers in Training

For the last two weeks, my students have been in training-mode.  I teach reading in the morning for about 2 hours.  But during those 2 hours, the students are doing many different things.  Right now, they are training to become independent workers by completing reading/spelling choices so that I will be able to meet with Guided Reading Groups with out interruptions.

The students are learning to choose a reading/spelling choice from their Reading Choice Packet, collect the materials they need, and start working quietly and without assistance.  All of the reading/spelling choices are connected with our reading skills and spelling words for that week.

Take a look at my independent workers in action! 

Magnadoodle Words



Stamp Words



 



I-Pad Spelling

 



Read the Theme Book

Read a Big Book

 

 

 



Chalkboard Words

Listening Center

 

Once the students are fully trained, I will be ready to start meeting with Guided Reading Groups to help my students become better readers on their own reading level. 

Here is a schedule of my Reading Instruction:

Word Work Whole Group Lesson (10 minutes)
Guided Reading/Reading Choices (20 minutes)
Reading Whole Group Lesson (10 minutes)
Guided Reading/Reading Choices (20 minutes)
Independent Reading Focus Lesson (10 minutes)
Indepent Reading Time (15-20 minutes)
Reader's Share Circle (5 minutes)

Klein West-Open House

Thank you to everyone who came out Thursday night to Klein West to visit your child's classroom!  We are off to a great start this year!  All of the kids have transitioned extremely well to our new location and we are focused on learning! 

The kids are loving Rocket Math!  At Open House, you were able to see how your child practices everyday at school.  I gave everyone a packet of blank rocket math papers.  You can use those to make copies at home if you'd like.  The more practice your child gets with Rocket Math, the more math facts they will know in a 'snap'.

There was also a Holiday Volunteer Sheet in the packet that was given out at Open House.  Please fill it out and return it to school if you are interested in helping out in any way! 

Thanks again for coming to Open House!  I have a great group of First Grade Families!!