Week 4: The Afternoon Meeting

In our first grade classroom, we end our day the same way we begin our day...with a class meeting.  We call it 'The Afternoon Meeting.'  It is a great time to wrap up our day and talk about the next day. 

Saying Goodbye
We always start our meeting by saying "Goodbye Everyone" We usually do not have time to go around and say goodbye like we do in the morning meeting!

Wrapping up our Day
First, I ask my Busy Bee if we earned any 'spots' on our ladybug today.  We earn spots for getting compliments from other teachers or being excellent as a class.  If we did earn a spot, I always ask the students if they remember when and why we earned it. 

We also talk about the 'spotless behavior' we were working on that day and we discuss how we think we did!

During this time, we also talk about what special we will have the next day and if there is anything else important happening the next day.

Picking the New Busy Bee
At this time, we congratulate our current busy bee for doing an excellent job helping me out during the day!  Then, we discuss who will be the busy bee tomorrow.  I always go in order by student numbers to pick the busy bee and the two worker bees are picked randomly by using popsicle sticks.  Once they are picked to be a worker bee, they cannot be picked again until everyone has had a turn. 

Status of Dismissal
Before we end our meeting, I make sure all bus passes are handed out and that I know who is a car rider, who is going on the bus, and who is going to the YMCA or Barbs.

I Spy
If there is any time left, the Busy Bee gets to play I Spy with the class before I send everyone back to their seats and wait for the bell to ring!

Having class meetings are an excellent way to bring our class together as a family!

Week 3: The Morning Meeting

After the morning announcements, we always start our day in First Grade with a morning meeting.  It is a great way to bring our class family together.  We start by sitting in a circle.

The Greeting
The Busy Bee of the Day always gets to start our meeting by choosing a greeting.  We say good morning to each other one by one around the circle.  Sometimes we even use different languages!

Busy Bee Shares
After we greet each other, The Busy Bee shares a little information about their life.  Then the Busy Bee chooses five students to ask questions about the information they shared. 

News and Events
At this time, I share anything important that is happening that day.  We also review our school/classroom rules (Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible), we practice our Bucket Pledge, and we discuss the Spotless Behavior we are practicing.  This week we are practicing "Listening and Following Directions. 

Morning Message
After News and Events, students get into their learning lines and we read our weekly morning message.  We read the same message all week to build fluency.  We also search for words and punctuation after we read it each day.

Calendar Activities
My Busy Bee and Worker Bees take turns helping with Calendar Activities.  We discuss the date, months of the year, days of the week, and we add a straw to our place value chart each day we are in school and decide if that number is odd or even.

Schedule
The last thing we do in our Morning Meeting is we go over our schedule for the day.  This helps the children understand what they will be learning and when!

 

The Morning Meeting is a great start to our day in

 First Grade!

Week 2: Ten Frames and Elephant Toothpaste

We had a great 2nd week in 1st grade! 

In math, we continued to practice counting and identifying numbers.  We used a ten frame to quickly recognize a number and we discussed how many more we would need to make 10. 

You can practice using a ten frame at home too!  Just click on these links for extra math practice!

Butterfly Ten Frame

Ten Frame


All week, we continued to discuss being a "Bucket Filler" and being a "No-Dip" classroom.  On Friday, we did a science experiment called Elephant Toothpaste.  We talked about how to make someone's bucket overflow!  The kids said things like, being nice, helping someone when they fall, throwing them a birthday party. 

 Then we watched what would happen if our buckets were overflowing! 

If you want to try this experiment at home, just google Elephant Toothpaste!  It was a lot of fun. :)

We are Back...and Better Than Ever!

What an amazing first week of school we had in 1-A.  It is so nice to be back at Klein and it was great meeting everyone at our Meet and Greet on Thursday, August 21st. 
 
Our room looks great and it is decorated with family pictures.  We are going to be a classroom family for the next 175 days and our classroom will be our home.  I think the kids are feeling comfortable and excited to be in Room 105. 

Family Photos

 

Family Photos

 

Family Photos

Family Photos

 
 

 The first week of school was busy and productive.  We learned lots of classroom and school rules and procedures, we learned about each other and did many activities with our names.  We read books, wrote stories, and did math activities.  By the end of the week, we were all ready to spend a 3-day weekend with our families!


Making patterns with math manipulatives



Sorting

Writing!

Name activities

Name activities

 
 
 
One of the most important things we did this week was we learned about being "A Bucket Filler."  Klein Elementary has pledged to be bucket fillers instead of bucket dippers.  Mrs. Hess read us this book:





We did lots of Bucket Filling activities in our classroom....

We are a "No-Dip" Classroom

We are Bucket Fillers!

And we practiced the Bucket Filling Pledge:

I promise to do my best at being a bucket filler everyday...at school, at home, and everywhere I go!

You can learn more about Bucket Filling here:  www.bucketfillers101.com

I hope everyone has a wonderful 3-day weekend!!  I'm looking forward to a wonderful year in first grade!

Mrs. Cady :)