A Super First Week!

We are having a 'Super' first week of school! We are extremely happy to have 23 friends returning to us from last year's kindergarten class and to be welcoming 13 new friends to our first grade class!

Our first graders have been working hard this week to reestablish our rituals and routines in the classroom. They are learning quickly how to unpack in the mornings, how to gather for lessons, and the expectations for classroom behavior. They are doing a great job gaining the independence that comes with being first graders.

Being a first grader brings new and exciting priviledges. First graders get to leave the classroom on their own at dismissal time- no more having to walk with a teacher. First graders get to use the monkey bars! First graders are allowed to play on both sides of the playground!

Take a moment this weekend and ask your child what their favorite part of first grade is!

Avengers Unite!

Have you had a super summer? Did you take a fantastic trip? Did you read any incredible books?

Well, the time has come to start a MARVEL-ous year! We are looking for 36 fantastic, incredible superheroes to join us in first grade. We have 180 days ahead of us to use our powers to conquer reading, writing, math, science, and social studies.

If you are up for the challenge, join us for orientation at 11am on August 19th!

School Supplies

It is one of my favorite times of year... back to school shopping! Since I was little, I have always loved the excitement of getting new supplies for school. New pencils, pens, and notebooks are my favorite! (I should have know I'd end up as a teacher.)

You should have all recieved a 1st Grade Supply list in your child's last report card. Just in case you lost it, click on this link to find it.

Since buying school supplies can be expensive (especially if you have more than one child), now is a great time to start. Many office supply stores have great deals! For example, Office Depot has plastic Duotang folders with prongs for 25 cents and Staples has #2 pencils for a penny! It doesn't get better than that!

Another good idea is to find other parents to share the cost with and buy in bulk. You can find pencils, copy paper, baby wipes, tissues, Clorox wipes, Post-It notes, Expo markers, and labels at Costco or BJ's.

Here are some great links to check weekly to see what is on sale:
www.officedepot.com
www.staples.com
www.officemax.com
www.target.com

Happy Shopping!

Responding to Literature with Technology

In February, we started introducing our friends to technology and how they could independently log onto the computer. We asked Mrs. Holtsman, our technology coach here at school, how we could engage our youngsters in a computer based project and she had the perfect idea for us! Just a simple drawing and painting website, BUT she was going to teach our kids how to properly use the website and the tools it had to offer so that they could respond through a digital illustration to our Book of the Month, The Plot Chickens. Our students were so excited and engaged with this project. They were buzzing around the computer lab telling one another their favorite parts and showing each other all of the cool tools they used from the website. Our next step is to allow students to type about their favorite part that they illustrated. Take a look at some of the awesome pictures and captions students used in their digital representation of their favorite parts!

Baby Colton

Hello Thombitos!

I am so excited to be back in the classroom! I have missed each of our friends so much. It is amazing how much they have grown both physically and academically in the short time that I was on leave.

As most of you know, my sweet baby boy, Colton, arrived on February 15, 2011 at 5:16am. He weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces and measured 20.5 inches long. He is healthy and handsome! My husband and I are overjoyed with the new addition to our family.

Thank you to all of you that have been thinking of my husband and I during this exciting time in our lives and for all of the wonderful books that you gave to Colton. His bookshelf is full and we read daily already!

Tech Tots

Kindergarteners logging on to computers? Kindergarteners understanding the SHIFT key? Kindergarteners typing in a web address? Who's heard of such things? WE HAVE!!!! This morning we took our friends to the technology lab to learn how to log on to a computer, understand the keys on a keyboard, AND type a web address to get somewhere! Mrs. Holtsman, our Technology Coach and Adminstrative Support person, helped facilitate the instruction with our Kindergarteners and explained the proper way to do things on the computer. As a reward, they got to play on a website. EVERY friend got logged on, learned about the appropriate use of the keys, and typed our blog address to get to a VERY fun website called Build Your Wild Self. The students learned how to get to the link on our blog, so ask them how to get to it and see what kind of "Wild Self" they have!

R-Controlled Vowels

We are SO proud of the excellent readers that our students have become during the first half of the year! They have really been working hard. As many of our friends move up in reading levels, they will begin to come across some unexpected vowel and letter combinations. In order to prepare our readers for this, we have introduced them to R-controlled vowels this week.

When a vowel is followed by an r, it makes a special sound. These are called r-controlled vowels. For instance, /ar/ usually always sounds like the -ar in 'car', and /or/ always sounds like the -or in 'for'. The /ir/, /er/, and /ur/ sound the same as in bird, her, and fur. These all make a /ər/ sound.

Please encourage your student to notice these r-controlled vowels in their nightly reading, as well as to use them in their writing.

Here are some links for extra phonics and phonemic awareness practice:
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/load.htm?f
http://pbskids.org/lions/games/soup.html
http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/flash/concentration/index.htm