Annika Has Arrived!

Customize a slideshow This week we were very excited to have our friend Annika join us!  Annika is from Sweden and we feel very lucky to have her as part of our Firefly first grade class.  Annika shared her Me Museum with us on Monday. This week we learned how to tap out three letter words in Fundations.  In Readers' Workshop we talked about how readers are like runners-they warm-up before reading and read long and strong. We warmed-up and  read many books together-both non-fiction and fiction. We practiced warming-up and reading long and strong during quiet reading time.  We also began discussing how authors stretch small moments when they write.  We read a variety of books and noticed how different authors stretch their small moments.  We talked about strategies for using words we do know how to spell to help us learn how to spell new words. In math we continued to focus on sorting, estimating, graphing and counting.  We have been working on our observation skills to help us notice what is alike and what is different about objects before we sort.  We have also been practicing different ways to count and thinking about what strategies we can use to be efficient counters. Kody's Dad, Tim, joined us on Thursday during our math time.  He will be helping out every Thursday during math.  A big thank you to him! Our friend Barbara has also been joining us twice a week to help us with our fluency in reading.  She will continue to work with us throughout the school year.  A big thank you to Barbara for volunteering her time in our classroom.  Tristan's Mom will be in on Monday to help us gather the last of our garden vegetables and clear out the vegetable beds.  Thanks so much, Erica, for doing this. We will be finishing up our Communities unit next week and will move on to our first science unit of the school year.  This unit will focus on solids, liquids and chemical engineering. Beginning next week Vicky Wideman, our school counselor,  will be visiting our classroom once a week for six weeks to teach us social skills.  More information about this will follow next week. A reminder that Wednesday is picture day.  Our class will be having their pictures taken at 8:30 AM, so we should all still be looking our finest for our pictures!  Just a heads up that Tuesday is our first math studio day, so don't be surprised if your child comes home talking about all the teachers who were in our classroom for math that day. This is the first week for homework.  Please check your child's Friday Folder for his/her homework packet. Homework is due back to school every Friday, but can be returned before that if it is done early. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. Have a great weekend!