Well, our first week back
to school is over and it was a fantastic four days. I have 18 wonderful little
Grade Ones who love being at school, and who are so eager to learn. It’s also
great that I teach in the primary hall so that I can see my students from
previous years. They always come up and give me a hug. One girl even came up to
me at the end of the day while I was getting my kids ready and hands me a scrap
of paper with her phone number on it. It came just after one of my boys told me
he was inviting me to his birthday party in December, as well as all of his
karate practices each week. How adorable is that?!
We are starting up this
Grade One school year by learning that we are all unique, to accept
differences, and to be responsible. The kiddies are learning how to read and
write “I like” and use it in a full sentence. By Friday, we had brainstormed a
list of things they like about Grade One and they wrote a sentence. My kids
rock! It’s amazing how many of them wrote, “I like my desk”. It’s quite the
upgrade in independence from their kindergarten tables, I suppose.
Our shared reading this
week was a poem called “I Like Myself”. It’s actually longer than this, but I
took a few verses out to make it shorter for their first week back. I don’t
know who the original author is either; I had it in a digital file from a
colleague.
Each morning, we would
look at something different in the poem. One day, we underlined all the words
that said “like”, so they could get used to seeing what “like” looks like and
sounds like. Another day we looked at the uppercase “I” and discussed why we
use a capital {because it’s talking about you and you’re special,
so it gets a special uppercase-see how I relate everything back to our
big idea that we’re all special?}. On Friday we talked about periods and what
our voices have to sound like when we see a period. My little smartie pants
even knew what an exclamation mark was and how to read with one. Needless to
say, they loved this poem; especially when I let them read it animatedly when
it came to the loud, quiet, happy, and sad section.
Each morning after our
shared reading I would send them back to their desks with a booklet that went
along with the poem. They had to complete the activities inside explaining when
they were loud, quiet, happy, sad, messy, and clean. They had to draw a picture
and write a sentence. Some of them finished, but most put their hearts and
souls into the pictures and forgot about the sentences. I didn’t really notice
because this was going on as I was pulling kids to read with me so I could
assess their reading levels. I think I got to all but three kids. Pretty
impressive, I’d say!
In math we are learning
about graphing, so on our first day together we made a graph about how we felt
about the first day of school. They loved it, and now we have it on our math
wall to admire everyday. They were really good at analyzing the information in
it, and I couldn’t believe my ears when one boy said he noticed that if you
combined all the people who were sad, happy, and nervous, it equaled nine.
Genius. The rest of the week we talked about parts of a graph and introduced
our Big Idea that “Graphs help us see information easily”. We tacked that up on
the math wall as well. I was so impressed with how much math we got done in
that first week. We built a graph on how they get to school, we answered
questions, and by Friday, I already had them in pairs working on a mystery
graph. The task was to see if they could come up with an appropriate title for
the information in the graph. Some got it right away and others struggled a
bit. We will be doing more fun mystery graphs next week! Thanks to my colleague
who created this graph to use last year :)
In social studies we are
learning how to be responsible. So far, we have talked about how to be
responsible at home. Some of the answers I got were so cute! “I am responsible
when I’m nice to my cat”. Poor kitty…
We’ll be completing the
rest of the booklet as we learn more about responsibility throughout the month
of September. The social studies period was also a great time to slowly
introduce our Tribes Agreements. My school uses the Tribes training so as the
kids get older, the consistent use of these agreements throughout the grades
should make the behaviour come naturally. So far, we have talked about what
Attentive Listening, and what Appreciations look like and sound like. We
brainstormed some ideas, and now all I have to say is, “show me what good
listening looks like” and they all snap into a criss-cross sitting position,
hands in their laps, and eyes on me. In Grade One, they love when I show them
appreciations, so as soon as I thank those who are doing what they’re supposed
to be doing, everyone else strives to do the same. It’s wonderful.
In art, we are learning
about one element of art: line. To go along with our celebrating differences
unit, I gave them all an outline of a person and their job was to make
themselves, but the t-shirt had to be designed with at least three different
kinds of line. Their creations were so cute. This is a picture of mine that I
used as an example. I know what you’re thinking: “Wow, Ms. Lawrence! You’re
quite the artist! And I had no idea you were a Simpsons character”.
I tried my best, okay?!
Let’s move on to this week’s
learning centres. At the Writing Centre, they had to practice writing “I like”
and then draw a picture of what it is they like. Once they were finished that,
they were allowed to practice their writing on the big white board. Dry erase
boards and markers are just the bee’s knees to Grade Ones.
At the Math Centre, I
wanted to see their abilities when it came to counting by ones. They had to
identify how many of each picture they saw. On the back, it was the reverse; I
gave them the number and asked them to draw that amount. It also allowed me to
assess their number writing skills as well.
Click for a copy
At the Art Centre I had
them draw a picture of what they did in the summer. One girl drew a beautiful
picture of the Niagara Falls all lit up at night. Sounds like a great summer!
At the Computer Centre, I’m
teaching them how to use Tumblebooks. I love this website. It’s going to take
some time teaching them all how to use it, but they catch on quickly.
Finally, at the
Storytelling Centre, I set out some toys for those kids who just need to play
and use their imaginations. Keep in mind; they’re coming from two years of
play-based learning in kindergarten, so they still need that time to learn
through play.
One of my biggest struggles
with the centres was realizing the emotional turmoil many of them went through
when I told them they had an assigned centre for the day. In kindergarten, they
were allowed to roam between the different learning centres. In Grade One, I
have them in groups that rotate between each centre throughout the week. They’ll
get the hang of their new routine.
I’ll leave you with some
other pictures I took of the room this week. It’s really coming along. Although,
I will have to make a stop at Fabric Land {the store I dread more than anywhere
else in this world. My mom used to drag me there when I was a kid. It was awful
because it was a) boring and b) located in the downstairs portion of a plaza,
which just emphasized the feeling that I was in a dungeon. It still haunts me}.
But I really do have to go because sadly, those one dollar table clothes around
my learning centres did not last one day without being torn *sniff, sniff*.
On the first day of school, I get a knock on my door and my mom is
standing there with a bouquet of flowers for me in a ducky vase. I have the
best mom ever. Check out the Unforgettable Moments page to read about the
conversation that followed.
My first day of Grade One picture. Except we cheated a little bit. We forgot to take the picture on the first day, so this is technically my second day photo
They've done a great
job at keeping track of the days and weather with our daily calendar time in
math
These are the books
I've read to them so far this week
Time to enjoy the weekend
with lots of family events to attend. Oh, and marking-lots of stuff to assess
this weekend to get ready for next week; but I don’t mind because I love what I
do. Have a happy weekend, friends!
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