Hello Fantastic First Graders and Fabulous First Grade Parents!
Today was a great day in first grade! Once again, we were busy, busy, busy bees! We learned a lot of new rules procedures today because we began centers! This was very exciting for the kids and they did a great job of practicing the procedures and working hard!
This week we begin our science unit on The Five Senses. Today we learned about how our eyes help us. We did a fun activity to see what it would be like if we didn't have our eyes. The children worked in partners. The first partner closed his/her eyes, while his/her partner gave directions to draw a face. This helped us to think about how important our sense of sight is. This challenge caused us to use our senses of hearing and feeling. The kids had a lot of fun and everyone was glad to have their sight back! The children had a good time and they got to see that science is so much fun! There is a fun science experiment each day this week related to each since. Be sure to ask your child about our daily experiments!
After learning about centers, we got to do centers! There are five centers per week, so the children will do 1 center per day. There is also daily Self Selected Reading (SSR) time where I read with small groups of children. The 5 centers are:
1. Listening - The children listen to "School Days" on tape. After listening, they fill out the name of the book, author and illustrator. Next, they write their favorite thing from the story and draw a picture.
2. Science - This week our science center is based on the 5 senses. I have four jars with a food item in each jar. The jars are covered up. The kids smell the jars and guess what they are. After they guess, they write about what it is like to depend on sense of smell without sense of sight to identify the item.
3. Writing - The children are wrote about what they want to be when they grow up. These are so much fun for me to read!
4. Math - This week our math center focuses on pattern blocks with an integration of the five senses. The children have a chance to first explore the pattern blocks. After that, they partner up. The first partner makes a shape, but does not show it to the second partner. Then, the first partner must teach the second partner how to make the shape with words only.
5. Reading - The children explored the Bee Quiet Corner. They enjoyed snuggling with pillow pets and reading free choice books.
This week in reading we are focusing on the reading strategies "Chunky Monkey" (looking for a familiar word chunk) and "Stretchy Snake" (reading all the way through the word to read all the sounds). We are also working on vowel patterns. In comprehension, we are focusing on sequencing and retelling.
We practiced our new spelling words. The children came home with Rainbow Words for practice today and they are due tomorrow. This week we are working on the "am" family. Our making words activities will focus on spelling practice and "am" family practice. The children also need to read tonight and fill out their reading log.
Today in math we practiced math centers. Our center focus will be on exploration. Our centers for the week are:
Flash Card Practice – Children work in pairs to practice their addition by using flash cards.
Unifix Cube Building – Children will explore unifix cubes to find different ways to make 5. They will also write the number sentences.
Addition Problem Creation – Children will use wipe off boards to create their own addition problems.
Pattern Blocks – Children will explore pattern blocks. Following exploration, they will use templates as a guide to create different designs.
Unifix Cubes – Children will explore unifix cubes. Following exploration, they will measure different items in the room with unifix cubes.
We had our first computer class on Friday. If you'd like to see what we did on Friday, click on the blog posting directly below this one, "Computers, 8/24." The kids learned how to use Internet explorer to find my blog. This is a great activity to practice with your child at home. The blog has a lot of great stuff for kids, including Raz-Kids (there is a link to Raz-Kids on the right side under the calendar. The username is: mjohnstonan). We will not be able to attend computers for a few weeks because the intermediate grades will be doing MAP testing.
Reminders for the week: Kids - please bring your red or blue folder to school each day. It is YOUR responsibility to remember your homework and your folder!
Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston
August 27, 2012
August 23, 2012
Computers, 8/24
Welcome To Your First Computer Class!
Today we will get to know the lab! We will learn how to log in and how to use Mrs. Johnston's Class Blog to help us in computers.
Busy Bees, you have a few jobs in computers today:
1. Vote on the class poll on this website! Be sure to check back and see the results!
2. Explore the class blog. It is here for you and it has lots of neat stuff on it. Please take a few minutes to explore the blog.
3. Have fun! You may visit Raz-Kids, Starfall or any of the other website links on my blog.
Enjoy your first day in computers!
Mrs. Johnston
Today we will get to know the lab! We will learn how to log in and how to use Mrs. Johnston's Class Blog to help us in computers.
Busy Bees, you have a few jobs in computers today:
1. Vote on the class poll on this website! Be sure to check back and see the results!
2. Explore the class blog. It is here for you and it has lots of neat stuff on it. Please take a few minutes to explore the blog.
3. Have fun! You may visit Raz-Kids, Starfall or any of the other website links on my blog.
Enjoy your first day in computers!
Mrs. Johnston
August 20, 2012
Weekly Update, August 20 - 24
Hello Fabulous First Graders and Fantastic First Grade Families!
We are off and running in our second full week of school! Today was a great day in 1st grade and we truly were busy, busy bees! The children worked so hard on the challenges of the day. In addition to curriculum, we learned a few new procedures, and the kids did a great job of successfully practicing the new procedures.
This week we begin our first social studies unit on manners. We will learn about manners and how to use them through reading (stories, songs and poems) and writing. Today we kicked off our manners week with a very fun and very silly poem called "Never, ever pick your nose!" The room was full of laughter when we read that! We followed up our poem with a draw and write about good manners. Each day this week we will read about manners and then our writing will be connected to that day's reading. Tomorrow we will read Borris Bear to learn about manners in school, on Wednesday we will read Sticks and Stones and write about what bugs us, on Thursday we will read Elmore Interrupts Us and write about what it feels like to be interrupted and on Friday we will read Responsibility and write about what it means to be responsible. At the end of the week, the kids will put all their work together and everyone will have a book about manners.
We began our Star of the Day today. Isabella was our Star and the kids had a great time interviewing the her and looking at herposter. Today we reviewed the five parts of a friendly letter (heading, greeting, body/message, closing, signature) and the kids wrote a friendly letter to today’s Star. The children will get practice writing a friendly letter each day that we have a special person.
Today marks the first week of spelling words! We practiced our spelling words today and then we learned how to do a Rainbow Write. This is when you write the word in crayon and then go over it two more times in different color crayons. This is great for both spelling practice and fine motor skills. This week our making words lessons will focus on our spelling words and the "an" word family.
Today in math we made a t-shirt glyph. Be sure to talk with your child on and ask him/her what a glyph is and how it helps us! We will graph and discuss our glyphs on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Today your child brought home his/her first homework assignment. The assignment is to practice the new spelling words by doing a Rainbow Write. The homework is due tomorrow. The children also need to read for at least 10 minutes tonight. The spelling words for the week are: the, of, and, a, to. The "an" family words for the week are: can, fan, man, pan, banana. Please encourage your child to practice these throughout the week; our first test is Friday. These spelling words come from the 100 most commonly used sight words.
Kids - please remember to bring your red or blue homework folder to school every single day! You can show your parents that you are following our rule of "We are responsible" by remembering to bring your folder in!
Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston
We are off and running in our second full week of school! Today was a great day in 1st grade and we truly were busy, busy bees! The children worked so hard on the challenges of the day. In addition to curriculum, we learned a few new procedures, and the kids did a great job of successfully practicing the new procedures.
This week we begin our first social studies unit on manners. We will learn about manners and how to use them through reading (stories, songs and poems) and writing. Today we kicked off our manners week with a very fun and very silly poem called "Never, ever pick your nose!" The room was full of laughter when we read that! We followed up our poem with a draw and write about good manners. Each day this week we will read about manners and then our writing will be connected to that day's reading. Tomorrow we will read Borris Bear to learn about manners in school, on Wednesday we will read Sticks and Stones and write about what bugs us, on Thursday we will read Elmore Interrupts Us and write about what it feels like to be interrupted and on Friday we will read Responsibility and write about what it means to be responsible. At the end of the week, the kids will put all their work together and everyone will have a book about manners.
We began our Star of the Day today. Isabella was our Star and the kids had a great time interviewing the her and looking at herposter. Today we reviewed the five parts of a friendly letter (heading, greeting, body/message, closing, signature) and the kids wrote a friendly letter to today’s Star. The children will get practice writing a friendly letter each day that we have a special person.
Today marks the first week of spelling words! We practiced our spelling words today and then we learned how to do a Rainbow Write. This is when you write the word in crayon and then go over it two more times in different color crayons. This is great for both spelling practice and fine motor skills. This week our making words lessons will focus on our spelling words and the "an" word family.
Today in math we made a t-shirt glyph. Be sure to talk with your child on and ask him/her what a glyph is and how it helps us! We will graph and discuss our glyphs on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Today your child brought home his/her first homework assignment. The assignment is to practice the new spelling words by doing a Rainbow Write. The homework is due tomorrow. The children also need to read for at least 10 minutes tonight. The spelling words for the week are: the, of, and, a, to. The "an" family words for the week are: can, fan, man, pan, banana. Please encourage your child to practice these throughout the week; our first test is Friday. These spelling words come from the 100 most commonly used sight words.
Kids - please remember to bring your red or blue homework folder to school every single day! You can show your parents that you are following our rule of "We are responsible" by remembering to bring your folder in!
Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston
August 13, 2012
Weekly Update, August 13 - 17
Hello Super First Graders and Stupdendous First Grade Families!
Welcome to the first full week of first grade! The children are doing a wonderful job practicing the procedures for our class, remembering our rules and learning our academic structure. The children are incredibly sweet and smart. And, they all have such a wonderful sense of humor! We are off and running in first grade and we have a wonderful year ahead of us!
Today we began to settle into the structure of school. We began assessments today and the children will complete a variety of assessments throughout the week. Grading these assessments will help me be the best teacher for your child! The children will be assessed in spelling, sight word reading, reading, writing, number recognition, addition and skip counting.
Today we learned how to do a draw and write. This is when I teach the children, step by step, how to draw something and then they write a story about their drawing. They love this! We are also reviewing how to correctly form letters. Please join me in encouraging your child to use his or her best penmanship!
The children are learning how to choose "just right books" and they are having fun exploring the Bee Quiet Corner to make their selections.
In math we worked on number sense, addition and skip counting. We are learning all about how to find a pair and how to tell if something is even or odd. Please be sure to ask your child what it is called when there is a leftover in an odd number! Today we worked on graphing our birthdays. Ask your child to tell you how a graph is helpful.
The children have worked hard last week to earn Bee Bucks to be able to shop for a toy in the Treasure Hive at the end of the week. We also began another positive behavior system, The Rainbow Club, today. You may want to ask your child how many bee bucks he or she has or what level he or she is on in Rainbow Club. Friday will be our first Rainbow Club day; the children are excited already!
Upcoming Dates/Reminders
• This Wednesday, August 15 is Parent Information Night. This begins at 6:30 in the Cross MPR. There will be a welcome from Mr. Heinemann, teacher introductions and a PTO presentation and then we will return to the classroom.
• Friday is Sharing Circle Day! The children may bring in one item or a story to share. If you would like to bring in a live animal, please contact me a few days in advance to set that up.
• Next week we begin our special person. The children will need to come to school with their posters ready on Monday, August 20 (posters will be given out at parent night).
Happy Learning!
Mrs. Johnston
Welcome to the first full week of first grade! The children are doing a wonderful job practicing the procedures for our class, remembering our rules and learning our academic structure. The children are incredibly sweet and smart. And, they all have such a wonderful sense of humor! We are off and running in first grade and we have a wonderful year ahead of us!
Today we began to settle into the structure of school. We began assessments today and the children will complete a variety of assessments throughout the week. Grading these assessments will help me be the best teacher for your child! The children will be assessed in spelling, sight word reading, reading, writing, number recognition, addition and skip counting.
Today we learned how to do a draw and write. This is when I teach the children, step by step, how to draw something and then they write a story about their drawing. They love this! We are also reviewing how to correctly form letters. Please join me in encouraging your child to use his or her best penmanship!
The children are learning how to choose "just right books" and they are having fun exploring the Bee Quiet Corner to make their selections.
In math we worked on number sense, addition and skip counting. We are learning all about how to find a pair and how to tell if something is even or odd. Please be sure to ask your child what it is called when there is a leftover in an odd number! Today we worked on graphing our birthdays. Ask your child to tell you how a graph is helpful.
The children have worked hard last week to earn Bee Bucks to be able to shop for a toy in the Treasure Hive at the end of the week. We also began another positive behavior system, The Rainbow Club, today. You may want to ask your child how many bee bucks he or she has or what level he or she is on in Rainbow Club. Friday will be our first Rainbow Club day; the children are excited already!
Upcoming Dates/Reminders
• This Wednesday, August 15 is Parent Information Night. This begins at 6:30 in the Cross MPR. There will be a welcome from Mr. Heinemann, teacher introductions and a PTO presentation and then we will return to the classroom.
• Friday is Sharing Circle Day! The children may bring in one item or a story to share. If you would like to bring in a live animal, please contact me a few days in advance to set that up.
• Next week we begin our special person. The children will need to come to school with their posters ready on Monday, August 20 (posters will be given out at parent night).
Happy Learning!
Mrs. Johnston
August 9, 2012
Happy First Day of 1st Grade!
Hi there, BUSY BEES!!!
Today was a fantastic first day in Mrs. Johnston's 1st Grade Beehive! I am so excited to welcome my 27 wonderful students to our classroom! We had an action packed day and we learned a lot too! First graders - get ready for an incredible first grade journey filled with learning and fun!
We had an assembly this morning to get everyone excited about school! In the assembly the Bobcat Code of Honor was reviewed and I am so happy to see that my students are following the code!
Today in class we read a great story about the beginning of first grade called The Night Before First Grade. We learned many of the procedures for our busy beehive. We learned about the word hive and we learned 3 new words to put in the hive! The kids learned the words jitters, pandemonium and procedure. Kids, be sure to tell your parents what those words mean!
Our day ended with procedure review and a community meeting. I can't wait to see everyone back here buzzing around tomorrow! We will focus on building classroom community, learning and practicing the procedures in our classroom and creating and following rules. We will learn our academic and specialist schedules.
Thank you to the students and parents for making today so great! Parents - thank you so much for all the wonderful classroom supplies! I appreciate you!
A FEW NOTES ABOUT THIS BLOG:
The blog contains a class calendar with all schedule and volunteer information for our class. This blog will be updated two times per week week. The weekly blog posting and spelling words are updated on Monday and weekly questions are updated on Friday. Each blog posting contains information about our class and studies. Each week I post five questions based on what we learned in class. Please go over these with your child and talk about what he or she is learning in class. There are links on the side of the page with great (and fun too!) academic websites for kids.
To post a comment on a blog entry:
1. Click on comments underneath the blog (there is a comment counter, so they will all begin with 0 comments).
2. Type your comment in the "Post Comment" box.
3. Open up the drop-down for "Comment As" and choose Name/URL.
4. Type your first name in the name section and hit continue.
5. Click on the "Post Comment" button.
*** The blog may require you to enter a code word. If this happens, a nonsense word will appear on the screen and you type it in the box. After that, click on post comment and your comment will appear on the blog.
See you tomorrow!
Mrs. Johnston
Today was a fantastic first day in Mrs. Johnston's 1st Grade Beehive! I am so excited to welcome my 27 wonderful students to our classroom! We had an action packed day and we learned a lot too! First graders - get ready for an incredible first grade journey filled with learning and fun!
We had an assembly this morning to get everyone excited about school! In the assembly the Bobcat Code of Honor was reviewed and I am so happy to see that my students are following the code!
Today in class we read a great story about the beginning of first grade called The Night Before First Grade. We learned many of the procedures for our busy beehive. We learned about the word hive and we learned 3 new words to put in the hive! The kids learned the words jitters, pandemonium and procedure. Kids, be sure to tell your parents what those words mean!
Our day ended with procedure review and a community meeting. I can't wait to see everyone back here buzzing around tomorrow! We will focus on building classroom community, learning and practicing the procedures in our classroom and creating and following rules. We will learn our academic and specialist schedules.
Thank you to the students and parents for making today so great! Parents - thank you so much for all the wonderful classroom supplies! I appreciate you!
A FEW NOTES ABOUT THIS BLOG:
The blog contains a class calendar with all schedule and volunteer information for our class. This blog will be updated two times per week week. The weekly blog posting and spelling words are updated on Monday and weekly questions are updated on Friday. Each blog posting contains information about our class and studies. Each week I post five questions based on what we learned in class. Please go over these with your child and talk about what he or she is learning in class. There are links on the side of the page with great (and fun too!) academic websites for kids.
To post a comment on a blog entry:
1. Click on comments underneath the blog (there is a comment counter, so they will all begin with 0 comments).
2. Type your comment in the "Post Comment" box.
3. Open up the drop-down for "Comment As" and choose Name/URL.
4. Type your first name in the name section and hit continue.
5. Click on the "Post Comment" button.
*** The blog may require you to enter a code word. If this happens, a nonsense word will appear on the screen and you type it in the box. After that, click on post comment and your comment will appear on the blog.
See you tomorrow!
Mrs. Johnston
August 2, 2012
Welcome to First Grade!
Hi there, Brand New Busy Bees!
Welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful summer and you’re as excited about the start of the school year as I am! I had a great summer spending time with my family and friends, playing with my two cute dogs, reading, trying out new recipes, CrossFitting and going on a vacation to California. I can’t wait to hear all about what you did!
First Graders – this year you will be a busy bee! In our beehive classroom, busy bees will go on a great adventure of learning! First grade is such a special year for reading, writing, math and new friends!
Bees are an important theme in our first grade class. Bees are amazing little creatures because they have big bodies and tiny, thin little wings. They should not be able to fly, but each day they take flight and do great things. I think all of my students are like bees - they can do anything! I believe that all of my students will achieve great things.
I hope to meet you at Bobcat Beginnings on Wednesday, August 8 from 1:30 – 3:30. Come check out the beehive and bring your school supplies.
I look forward to a wonderful 1st grade year and I’ll see you soon!
Mrs. Johnston
Welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful summer and you’re as excited about the start of the school year as I am! I had a great summer spending time with my family and friends, playing with my two cute dogs, reading, trying out new recipes, CrossFitting and going on a vacation to California. I can’t wait to hear all about what you did!
First Graders – this year you will be a busy bee! In our beehive classroom, busy bees will go on a great adventure of learning! First grade is such a special year for reading, writing, math and new friends!
Bees are an important theme in our first grade class. Bees are amazing little creatures because they have big bodies and tiny, thin little wings. They should not be able to fly, but each day they take flight and do great things. I think all of my students are like bees - they can do anything! I believe that all of my students will achieve great things.
I hope to meet you at Bobcat Beginnings on Wednesday, August 8 from 1:30 – 3:30. Come check out the beehive and bring your school supplies.
I look forward to a wonderful 1st grade year and I’ll see you soon!
Mrs. Johnston
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