Reading Strategies

We worked this week on learning strategies good readers can use, when they come to a tricky word. Here is our list, with gestures of course! **Notice it doesn't say sound it out?!! 😃**

Our Butterfly Friend

Last week, Mr. Wade gave us a chrysalis to keep in our classroom and learn from. Yesterday after school, I noticed the chrysalis looked like it was glowing in a few places.

This morning, I came down and Mr. Wade had gone in and asked if I saw the butterfly! I hadn't and it was beautiful!

Shortly after that, it had fallen from the top and was flapping its wings. We then took it outside to let it go. I was worried because I know they like to be released in the sun so their wings are warm, but it was cloudy when we went out. He said that if you place it on a students nose, it will stay there until it is ready to fly away. It only stayed on Izzy's nose just long enough for this picture, and it flew across the street! They were excited to see it be independent.

We also did some research today and learned:
     -Monarch's lay their eggs on milkweed plants.
     -They hatch from the eggs after approximately 4 days.
     -Once a caterpillar hatches from the egg, it easts on the milkweed until it's ready to hang
      from a leaf or twig.
     -It will hand in a J shape and start to form it's chrysalis.
     -The chrysalis stage lasts around 12 days. When it's close to emerging, the chrysalis turns clear
      and you can begin to see the wings through it.
     -Once it emerges, its wings are soft and it takes a few hours for them to harden and be ready
     to be on their own.
     -These Monarchs will fly down to Mexico (approx 1500 miles) for the winter and return next
      spring.

Cafeteria LEADERS

Mrs. Mazzocco has worked so hard to help us all do our best in the cafeteria. Each grade is working to be cafeteria LEADERS! We can be cafeteria leaders getting our food by:

-keeping our bodies safe 

-keeping our voices quiet

-walking on the tan tiles

-having our eyes forward 

At our tables, we can be leaders by:

-getting our silverware and ketchup before we sit down

-staying on our bottom with legs in from

-eating our own food

-keeping a green or yellow cup on our table

If all tables have a green or yellow cups at the end of our lunch shift, first grade moves their banner (no orange cups). We are moving across the letters L E A D E R. Once we make it across, our grade will choose what we would like to earn! This has been a great way for me to see how our class is doing in the cafeteria. We are working on our voice level and staying seated. 

So many updates

We had our first Distinguished Dragon celebration on Friday, September 4th. We celebrated Camryn and Zhyesiah on their accomplishments and good choices so far. Way to go girls! POY (Proud of You)

On Tuesday morning, Mr. Wade, a fourth grade teacher, surprised us! He had caterpillars at home that formed chrysillis' and brought one in for us to have in our classroom. We are hoping for a Monarch butterfly to emerge next week! Stay tuned!

Another exciting addition is our class pet! Just kidding! But how cool is this guy!

First grade classrooms in the district can participate in the CPS Zoo program. Each week a new animal will arrive to us. We use clues on the container to try and guess what animal is inside. Our clues this week were...

We had some smart friends who knew it was a alligator or crocodile. We read a book to determine our animals is an alligator because you can't see it's teeth showing when it's mouth is closed. We will see what else we can learn about these reptiles!

We rocking our read to self stamina. We have reached 15 minutes! Woo Hoo! I am able to pull students one on one to read with them!

So much to tell you, but that's all for now!

Week 2

Our leaning is in full swing! We are learning more procedures and routines and are becoming quicker at accomplishing tasks. Using the scoreboard has been a great way to practice and review my expectations and have some fun too. We aren't playing for anything yet, but they have already beat me a few times. We worked so hard today and we had almost 90 points combined! 

If they earn a point they celebrate with an oh yeah! If I earn a point they give a quick groan. It's a great way to keep them all engaged. 

We are starting to work on read to self. We are working to be able to read independently for 20 minutes. Next week we are going to get to use reading buddies, whisper phones, and cozy pillows. 

One week in...

What a great first week we had! I am so proud of their hard work and know we will learn so much together! Our big focus was learning our Whole Brain Teaching techniques. If you saw the flyer in their Friday Folder, you saw seven parts that we implement at DRE in our classrooms. Here Sam and Cara and working on Teach, Ok!  When I say teach, they say Ok and turn to each other and start taking about what I asked them to discuss. Usually there are gestures that match what they are saying. We are all becoming experts! 

                                           

We also began our math time with some exploration of our math tools. Students used pattern blocks and geoboards (pictured below), unifix cubes, dominoes, and geoblocks. We are starting to understand how to use these as tools and not toys. Math is my favorite subject to teach and I can't wait for tomorrow and a new game called Compare. 

                                                               

                                                               

Much of our week was spent getting to know one another and learning the procedures for our classroom. Some things we will get to this week: procedures for writing and getting our writing folders, finding surprises in our book box, starting read to self, handwriting, math games, and continued number sense review. Stay tuned! 

First day excitement!

We had a great first day! The kids were so excited to come into the classroom and get started. They enjoyed their day and were very flexible when it started raining during their recess. We read Chrysanthemum and talked about our names. We read First Day Jitters and charted how we felt on the first morning. The most people were happy! We learned our five classroom rules and worked on Class, Yes! While we will spend many more days working on routines, I am excited to get started with new learning and get to know their personalities. Here is our first class picture!! 

Here we go!

It's the night before Meet the Teacher and I am so excited to meet my new school family! Each year I work to build relationships with my students that will not only last throughout the year, but into future years as well. I know our journey together will be one of fun, excitement, wonder, and of course lot of learning. So heres to the start of our journey! Let's Map our Future! 

Summer Learning

It's been a great summer spent relaxing and hanging out with my favorite little guy, Brady. I've also kept myself occupied with new learning. This is the second year Derby has used Whole Brain Teaching. WBT is a teacher movement that engages students whole brains in learning and makes school even more fun (for students and teachers too!). In June, Mrs. Neurohr (1st grade) and Mrs. Mazzocco (our Asst. Principal) attended a National WBT conference in Louisiana. I was unable to go, but after their return they shared a number of new ideas to WBT we could try. I then started watching videos, following WBT experts on Twitter, and trying to learn more! I am SO excited to use new aspects in my classroom come August!
Mrs. Mazzocco and I were asked to present to other Columbia teachers about the basics of WBT and how we got started last year. This increased my excitement even more to see how many other teachers were excited to try it as well! With WBT, I see a HUGE difference in my students engagement and ability to retain information.
So here's to a new year of trying new things and learning a lot along the way!

Welcome

Although I'm a teacher, I am not always comfortable with words and writing for others to read. However, this is a new year and time to step out of my comfort zone. Here's to a great year and lots of learning to come from Sullivan's Smarties!