Fire Safety and Mr. Barger

Today we read a story about a little girl who wanted to be a firefighter when she grew up. One of the parents whose children go to Kennerly came by to speak to  the class. His name is Mr. Barger, and he is a firefighter/paramedic. The homework he gave them was to go home and discuss what they had learned with their parents. They were also supposed to come up with a fire safety plan for the family and have a practice fire drill at home. Here are the photos from today.

Just an update

We are having a great week in room 112. This week we finished chapter 4 in math and are beginning chapter 5 which will teach new strategies for solving addition problems. 

Tomorrow is supposed to be much colder than today. I told the students not to wear shorts tomorrow. Thanks for your help!

Our field trip to Powell Hall is scheduled for next Wednesday morning. I have received ALL permission slips for this trip.

Today you should receive a permission slip for a field trip to Powder Valley on the 18th. This is a FREE trip, thanks to PTP. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!!

Our New Rug

 We just wanted to show all of you our beautiful new rug!!!

Anchor Charts

We have been very busy learning new writing skills in first grade. I thought I would show you some of the anchor charts around our room. When I introduce a new skill, the class helps me write a chart about it, and then I display the chart in the room so they can refer back to it.

This one is how to choose a "just right" book to read.

This one is all about what to do when you are reading to yourself.

 This one is all about how to read to a buddy. EEKK stands for elbow to elbow and knee to knee.

Of course these are the prompts we use to help a student write an unfamiliar word.

We've been working on this one a lot the past week. No more, "Ms. Nickless, I'm done." :-)

Spelling

Here is a list of sight words I checked everyone on today. (Don't worry, you did not have a list to study at night. We worked with these words in reading groups and writer's workshop) Almost everyone made a 100%                                         a am and as at be can do for go he I in is it

I will be sending a list home next week which will include today's words, plus all the rest of the sight words we will master by the end of the year. 

To some, the list may seem overwhelming. To others, it may seem extremely easy. I will be giving spelling checks frequently, and when your child masters the whole list, they will move on to a harder list. If they master the whole list in just a week or two, I will let them move on to a harder one. If it takes them all year to master the list, that's OK. The list contains the most frequently used words in first grade reading material. If you have any questions, just give me a call or drop me an email. Thanks!

Buddy Reading

 Our fourth grade buddies came to our room and listened to the first graders read.

The fourth graders had to be the reading coaches when the first graders got stuck on a tricky word.

Waiting and Watching

The ladies who cleaned out the butterfly garden  found an egg cluster which they said would turn out to be a Praying Mantis someday. Being the wonderful researchers that we are, we promptly went on the internet to find out about the life cycle of the Mantis. We found out the Mantis eggs hatch in the spring and there could be anywhere from about ten babies to 400! So.....if the ladies are correct and this IS a Mantis egg cluster, we will be waiting and watching for quite a while!