Wow, what a fantastic first week in the classroom.  This is a fabulous group of kids and I could not be more pleased with how they adjusted to the first grade classroom this week.  We spent a lot of time working on routines.  These routines included centers, learning positions, walking in the school, etc.  These routines are crucial at the beginning of the year.  As in kindergarten a class that picks up on routines quickly is able to be more independent.   The more independent they are the more time I have for one-on-one instruction and small group instruction.  Needless to say I was impressed this week, but will be looking for more next week.

A quick synopsis of what we learned this week:

Math:

We spent a lot of time on skip counting and using the number line.   We also practiced our morning routines like attendance and counting the days of school.  On Thursday the class got to learn about and explore their math toolkits.  They had a lot of fun!  Next week will see us begin work in our math journals.

Science:

We learned about what weather is and how we describe it.  The kids and I also worked together to write a poem about tornados.  On Friday we learned more about meteorologists and the work they do.  We also got to begin work in our science notebooks.  The kids had a blast drawing the weather for Friday.  We came up with all kinds of ways to show the heat in the picture.  This included drawing steam lines coming off of people, ice cream melting and sweat everywhere!!!

Writing:

We had multiple opportunities to write over the course of the week.  We also began our Writers Workshop on Friday.  I modeled a story from my own life and the kids worked independently afterwards.


All in all a fantastic first week!  I cannot wait to see what the adventure brings next week.

As always if you have any questions please contact me at hagenm@aaps.k12.mi.us.