Oct. 25th

Wow what a fun field trip yesterday! The kids had so much fun exploring and jumping in a hay maze
,

riding a steam train, petting animals, and even getting to go on a roller coaster!!!!

The best part was that everyone got to take home a pumpkin. Thank you to all the families who helped chaperone this field trip, it was a very successfully 1st field trip. Ask your child what their favorite part of the day was!

Harvest Party:

Next week on Oct. 31st we will be having a Fall Harvest Party. This party will be for all of the K/1 classrooms. We will start at 9:00 and go until 11:15. Each class will rotate to another K/1 classroom to participate in a fall craft such as water coloring pumpkins, lacing webs, gluing pumpkin seeds, Q- tip painting pumpkins, and fall number Bingo! After all the project we will gather together in the lunch to celebrate with samples of different fall foods. Students are not allowed to wear costumes or bring costumes to school on this day, this is simply a FALL celebration. If you have signed up to help with this celebration we will be sending out more information on each specific task next week. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!

Readers Workshop This week students have been working on getting to know their characters. Some ways we can get to know our characters are by what the say and do. We can also recognize our characters emotions and feelings. By trying to remember characters actions, feelings, and what they say we can re-tell our stories. Every time after we finish a book we practice telling It’s about, First..., Next...., Then.... And Finally! When you are reading at home with your child, have them look for the characters actions, feelings, or things they say. After your finished reading try to have your child re-tell what they just read!

Writers Workshop: This week our class has been working on unfreezing our characters to help our stories come to like. We can do this by showing their actions, what they are thinking, and feeling. We also worked on slowly down with our writing and telling it bit-by-bit and step by step. This helps us to really zone in on that small moment. Finally we focused on making sure we spell words we know in a snap. (Sight words-and, the, a, at, I, it, in, of, you)

Student of the Week:
Unity Unity has been doing an outstanding job this year. She is always pushing herself for a new challenge. She has been a warm and welcoming 1st grader to new Kindergarteners, kids at lunch, or kids on the playground. Keep up the great work UNITY!

Open House:

Open house night was so much fun! Thank you to those who were able to make it out. Students loved getting a chance to show their families their desks, their classroom and some works! We have done SO much learning over the past month and a half of school! Whew! What a night! If you weren’t able to come, you were missed, but your student’s work was acknowledged by their peers and teachers!


Morning Work:

Our class has been working hard on starting to memorize their simple addition facts from 0-5 for morning work. They have also been working on learning the sight words we, the, at, is, of, and here. We are also working hard on learning math vocabulary and using that language during work time and morning work. We’ve learned to use the word “addend” and “sum” as well as the words “addition” and “number sentence”. Please use this language at home with your student and quiz them on their addition facts 0-5 while you are walking with them, on the bus, or driving home with them in the car!

Readers Workshop, MAP testing, Pumpkin project This week students met in reading groups during work time. During Readers workshop this week the 1st graders took their map test. They did a great job taking their time and trying their best. The kindergartners from Mrs. Guzman and Mrs. Bolsters class joined us Mon-Thur. to learn about pumpkins, the pumpkin life cycle and even try pumpkin seeds. It was great for everyone to meet kids from different classrooms and work together to do something new!

Writers Workshop: This week our class has been working hard on fancying up their work by adding voice, actions, and feelings to their pictures and words. We also used a rubric to make sure we wrote about something that happened and our pictures/words match our story. Students went back and re-read their writing to see if it makes sense, and thought about what else they could add to their story. Next week? Characters!!

Student of the Week:

Brandon Brandon is always following directions, being respectful in the hall and classroom, and a peaceful friend to everyone at Leschi! He has worked very hard this week on taking out many challenging works and trying to work the whole work time! Keep up the great work Brandon!!

Oct. 7th

Science: This week we started our very first science unit of the year: Animals 2X2! Our class is now a home to several goldfish, snails, and earthworms which students will study in detail over the next several weeks. In our first lesson we talked about how we, as good scientists, can use our sense of sight, smell, touch, and hearing to make observations about the animals in our room. Students then began to practice making observations about our goldfish. Next, students will learn key vocabulary words like gills, fin, tail, eye, mouth, and scales, to help describe how our goldfish breathe, swim, see, and eat. Our class is very excited to put on our scientific thinking caps as we spend more time with our fishy friends next week!

Work Time: The students of room 204 continue to challenge themselves each and every day during work time. This week, more kindergartners began working on their pink language work plans and some students have also begun to work on their math binders. As a class, we learned several new works this week, including the teen board, which helps students to build the numbers 11-19. Some great things to work on at home with your student to build their confidence and independence during work time are practicing the numbers 1-20 and reviewing letter sounds.

Readers Workshop: It’s time for buddy reading! This week, students have been learning how to read with a partner. As a class we discussed how to share a book with another person, how to help each other read the pictures and the words, as well as how we can identify the important parts of the story and share them with one another. Ask your student to show you how to buddy read when they during story time at home!

Student of the Week: This week’s student of the week is Dakota! He has been working on pushing himself to take on more challenging works. His quote in reading group this week was, “ We have to challenge ourselves, that’s what gets us ready for 1st and 2nd grade” He has done exactly that and with a smile on his face. He comes to school everyday ready to learn and that attitude spreads to everyone around him. Way to go Dakota!!

Work Time: Work time is going really smoothly. Kindergartners are understanding work time behaviors and learning how to focus. First graders are managing their time and holding themselves accountable for their work plans. All students are building their confidence towards independence. THis week our class worked all the way till lunch! This week we also focused on handwriting skills, whether it was building those fine motor skills, or writing our best letters. We have also started to get ready for our science unit by learning the different parts of a fish. Ask your student what they are working on!

Readers Workshop: This week we continued working on strategies to figure out tricky words. We learned the strategy stretch it out, hope over, and take your best guess and move on. We also learned that readers also check, does that sound right? The past two days we worked on retelling after we read. We read several great mentor text and practiced as a class talking about what its about, first, next, then, and finally. Work on this strategy with your child after reading with them.
Writers Workshop: This week in writers workshop we have been talking about small moments and how to write a small moment in 3 steps: Think of a story in your life, picture it in your mind and put it on paper. We practice the strategy of sketching your story, touch each page as you plan it out, and writing your story.

A great goal is for students to tell their story across the pages and have a beginning, middle, and end.

Work Time: This week many students received their pink language work plan. All the students have been working very hard on matching objects and labels, matching picture and labels, and writing their words in their language journals.

We also introduce four new sigh words this week. A, of, the, and
.Students were able to practice reading and writing these words through out the week. We even were able to test out the new chalk board wall!!!

Writers Workshop: This week in writers workshop we have been working on understanding what a small moment is. Writers think about a big topic (summer vacation), a smaller topic ( the week you had swim lessons), and a small moment ( your first day of swim lessons). Writers think about how to zoom in on the small moment and write about that.

We read Fireflies and picked out our favorite small moment from that book. Ask your child what their favorite small moment was.

Star Student:

This week’s star student is Kieran. Kieran has been really challenging himself in all areas at work time. Kieran has really been participating in readers workshop and pushed himself with his writing to keep writing more. He has been a great leader in the line, out at recess, and in the class. Way to GO Kieran!!!

I can't believe it is only the second week of school. The students have just jumped into work time, reading, writing, art, P.E. and music and have really pushed themselves. Here is a recap of our great week.

Work Time: Many 1st graders were working hard and finishing their work plans. They challenged themselves by working on language, math, science, geography, and a reading response. Work plans will be sent home every Friday. Please take a look at it with your child and ask them:
Which works were easy?
Which works were challenging?
What are some goals for next week?
Kindergartners this week were able to learn many more works. Including the continents and the continents song. Here are the lyrics you can ask you child to help teach you the song.

The Continent Song
" North America, South America
Africa, Europe, and Asia
Don't forget Australia
Don't forget Antarctica
These are the continents
These are the continents
These are the continents of our world!"

This week the students were able to help themselves to snack. At the snack table the students look at the menu for the day, see how much they can take, wash their hands, clean up their area, and RANDOMLY (I try to get them to just pick and not just find their best friends name) choose someone new. This is a great activity for students to help take responsibility of our room and continue through the work time cycle.

Reading and Writing workshop this week really focused on stamina! The students were able to read and write for 20 minutes. We book shopped on Friday and everyone picked new books for their book bags.

In writers we had a great Authors Share after a hard week of writing! It was especially exciting because thanks to Henry's family and Charlie's family we have a new addition to our classroom. They went to a wonderful organic farm and hauled back our new classroom pumpkin. The kids have enjoyed it so much and this week we shared our stories on it!

Star Student

Star student is someone who we recognize in class as being safe, respectful, and responsible. If your child is the star student they will get a poster ( All about me) to share with the class, their name called at Monday morning assembly, and the chance to bring in a book/ something special to share with the class on Friday.

Star Student this week is Lena:
Lena has been making great choices, showing me she is ready on the carpet, working quietly and becoming an independent learner. She worked hard to finish her work plan and has really been welcoming to new Kindergarteners. Way to go Lena!!

First Week of School!!!! Wow what a busy week we have had. I can't believe what amazing work the students have already done. For work time this week students were able to learn
Pink tower & Broad stairs:

Math:

sandpaper letters and pink language works:

Another favorite part of work time is reading in the library:

Many more works to come!!!!