Week 33

Our new Samurai

Star of the Week sharing about himself

Class police officers

The following are all pictures of various students showing their growth this year:

The year is starting to wind down, and the students are feeling restless, but all-in-all it was a great week!

Special Activities: This week there were no special activities other than going swimming for P.E.   We did get a class ipad, which has been fun to use.  I hooked it to our sound system to play short music clips during transitions.  For example, I’ll give students ten seconds to get to their desks, and I’ll play a ten second music clip that they have to beat.   Students have enjoyed that change, and it’s helped in the orderliness of our classroom.

Funny Stuff From Kids: I heard a fun conversation between students in my class.  The name is a made-up name, but everything else is real: “Hi Annie-Sue.”  “What?  Why did you call her Annie Sue instead of Annie?  I only know one Sue, and that’s Dr. Sue (meaning Dr. Seuss).”

“Mr. Smith, you’re as silly as my grandpa!”

Students are started to understand social interactions in first grade, but they still aren’t 100% there.  For example, a student had an injury and one student said to another student, “You shouldn’t laugh at him, even though he looks funny.”  It was a good effort to be nice, but I’m sure the injured student thought, “Oh, so you do think I look funny, eh?”  Students are growing in their social skills at this age, and I’m trying to teach them. 

“I need a girlfriend.  In second grade I’m gonna get one.” 

Homework: Keep working hard on the homework packets as the year winds down. 

Behavior: We spent time discussing making smart choices in many different scenarios.

Social Studies: We watched a short video about a kid with no foot, and we talked about how to treat people with disabilities just like you treat anyone else.  We then talked about how we should treat everyone—regardless of culture, abilities, looks, or anything else—just the way we would want someone to treat us. 

Math: This week we talked about measuring length and the difference between centimeters and inches.  We also talked about fractions.  We divided up an apple and used that as the basis of the lesson.  Math was very hands-on this week, and the students enjoyed it a lot. 

Project Read/Spelling: This week we focused on open syllable words (words ending in a single vowel, such as hi) and ending –ed words.  Students really struggled with it, and I’d like to spend another week on it.  We won’t be able to spend any more time on it, but I will review it the last few weeks.        

Speedy Words and Rocket Math: Students are learning their math facts very well.  Continue encouraging them and practicing with them.

AR: Students keep progressing!  We got another Samurai this week!

Writing: This week for writing we began working on a class writing project of making a DVD of our experience in first grade.  I hope to show the class how writing is applied to real life as well as make a keepsake for them.

Science: For science this week we have been watching our caterpillars make cocoons, which has been really neat.  We also measured students to see how much they’ve grown this year.  Most have grown between two and three inches.  Three students were absent the day we measured them, so I’ll have to get pictures of them next week.