What a busy 3 days we had last week! We worked on building community and establishing routines for building academics. Here is some language that I hope you will start to hear at home:
Talk Moves:
"Talk Moves" are how we interact in a discussion and during a lesson. So far, we have learned about whole body listening(minion manners), how to agree and disagree with each other, as well as repeating something important that someone else has said. Talk Moves lay the ground work for individualized, higher level thinking and learning.
Best Quality Cookies:
Our first "science" experiment was all about what kind of cookies are best. This was to illustrate the expectation of best quality work in the classroom. I put it in during our science time because the activity involved following step by step directions. Ask to see the best quality cookie sign when you come to visit us at Open House.
We've also talked about routines for literacy and launched the new Bridges Program with a project about beetles...??? It was an excellent, craft-based project about graphing. I can't wait for you to see all the creepy crawlies in our classroom.
Our writing, science and social studies notebooks are all underway. Finally, please make sure to take the 1st/2nd grade spelling list out of the folder. Keep it on your refrigerator. We want to get all of those words under our skin. This week we will have to take a spelling test to get everyone practicing the words they need to become a better reader.
There is no homework yet. There will be. What I like about homework is that it is another link between home and school, and lets parents know where they can pitch in. Or, more importantly, your student may be "looking like" he or she gets it at school, but the truth comes out at home. I need to know if this is the case. Along with a regular reading routine at home, I hope for students to spend no more than 10 minutes at home. I may send more than I should as I get used to this new math program. In this case, I'll rely on parents to keep me informed.
Please be sure to contact me if you have questions or need anything from me to make this a dynamite year for your sun or daughter.
Talk Moves:
"Talk Moves" are how we interact in a discussion and during a lesson. So far, we have learned about whole body listening(minion manners), how to agree and disagree with each other, as well as repeating something important that someone else has said. Talk Moves lay the ground work for individualized, higher level thinking and learning.
Best Quality Cookies:
Our first "science" experiment was all about what kind of cookies are best. This was to illustrate the expectation of best quality work in the classroom. I put it in during our science time because the activity involved following step by step directions. Ask to see the best quality cookie sign when you come to visit us at Open House.
We've also talked about routines for literacy and launched the new Bridges Program with a project about beetles...??? It was an excellent, craft-based project about graphing. I can't wait for you to see all the creepy crawlies in our classroom.
Our writing, science and social studies notebooks are all underway. Finally, please make sure to take the 1st/2nd grade spelling list out of the folder. Keep it on your refrigerator. We want to get all of those words under our skin. This week we will have to take a spelling test to get everyone practicing the words they need to become a better reader.
There is no homework yet. There will be. What I like about homework is that it is another link between home and school, and lets parents know where they can pitch in. Or, more importantly, your student may be "looking like" he or she gets it at school, but the truth comes out at home. I need to know if this is the case. Along with a regular reading routine at home, I hope for students to spend no more than 10 minutes at home. I may send more than I should as I get used to this new math program. In this case, I'll rely on parents to keep me informed.
Please be sure to contact me if you have questions or need anything from me to make this a dynamite year for your sun or daughter.
