First weeks of school!

Welcome to our class blog!  Our first three weeks of school have been very busy and exciting!

We have spent a lot of time getting to know each other and learning the routines and rules of the classroom.  The students shared their hopes and dreams for the school year and then created class rules together that will allow everyone to achieve their hopes and dreams and that will help everyone in our class to have a safe and fun school year full of learning.  The students voted on a class name and we are now called....the Lightning Bolts!!!

Student work is now bringing our classroom walls to life.  They have labeled important areas of the classroom and displayed their hopes and dreams, self-portraits, and name projects.  The students worked together to create several class books and they also made their own all about me books to be enjoyed by their peers.  All of the students have taken ownership of the room and do their part in keeping the classroom clean and organized. 

Here are some of the exciting things we have been working on:

• learning names
• greeting people with a strong handshake, eye-contact, strong voice and smile
• stretching out words to hear all of the sounds
• exploring math materials, learning math routines, playing math games
• counting by 2s and 5s
• counting forwards and backwards on a number line
• tally marks and collecting data
• shucking corn from a local farm to be enjoyed by students at lunch
• class jobs

Last week our students became scientists and authors!  We talked about using their five senses to make observations and the students put their five senses to work to observe a shell through a scientist's eyes.  The students were thrilled to begin writer's workshop and apply the storytelling skills we have been working on to writing personal narrative stories.  Every student had a story to tell and eagerly found a quiet space to write-it was one of the big highlights of last week!

We are off to a great start to the school year!