I'm looking forward to seeing many of you at Back to School Night on Tuesday, September 16th at 7pm. It gives you a great opportunity to see the classroom and learn about what we'll be doing in 1-Bu this year. Please email me if you have any questions.
Speaking of emails, on September 5th I sent an email to all of the email addresses that the school has on file for each child in 1-Bu. If you have not received this email, please let me know.
Even though we've only been in school for seven days, 1-Bu has gotten a lot accomplished. Here's what we've been working on in the classroom:
Reading : We've been going over the four main parts of reading workshop and practicing them each day. Ask your child what we do in reading workshop. First, we get ready by putting our book bins out. Then, we come to the rug for a mini-lesson. After that, the students go off and read. Finally, we come together again at the rug for a share.
During the reading portion of reading workshop, the students are working on reading quietly to themselves. We're working on building up the students' reading stamina so that they can read, independently, for longer and longer periods of time.
Writing : The students have done a few beginning of the year writing pieces. We're also reviewing proper handwriting techniques.
Math : So far, we've reviewed a lot of math that the students learned in kindergarten. We've been counting, skip counting, and using a number line. The students have also played two different math games - Monster Squeeze and Penny Dice. (You can see pictures of the students playing both games at the bottom of this post.)
Phonics : At the beginning of first grade, we will be reviewing all of the letter sounds. So far, we've gone over the sounds for m, s, and f. We've also been working on separating the sounds in words, paying particular attention to the beginning and ending sounds.
Science : Have you heard about 1-Bu's caterpillars? Our first science unit of the year is all about the butterfly life cycle. We'll be carefully observing the changes that our caterpillars go through as we learn about life cycles.
Computers : 1-Bu has already gone to the computer lab, successfully logged on to the computers, and navigated through the Cherry Hill School website!
Here are some recent pictures of 1-Bu: