Learning Launch!

This week has been what I feel is best described as the learning launch!  No longer am I just teaching procedures and expectations, but now I am adding that layer of academic challenges to really push my students to launch into a new year of learning. 

The students are into the routine of working first thing in the morning right up until morning announcements.  They want to keep working in their binders after announcements too, but we try to wrap it up at that point.

This week we reached 16 minutes for our reading stamina and we have launched all 5 Reader's Workshop choices!  I was able to pull reading groups today!  Hip Hip Hooray!  Six days ago I was afraid that we were not going to make it to this point! Amazing what can happen in a short amount of time in first grade! 

 Another learning launch has been our writer's workshop.  After we wrote three days this week, we had an author's sharing around the rug.  I didn't take pictures of the students sharing this time  They passed the microphone and shared one piece from their folder.  It was neat to watch them think about and choose their favorite piece to share. 

 Since we are authors now, it was time for our Special Delivery to arrive in our classroom! Boy was this exciting! 

 It was a tight election, but it looks like our class pet's name is President Bob.  We are all in love with him!  (It's so fitting for a little bobcat!!!)

 President Bob went home and has already come back with stories to tell...

  For math this week, we have been working on tallying, graphing, and analyzing as well as comparing numbers.  I snapped these pictures during our whole group lesson and then realized they are upside down to a normal person....As teachers our whole day is upside down like this!

 Math tub time is always a favorite!

  This activity was an interview, tally, and graph. 

  To practice for our first spelling test, I grabbed these short a apples and gave my students each a white board.  I gave each word in the format that I will give it tomorrow on the test. They wrote it on their whiteboards.  We went over it by placing the apple on the tree and checking our work.  I was told I was the best teacher in the world and that spelling tests are SO FUN! 

 Another Fantastic Week! 

Week 2=Success!

This week I have seen glimpses of greatness!  We are well on our way to becoming a well oiled learning machine!   

We are learning the processes and procedures of a productive learning environment.  The students are learning that they are the most integral component of their success! We have begun to reflect on our own level of mastery towards our learning objectives, and take steps to meet and exceed those goals we set for ourselves!  With each goal met, we unlock more learning opportunities for ourselves!

This week my pictures focus on two main areas of our day.  Reader's Workshop which includes reading to self, reading with someone, listening to reading, writing, word work, and responding to reading!  It's kind of a BIG DEAL!

We also worked on math skills and concepts involving number sense.  Our objective was to build, count, and represent numbers in many ways while discovering relationships in numbers.  The students are showing not only academic success with these basic skills, but we have had many opportunities to work on the social aspect of collaborating in the work setting.  It's just been a fabulous week all around!

Here's a peek into our room!

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