Wet Wednesday

Today was another inside recess day due to wet weather!  While it's always nice to get outside for a bit during the day, indoor recess is a fun time for students to relax and enjoy their favorite parts of our classroom with less structure than normal. 

In SWR today we practiced writing a whole sentence.  First we reviewed the most important parts of a sentence (uppercase to start, period to end); next we listened to count the number of words in the sentence; then we counted the red words in the sentence; finally, we wrote the sentence!  This practice helps us to identify every word that we need to write, the sounds of the letters in the word and improves our listening skills! 

Math was very exciting today.  We used the smartboard as a whole class to count nickels and pennies.  We realized that when we count different coins it is easiest to start with the coin that is worth more and then the coin that is worth less.  We did a great job counting coins together.  After this, we practiced counting coins in our math books and then split into partners to practice trading pennies for nickels.  As a group, we are very comfortable counting coins, individually though, we can be a little less confident.  I am encouraging and reinforcing the values of coins with students who are still unsure and reminding them that they know how to do this!  Practice counting by 5's and then by ones will help!  For example, you may ask your first grader to count to 37 by 5's then 1's.  They would respond, "5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 36, 37."  Of course, any practice counting real coins at home is helpful too!

In reading today we had a group earn our group-book for their individual browsing bags!  They earned this by reading the entire book themselves and telling me what certain vocabulary words meant and what happened in the story.  We are so proud of them!  They are now experts at this book and are so excited to share them with their reading partners during partner read! (I thought that we would spend at least another day with this book as a group, but when I took the books out one student said, "Awww, this book again? I can read this one." Then they took the book, opened it to begin reading and said, "Watch the master show you how it's done."  And read it perfectly.  There are far worse things than being a "master reader" so.... I'll take it! ) 

There are sight-word flash cards in your first grader's folder tonight.  I hope this makes practicing these words at home quick and easy. 

In P.E. we worked on teamwork and navigating an obstacle course.

We had another community helper visit our room today.  Tucker's Mom, Melissa, came in today to tell us about her job at Burlington Housing Authority.  We talked about homes, people who might need help buying homes, and how employees at work get paid.  We also discussed what adults spend their paychecks on and how it's important to have a job because we need food, a house, a car and other necessities.  Avery helped us remember that it is so important to put some of our money in the bank. 

In writing today we used our story maps to help us write complete sentences that will be used in our upcoming stories.  We are so excited about our stories!

And of course... it wouldn't be a day in Room 3 without requests to share student creations!