Monday, August 27, 2012

I just wanted to mention something about the fundraiser that was sent home today.  Just so everyone knows, here are the important dates to remember.

Sale Starts-Aug 27
Quick Start Vouchers Due-Tuesday Sept. 4th
Order Forms Due-Monday Sept. 10th
Delivery-Thursday Oct. 18th
Money Due-Monday Oct. 29th

The students were told to sell to people they know and not to sell to stangers.  If you would like to send it to work with you to sell that would be fine.  Just pass it around the workplace.  The funds raised will go to help Oak Hill buy new computers and other new technological things. 

Keep reviewing the short a sound and practicing counting.  Today we worked on the short a sound and we found all the combinations that add up to 8.  Tomorrow we will talk about making 9.  We also talked about how the words in a sentence need to go in the right order.  This topic is pretty easy for just about everyone.  I was observing the students do a worksheet and I saw no wrong answers about the sentence order.

This week will go by fast and don't forget if you have not turned in your field trip forms and money please do so ASAP!

Midweek Look thus far

Today is Wednesday the 22nd.  Today we got a lot accomplished.  I am proud of everyone and how well they have been doing.  If you are looking for things do at home to help out with the work we are doing in the classroom you can practice counting, asking what number comes next and always be reading with your student and have them read to you.  Today we officially kicked off Read to Self.  We had a chance to see what it looks like and what it does not look like.  The students had fun modeling the correct and incorrect behavior.  I am impressed on how well everyone gets down to reading by themselves.  We are working on our reading stamina and making it 5 minutes of reading to ourselves.  Reading to yourself is the best way to improve your reading.  While we are reading we learned there are three ways to read a book.  They are, read the pictures, read the words, and retell the story.  If you are reading at home, you and your student can use this strategy to help with comprehension.  We have also continued to talk about the short A sound and using it in our spelling words.  In math we have began adding numbers.  Today we got to make our own adding book.  I will say, I think everyone is already farther along in the math book than where we are starting.  The first couple of lessons will be easy but by the end of next week we are going to be writing our own addition sentences.  We have also been talking about sentences and how they all start with a capital letter and they end with a punctuation mark.  We talked about statements, questions and exclamations.  We are also introducing the 7 healthy habits.  The first one today, was to be proactive.  We talked about how we make our own choices and we need to make them for good.  Nobody can make our own fun, we are responsible for that.  If you are bored try making something for someone or doing something nice for them.

If you have not already turned in your permission slips for the Barnes and Noble field trip please do so. It costs $2 for bus travel.  Every student will come home with a book.

Again if you have any questions or concerns please email me at Robert.Moreland@evsc.k12.in.us.

Thanks!!!!

A Look At Monday the 20th

Well we have successfully completed our 4th day of school.  Everyday we get busier and busier.  Today we got a chance to talk about picking books and using the I PICK method.  Each letter stands for a way to pick a book.

I-I choose a book
P-Purpose, why do I want to read this book?
I-Interesting, what is interesting about this book?
C-Comprehend, do I understand the book?
K-Know the words

We will continue to review these methods when we are choosing books for our book bag.  We are working on the most important reading skill which is reading to ourselves.  We also talked about building stamina when we are reading.  We have been reading books of our choosing for three minutes at a time.  In between reading we have also been reviewing the short a sound and have talked about the -an and -and word families.  We also read a story where we talked about comprehension.  We focused on retelling the story by remembering the beginning middle and end.
       
In math we have been practicing counting.  Today we began our math journal. Everyday it will have skills of all sorts.  We also wrote our numbers, and practiced which numbers come next in a number sequence.  We will continue these skills everyday.  We are going to start adding this week and using different methods.  The best thing that you can do at home is just practice some addition problems.  We are going to practice adding numbers up to 20.

The other thing that has changed is the related arts rotation.  The students are now divided up into 4 groups of 5.  They go to other classrooms now instead of us going as a class.  Look in your student's binder or folder for a note explaining this further.  I will also make a note of the groups and where they go in our newsletter.  Just ask your student which group they are in and look at the note that was sent home for reference about where the group is going.

We have a busy week left and are making great progress already!  It has been a great start to first grade!

Whewwwwww!  We made it through the first day of school!!  I enjoyed seeing everyone's bright and smiling faces today!  We had a fantastic first day of school.  Everyone came in and began working right away.  The only thing that was confusing for everyone was the supplies.  I am only asking for an additional 1/2 inch binder.  If you can't find one a 1 inch one will do as well. 

Today we colored some shirts that we will hang up to brighten our room.  We read a story and talked about the first day jitters.  We even got to share about what made us nervous.  Now that we are at school, we found out it's not so bad after all.  We also read two chapters of Wayside School.  Amongst explaining the procedures we also got a chance to start our writing journal and practice handwriting skills with our numbers and letters.  There was no homework for tonight but if you are looking for something to refresh their little minds you can have them start practing counting.  Try to have them get to 100 in a minute. 

I think that is pretty much a short summary of what we did today.  It was a great day and I am really excited to get the year going.  After today I can see that we really do have a great class!

Open House

It sure was fantastic to meet those of you that came to Open House on Monday evening.  I enjoyed meeting you and your students.  I am excited to get the year off to a great start!  I am also very very excited to be at Oak Hill.  I was at Scott 2 years ago and when the schools spilt. My assistant job was eliminated.  I spent last year at West Terrace helping out in the first grade.  Now I am back with some familiar faces and am excited to be back in the North school district.  I will do my best to keep you updated here at least twice a week about the things we have accomplished in our classroom and any upcoming events as well.  I look forward to a great school year!

Welcome Back

Greetings everyone!!  This is Mr. Moreland.  This blog will help you stay informed with what we are doing in our classroom.  On here you will find upcoming events, field trips, announcements and anything else that you need to know or might want to know.