Whirlwind Two Days

 Hi, My Name is _________________.

 

Two days down in my new adventure of first grade!  Interactive writing about what our senses found out about the class plants led to a naming vote and graph -- Meet Leafy and Smooth. I must thank the Brown Bag Teacher for this idea -- it was the best part of our two days! We explored them with our eyes, hands, ears, nose... there were a few leaf casualties but all in all we survived! One of my darlings was very strongly opinionated about senses and name choices -- it was great to see him so purposeful!

We also read Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy, noticing how the main character changed as we read and going back to retell quickly the beginning, middle, and end with an interactive sentence to determine when the characters changed. We'll use this basic anchor poster to talk about character change in Jitter Juice and First Grade Stinks! tomorrow. We'll add the post-it notes that we noted during reading and add another sentence to explain why this change is important.

Another very successful and engaging activity were the number talks that we used to kick off our math lessons each day. They are the perfect amount of time and gradual release/ gradual increase that we needed! After each day, we have co-created a sentence about what we are understanding.

We also worked on a lot of routines, taking pictures and making posters (paper size) of kids demonstrating the hand signals for restroom, water, and discussion signals (explained in number talks resource). We also worked on our routine for turning in finished work, unfinished work folders, and flexible seating spots (so brief.) We learned about 2 ways to read, using Mo Willems Pigeon and Elephant and Piggie series -- another winner each time! Our reading to self stamina is 2 minutes 24 seconds so far. Yes! Note to self: get more Mo Willems in the next book order.

Most students were engaged in the books I picked out for them (we are not ready to tackle the library.) It's definitely a long day and anything after PM recess can be like herding cats -- but they are cute and earnest cats. I think this switch to first grade is going to be so rewarding!