Classroom News:
Delayed Start, September 17, 2014
Book Orders are due, September 19, 2014
What a great first few days of school! The children have been working hard on learning our routines and expectations, getting to know each other, and what it means to be a first grader. I am looking forward to next week!
Our P.E. days are Tuesday and Wednesday, don't forget to send your child with gym shoes.
Literacy/Social Thinking Focus:
The past two weeks of school, we have spent a lot of time reviewing the basics of our social thinking curriculum. We've been talking about expected/unexpected behaviors, setting green thought goals each day, and are creating social behavior maps of different parts of our day. We have also been earning stars for JFK behavior (S-Striving for Excellence, T-Thoughtful, A-Accepting, R-Responsible, S-Safe.
We also have been working on creating our classroom culture. This means we need to become a team that works and learns together. The Charron Team! Learning involves trust. You have to feel comfortable to make mistakes and push your thinking. This trust develops as we get to know each other. The children and I are sharing information about ourselves, what we like, things we do, etc. This will continue the next few weeks.
We have also been working on acceptance. Acceptance , is also important in building a classroom that celebrates learning. We read books about what makes each of us special-that we are all different! Three books that we have read that deal with acceptance are:
Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes
Two Eyes, a Nose, and a Mouth, by Roberta Grobal Intrater
The Monster who lost his Mean, by Tiffany Strelitz Haber
Math Focus:
How do mathematicians organize collections in order to quickly count?
How do mathematicians write equations and represent their thinking?
This is a HUGE concept. We have been counting collections, or large groups of objects. The mathematicians need to figure out a way to organize the objects in order to count them accurately and efficiently. We have figured out that we can group the objects by 5's and 10's to make it easier for us. The children have been trying their best to "listen to understand" when a partner or teammate explains their thinking and testing out each other's ideas.
Please remember that are classroom is a peanut, nut, and egg free classroom.
Thank you to any one that has supplied our classroom with food and materials!
