Sneak a Peek at Our Fourth Week

My, how the time flies! While I truly enjoyed having time to talk to the other 50 first grade teachers in our district and share ideas today during a professional development session today, I sure did miss my firsties! They have stolen my heart in less than a month, and I am excited to be back at Doby's Bridge tomorrow!

Our fourth week was my favorite yet; we got to settle into our routine without any interruptions, which really helped the kids focus. Even though it was a four day week, we covered a lot of ground in many of our content areas! Here are a few pictures to show you a peek into our week:

During our reader's workshop, we added a fun new element: laundry-basket-reading! The students adore the cozy baskets and look forward to their chance to lounge in the special baskets; thank you so much, Swigunski family, for donating these nice new laundry baskets! 

Ray shares an exciting part of his book with Brody.  

Oliver looks comfy during independent reading time. 

Our writing has grown leaps and bounds in such a short amount of time! We are still working on writing narratives ("small moment stories") about our lives, and we had a "museum" of our work one day this week. I gave each student their very first piece of writing from the first week of school, and they compared it with their favorite piece they've written so far. You should have heard all the kids remarking about their own growth; they were so proud (and so was their teacher!!!). Once they had a chance to compare their own work, they laid both pieces on the table and had a chance to look at their friends' work. As much as the kids loved looking at their own work, they were even more excited to show their work to their friends!

Lauren proudly shows Jessie her work. 

Saylor reads her first piece to Creigh. 

Our writing museum walk was a success!

Friday was a super-special day: Grits for Grandparents, Bring a Stuffed Animal Day, and Pajama Day! Wahoo! This was probably my favorite day of school so far; the kids were just so happy! 

Saylor and Jessie math-journal in their jammies!

Lauren and Jack take a break from their math journals to say "Cheese!" for Mrs. Whitten. 

We practiced our presentation skills when we shared our stuffed animals after math!

I just had to get a picture with all my sweeties in their jammies! 

I'm looking to another wonderful week at Doby's Bridge with my favorite first grade friends! 

Sneak a Peek at Our Third Week!

Like I said in my last update, time is flying; I felt like I blinked my eyes and we were finishing our fourth week of school! I think Boosterthon was a big contributing factor to this; it really brought our beginning-of-the-year excitement to a whole new level! Thanks to all of your amazing support, families, Doby's Bridge reached its fundraising goals! Also, thanks to our class's incredible efforts, we had a lot of fun this week, celebrating with fun class incentives, like pajama day! However, I won't get too ahead of myself, talking about this week... Let's go back to our third week- the week of our actual Dragon Dash!

This week was certainly a hectic one, with Boosterthon grade-level meetings each morning, prize deliveries in the afternoon, and lots of learning jam-packed in between! Besides Boosterthon, we began exploring the concepts of addition and subtraction, became scientists and conducted an experiment, and said goodbye to Dr. Frattaroli. Whew! Now that I reflect on all that we did, it's no wonder that week is a blur! :)

Here are some pictures to commemorate everything:

Creigh, Kenneth, and Moriah try their hand at Subtraction Bowling! We watched subtraction happen as we knocked down pins in the empty room next door! 

Saylor and Dawson showed fabulous sportsmanship, clapping for their teammate, Amber!

Ray and his teammates watch anxiously to see how many pins he'll subtract from his total!

Patrick, Ava, Lucy, and Tanner record their subtraction sentence. 

The sporty theme continued as we moved throughout the week, leading up to our Dragon Dash on Thursday morning! Again, we Doby's Bridge Dragons send you a hearty thank you for supporting our school fundraiser and cheering on our Dragons as they ran! Here are some pictures of the Dragon Dash fun: 

Our class anxiously awaits our turn to be announced and run through the giant tunnel! 

Can you feel the excitment?! The kids do a bit of dancing to get out those pre-race jitters! 

And they're off! 

On Friday, we were all worn out from all that running, and the kids happily took a break after our writer's workshop to watch a special video of Dr. Frattaroli being turned into a human-ice-cream-sundae, our school-wide incentive for reaching our "50 State Challenge!" 

The kids were cracking up! They especially loved watching one of their classmates pour ice cream and cherries on our principal- Saylor was one of the school's top fund raisers and, as a result, got to partake in the sundae-making! During writer's workshop, she wrote a small moment story about her experience, and read it to all of us before we watched the video!  

After turning into a human-ice-cream-sundae, Dr. Frattaroli went home to clean up, and it's a good thing he did, because we had a surprise up our sleeves for his final day at Doby's Bridge! At the end of the day, we lined the halls and did a clap-out in his honor. He walked down all of the halls, giving lots of high-fives and hugs along the way!

Waiting for our turn!

High fives all around!

I'll admit: it was an emotional end to a busy week! Even though I only worked for him for a few months (technically, only one month!), I've known Dr. Frattaroli since I was in grade school; he was the principal at Sugar Creek, where I was a teacher cadet in high school! Like anyone who knows him, I admire him for his character; thankfully, it is already evident Mrs. Black possesses the same strong leadership qualities Dr. Frattaroli contributed to Doby's Bridge! It was a bittersweet day, and as cheesy as it sounds, I think it's just the end of the bright beginning at our school!  

Well, families, we're almost caught up! Be on the lookout for our fourth week's Sneak Peek!

Sneak a Peek at our Second Week!

It's hard for me to believe the last time I posted here was two weeks ago; this first month of school has simply flown by us here in C110! However, I would certainly be remiss not to document those weeks, even if it is a tad late!

With that being said, here's a peek at our second week! We dove into our writer's workshop, began reading to our friends during our reader's workshop, and had our Boosterthon pep rally to kick off our big school fundraiser! However, math was many of the kids' favorite time this week as we explored patterns! Take a look:

On Monday, after talking about patterns, everyone got a chance to finish and fill in some pattern cards with Unifix cubes. 

Brody, Oliver, and Nevaeh explore pattern cards.

Lucy and Tanner proudly display their finished pattern cards!

Creigh is all smiles with his pattern cards! 

These activities helped us build community with our table groups as we learned to share materials!

Later that week, table groups worked together to build growing patterns with attribute blocks and pattern blocks.  

Tables 1 and 2

Table 4

Table 5

Table 6

On Friday, we wrapped up our pattern unit with a culminating centers day. Students rotated from table to table, creating patterns with dry erase boards and markers, Unifix cubes, pattern blocks, washable markers, and- the class's favorite- making "Pattern Crowns" with sentence strips and bingo daubers. It was so exciting to see our mathematicians exploring these different materials, observing their friends' work, and making meaningful gains in their understanding of patterns- growing patterns, especially!  

Moriah, Kenneth, and Creigh use some of their favorite color combinations while making patterns.

Will creates a growing pattern!

Ava, Patrick, and Lucy use our whiteboards for the first time! 

Amber, Saylor, and Dawson show off all the creative patterns they can make with markers!

Jack and Jessie work on their crowns!

Moriah watches Kenneth work on his growing pattern.

Nevaeh proudly showing Mrs. Whitten her dry-erase pattern!

Dawson enjoys the bingo daubers station! 

Ray, in the process of making a neat discovery on how to show a growing pattern with Unifix cubes! 

Mathematicians hard at work!

Brody proudly displays his growing pattern! 

Pattern Pros!

Patrick shows off his super-long Unifix pattern!

Ava and her growing pattern she worked making! 

Saylor's smile says it all: we love patterns!

Phew! That sure was a lot to cover, and to think, that was just one hour each day! Your little learners are working so hard in school and growing so much! I'm so thankful for the effort they put in, for the support you're giving them (and in turn, giving me) on a daily basis.

Tomorrow I'll be sharing a glimpse into our third week, so stay tuned!