Mrs. Van Gorder’s Weekly News September 9-18 Check out our class website! Additional Notes- We’re off to a great start in first grade, and boy have we sure done a lot in the first 8 days! We celebrated 3 September birthdays: Kylie, Catello and Sophia. Please be sure your child’s behavior log stays in their folder at all times. We’ve had many outstanding days so far, and many of us are half way to earning a prize. Please note: homework is due and assigned on Fridays. Lunch Money sent in needs to be labeled with your child’s name for the cafeteria staff. Be sure to separate lunch money and snack money. Snack money can not be deducted from lunch accounts. Please be sure your child brings their own snack from home every day. We have snack every day at 11:00. Our class size is 22, with 12 boys and 10 girls. Our class website will have all updates, so please check it frequently. We used the website abcya.com in computer lab this week. Check it out at home! Reading- We began to learn about the workstations we will be doing during the guided reading block. We made I can posters describing all the things you can do at the following stations: library, listening, poetry, writing and ABC. Writing- In writing this week we drew self portraits, and drew and labeled our immediate family. We began writing personal our first personal narrative on a summer memory. We have begun charting our writing stamina. We will increase the amount of work time gradually. In writing we sound out words on our own. By using inventive spelling it helps us to understand what sounds they are associating with letters, and what spelling patterns are being applied to their work. Word Study- We read The Night Before First Grade, and Chicka Chicak Boom Boom. When we read The Kissing Hand, we listed feeling words that described how we felt before the first day of school and made a class book about it. We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see? and drew pictures of a friend in class to make another class book and drew pictures of characters to make color posters. We sang a song about our names, and organized our first names in alphabetical order. We drew pictures that start with each letter of the alphabet to create letter posters for our word wall. Social Studies- We learned about a lot of classroom routines, for example each morning we take out our take home folder and any important papers in it, place them in the notes from home basket and put folders in mailboxes. We read My School’s a Zoo, and created a set of class rules together. We celebrated Constitution Day on the 17 th by reading We the Kids, a kid friendly version that explains what The Constitution is all about. We reviewed the poster of rules we created as a class and signed, discussing the importance of our signatures vowing to follow the rules to keep us safe and maximize learning time. Science - We observed and recorded notes in our science journals after studying a Monarch Chrysalis, that we are sharing with another class. We have not had any luck yet finding Monarch Caterpillars. One friend found a brown unidentified caterpillar that we are monitoring. We are going to continue to observe and research this caterpillar, so stay tuned for updates on our findings. Math - We focused on number formation, learning poems. (see reverse side) We learned how to make numbers in a ten frame and made a birthday graph. We played a guess the mystery number game called monster squeeze. The facilitator had to tell if the number was higher or lower. Class Meeting - For our first class meeting we reviewed the rules for our sharing circle and the school wide anti-bullying rules. We discussed the importance of reporting incidents and setting good examples by helping others follow rules. We read Have You Filled a Bucket Today? and started a class wide incentive to earn a warm fuzzy whenever we are caught doing random acts of kindness and get good reports from special area teachers.

Number Poems 1 Start at the top and down you run, that ’ s the way to make a 1! 2 Around and back on a railroad track, 2-2-2! 3 Around the tree, around the tree, that ’ s the way to make a 3! 4 Down & over & down once more, that ’ s the way to make a 4! 5 Down & around & a flag on high, that ’ s the way to make a 5! 6 Around to a loop number 6 makes a hoop! 7 Across the sky & down from heaven, that ’ s the way to make a 7! 8 Make an S but do not wait, go back up and close the gate! 9 Make a circle and a line, that ’ s the way to make a 9! 0 Around you go, around you go, that’s the way to make a 0!