Happy Monday!

Here we are working on our morning sentence. Each day, we are writing a sentence like: I see _____. We are learning the snap words I and see. I draw a little picture clue each day for them to look at and then this friend writes his or her name. I encourage them to go to their table to copy it and/or make sure they're spelling their names write. We always say, "If you see it, write it!" 

Just look at Dallas pointing to the words as he reads today's survey question! 

I had a few friends that needed an extra challenge on their name cards today....first and last name. 

Here is a snapshot of us sharing our writing! Each afternoon, we have writing workshop. We are learning that writers don't draw pretty pictures just to draw pretty pictures. They think of a story about their life or a teaching book. Beau wrote a story about riding his bike. He even wrote the word bic.

Here we are practicing our handwriting! Today was our first day of learning how to pick up our pencils....many friends have a lot of experience. Many friends have a lot of practicing to do :) 

Happy Friday!

Just had to show that your little cuties are already making me beautiful pieces of artwork! Today I showed them how they have to write To Mrs. Cota before I'll hang it on our art wall. Later on, I'll show them that they also have to write by and their name :) 

Playing Roll and Record---learning how to use a dice and count the dots. Some smarties knew the dot patterns quickly, without counting! That's awesome! 

We made another class book after reading, Harold and the Purple Crayon. We have color words on our wall. I am teaching the kids that writers always say, "If you see it, write it." They quickly picked up on copying the words! 

So excited! Just got our new book bags in the mail :) We'll use these when we learn how to book shop for just right books! 

Had to show a picture of Autumn and her school story. We are still working on understanding that writers write books and stories....they don't draw pretty pictures just to draw pretty pictures. 

Well, all in all, it was a successful week! We survived week 1! I hope your little ones aren't too tired at night. I'm sure they are though...if they feel anything like me :) :) We are learning our routines and adjusting to this big kid school nicely! I hope you all have a good and restful weekend and that your kiddos are excited to come and see me on Monday :)

Happy Wednesday!!!

Today, during writing workshop, we learned that writers write made up stories and teaching books! We thought of ideas that we could write about and then tried it out with our new markers. Look at some of these pictures! 

We also started making our self-portraits. I'll take a picture once they're completed and hung up so you can see how different they all are. It's amazing how much you can learn about a child's maturity by looking at how he or she draws him or herself. 

Choicetime! Our playtime at the end of the day. Today we added blocks in for fun! 

Happy Tuesday!

Today we learned how to use Dry Erase Markers. We added our own new tool to our pencil box. We learned not to press down on them or they will be ruined. We also got our first "Done Choice" (choices we have when we finish our work before others). It's our namecards. We are going to be working a lot on writing our names the correct way! 

Pretty good tries for a first day! 

We also compared some of our names. We talked about what is the same and what is different about them. We counted the letters in our name. Then we recorded how many letters were in our names on our blue card. We cut apart our names and we will do even more with them tomorrow!!

Kelan and Beau taking a closer look :) 

Our 2nd morning sentence! Today, Amare blew me away when he came up and wrote the word see from memory. For those of you who are new to school, we learn snap words or high frequency words by heart. We're supposed to know 20 by the end of the year....but, honestly, most higher readers easily know over 40 words. These are simple words that you can't sound out: Words like I, the, my, is, like, etc.
Go to http://k02panthers.shutterfly.com for our first 20 words! You can practice at home! 

We read, Howard B Wigglebottom Learns to Listen. This was a GREAT book for the second day. It's very hard remembering not the blurt out or interrupt. That's how we communicate at home, but not at school. We're going to see if we can get better at this each day and earn a classroom cheer. 

We earned a cheer today by receiving a compliment from a 1st grade teacher! She said we were so quiet in the hallway!!! Whenever our WHOLE TEAM earns a compliment, we get to cheer. When we get to 5 cheers, we earn special K02 time. 

Happy FiRsT DaY of ScHoOl!

Overall....it was definitely a success! The kids each did their very own best and really worked hard. I always forget what an exhausting day it is for ALL us! Really...there are so many routines to get down. Please continue to have early bedtimes, especially as the week gets longer. We'll all need more rest than usual :)
I hope your little one had a special day today!!! 

Here we are writing our FIRST morning sentence! Oh yes! I said 'writing' and 'sentence.' Amazing right? We learned that I is a letter and a word. We also learned that C is the letter and see is the word!