You're Finally Here!

First grade is finally here!

The 2016-2017 school year is off to a great start! Here's what we've been up to!

We introduced our first social skill: responsibility. Our teams have been earning lots of points every day for showing responsibility.

We introduced the world map and its seven continents and five oceans. Over the next few weeks, we'll be focusing on North America and the coniferous forest, and we'll learn about a few animals that live there.

We are getting used to our routines for math time and we have been able to review some math concepts from last year. During math this year, we will work together and independently!

This year, your first grader will hopefully start to see just how connected reading and writing are, how often we use reading and writing every day, and more importantly, how much fun they both can be!

We learned about different ways we can read a book. Ask your first grader if he or she remembers the three ways! We read a story together without looking at the words (much harder than it sounds!) and had so much fun!

Why do readers read? Gino told us, "to know how fast you can go when you're driving." Every year the kids come up with new, more creative evidence that we read ALL the time. :)

We talked about all of the different things that writers write, and the kids got to choose to write anything they wanted that day. I loved reading the grocery lists and to-do lists in particular. ;)

In first grade we will read lots of nonfiction books. The kids worked with their teams to sort their books into two piles: fiction and nonfiction.

We worked on our reading stamina! The kids were most successful when they each chose a comfy spot to read.

Our first animal—the black bear!

Almost every day this year, we'll learn a new word together. Friday's signal word was "habitat."

So many BOOKS already! The kids are very quick to remind me if we go too long without reading a book together. :)

Thanks for reading! What has your first grader shared with you about first grade? Leave us a comment below.

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