We have new books!

Our grant for new books from DonorsChoose.org was funded several weeks ago! Our new books have arrived! It did not take long for every student in our class to dive right in to a new book. The kids helped me unpack the box and explore the contents. We have already read a few books as a whole group, and most students have had a chance to read one independently. 

We know that reading books on our level (books we like, can read with 96% percent accuracy, and that we can understand) helps us grow as readers. Many of the books are "Just Right" reads for the kids, and some of them are easy. Easy books are great for building fluency and for working on reading with expression. A short book talk about the Dr. Seuss books was all it took to get students engaged in independent and partner reading focused on fluency, comprehension, and expression.

They are off to a great start this year. I can see a lot of growth happening already. Thank you for your support at home and through DonorsChoose.org. We are so glad to have new books in the classroom!!! 

Different Styles, Different Children Booklist | Books by Theme | Children's Books and Authors | Reading Rockets

We are studying theme this week. This book list should give you and your child a lot to talk about. Happy reading!

Different Styles, Different Children Booklist | Books by Theme | Children's Books and Authors | Reading Rockets

Fluency Matters | Reading Topics A-Z | Reading Rockets

This article has great tips for increasing reading fluency! I hope you will check it out. Let me know if you try any of the ideas. I would love to hear your feedback.

Fluency Matters | Reading Topics A-Z | Reading Rockets

Good Fit Books Needed!

My project request, "Good Fit Books Needed!" is eligible for match at DonorsChoose.org. That means we can get more books for our money. If you are interested in finding out about helping our classroom grow a diverse library, please click HERE! Thank you!

Specials Calendar

Welcome back!

It was a great week! I am so excited for the year to come. Thank you to everyone who came to Back to School Night and to all of the parents who stopped in during the week to say, "Hello!" I look forward to getting to know you and your family throughout the year.

This week we practiced our routines and procedures. The kids are doing great with our Morning Routine of getting set for the day, choosing new books for their book boxes, and reading. They are already building stamina for an increased volume of reading. We learned that reading time is precious and we need to make sure we have time each day to practice. We learned that the more you read, the more you know! Just like preparing for a marathon, it is important to increase our reading at a steady pace in order to grow stronger and stay the course. Thank you for your support at home making sure your child has a quiet place to read each night (either with or without you).

In writing we have begun brainstorming topics, planning, and drafting stories. Some students are writing about their lives and some are creating stories from their imaginations. Both types of stories are great for sharing, and we have enjoyed hearing several stories already. Your kids are creative and detailed!

In math we are practicing counting, comparing, and composing numbers. We collected data about our eye color and converted it into a class pictograph. We practiced making a bar graph, and compared the information. We learned a new math game called "Tall Towers" and another math activity named "Number Splash." We also spent some time exploring the manipulatives.

In social studies we have been discussing the importance of rules and laws. We shared some of the rules that we have at home to keep our home safe and rules that we have at school.

We will continue working on all of the above concepts and begin our reading assessments this week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Back to School

I am looking forward to meeting my new students and parents!

Back to School Night is this Thursday, August 23rd from 5:00pm-6:00pm!

If you already have your child's supplies you may bring them to Back to School Night. You may access a supply list HERE. An additional supply "wish list" is included at the Important Links tab.

Connected Educator Map

If you are visiting this blog and you are an educator, then please consider adding yourself to the Connected Educator Map. You may find another connected classroom around the world that you and your students would like to collaborate with digitally in order to accomplish a goal or learn more about another culture. Happy collaborating!

View Connected Educator Map in a larger map

Summer Reading for 6-9 Year Olds

Are you in the mood for a great book? Click HERE to link to a book list that your child will love. Print out the list and take it with you when you go to the library.

I look forward to hearing about your favorite books! My blog is always open. Stop by anytime.

Have a great summer!

End of the Year Celebrations

First Grade News Flash

The end of the year is almost here! Let’s celebrate all we have learned and all the fun we have had!!!

Awards Day will be Thursday, May 31, 2012 from 12:30-1:00pm in the gymnasium. This Awards Day will be combined for ALL first grade classes.
Ms. Matthews will be announcing student award winners. You are welcome to join us.

The next day, we will enjoy our End-of-the-Year Celebration (Friday, June 1, 2012 from 2:00-2:45pm). We will be reviewing all of the fun we have had and sharing some of our outstanding work. Please visit our Google Group or contact me or Becky Cooper if you are interested in volunteering for this fun event!

Thank you for all of your help. We look forward to seeing you at our celebration!

                                                                        Sincerely,

                                                                        Mrs. Harrell

Thank you, Donors!

With a nudge from Andreya Gomez (Thank you!), I recently signed up with DonorsChoose.org to propose projects that promote the education of our youth. The project, "Read to Learn" was fully funded thanks to some faithful parents and kind strangers. Thank you for your support! We have received over 35 books, including books on CD for our listening center. So far we have read a lot about Earth Day and simple machines. The books cover many nonfiction and historical fiction topics. Thank you to all who contributed to this project and to all who promote the love of reading!


My next proposal will be to seek funding for a book display case to make it easier for, "young readers [to] find what they're looking for even if they don't yet know what it is (Atwell, 2007)."

What are you reading?

From parent to parent...

"You never know what will enhance a child's life. As parents, it's our job to introduce a child to things like music, books, theater, lacrosse, tennis, gardening, travel, karate, travel, camping, knitting, fishing, etc. We're like doctors doing those allergy scratch tests: Just expose the patient to everything you can think of and watch for inflammation" (April 2012, Carolina Parent, 72).

I love that quote. The image is great!

I just finished reading Carolina Parent magazine for April. I enjoyed reading several articles. I recommend, the news section on page 8 for the upcoming Reading Events and the Toolbox: Parenting Resource of the Month. You can grab a copy of the April Carolina Parent magazine in the lobby at Creekside.

Blog About Books

One of the best ways to find out about great books is from your friend's recommendations. For homework in April, your child will be asked to use the Blogging About Books tab to write about a book they have read. The blog post should include the title and author, a little bit about the book, and whether they liked the book or not. Your child may also choose to recommend it to someone. Please see Mrs. Haydon's Blog to see how her class is blogging about books.

News Flash!

Hello, all! I hope you are having a pleasant weekend. Remember, tomorrow is a teacher workday. Some students were telling me that they plan to work on their fish projects on Monday. I have heard many great ideas. I can't wait to see what they come up with!

Classroom Update: We have started to tally up our good behavior. Each time our class receives a compliment, or earns a perfect score in Specials, or transitions well throughout the day we record our accomplishment with a tally mark on the board. When we collect 30 tally marks we will celebrate with a voted upon activity. We already have 4 tally marks! We voted last week for our first celebration to include "Performances." Several students will showcase their talents. Please let me know if you would like to join us.

J March 26th—No School Teacher Work Day

J March 27th—Beginning of the 4th Quarter

J March 29th—Report Cards go home

J March 30th—Rock Presentation

J April 2nd—PTA Meeting at 7:00pm

J Spring Break—April 6th-April 13th

J April 19th—Volunteer Breakfast 8:35-9:30

J April 25th—Last Early Release Day at 1:30pm

J April 26th—Field Day!

Cairo is Coming to Our Classroom

On Thursday, March 8, 2012 our awareness of what life is like in Africa will be broadened. We are lucky to have the opportunity to experience the contents of a Cairo Culture Kit, which has been carefully collected by researchers at UNC. The contents will include popular games, books, movies and shows. It will also include Egypt's national flag, a uniform, and a natural toothbrush (made from a fragrant twig). 

To prepare for the Cairo Culture Kit we need to collect a culture kit of our own. Think about the popular books, movies, and games that your children interact with daily. Does your family have any favorite Disney books or movies? Do you read books to your children that teach a lesson? Do you ever let your kids play games or work with puzzles because you find them educational? What kind of toothbrush does your child use? Please send an example of one of these items to school by March 8th, so we can compare and contrast our culture kit with the Cairo Culture Kit. Here is a link to the article that one of you awesome parents sent me...Culture Kits Provide Students Global Perspectives. Thank you! 

Digital Storytelling--Fun for Families!

Have you ever hear of Storybird? It is so much fun! I just created my first digital story in about 5 minutes. You and your kids would have a blast practicing literacy skills by making up stories together. Kleinspiration wrote the blog that helped steer me to Storybird. I have plans to use Storybird in the classroom. I hope you have a chance to try it at home as well.

Mark Your Calendars...

February 21st is CiCi's Pizza Night from 6:00-9:00pm in Oak Creek Plaza (15-501 and Garret Rd.). When you order make sure you mention that you are from Creekside to earn our school 10% of sales. Thank you for supporting Creekside!

February 24th--Yearbook orders are due!

Valentine's Day Activities

We had a great time on Valentine's Day!

We participated in many different activities that centered around Valentine's Day. We used Conversation Hearts during math and writing to spice things up a bit.

In math, we used the Conversation Hearts to make bar graphs by color. We also counted the letters on each heart to make tally charts.

Before writing I read The Best Valentine. It is an alphabet book about Big Benny who does not receive any Valentines, but in the end he gets something even better. The assignment was to write a letter to Big Benny to make him feel better about not receiving any valentines. Students were encouraged to include as many ABC words from the story as they could. Then, as an extra challenge they were asked to use Conversation Hearts to add to their stories where ever it made since to do so. The results were amazing! Your kids are so creative. Here are a couple of examples...1 and 2.

February News Flash

Feb. 14         Valentine’s Day card exchange!

Feb. 17         Black History Magazine Project Due (see homework packet for information)

Feb. 24         No School (Teacher workday)

March 14         Science Festival 6:30-8:00pm

 WELCOME

 Mrs. Knight is our new Instructional Assistant. She is a certified teacher and has taught 7^th grade. She is working on completing an add-on to her license which will allow her to teach elementary-aged students. 

HOMEWORK

February Homework Packet will be going home on Monday, February 6, 2012

OTHER INFORMATION

Valentine’s Day information:

We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day by exchanging Valentines cards on February 14^th. As a class we will be decorating bags to put our Valentines in.

We need your help! The children will need Valentine’s themed decorations for their bags (hearts, cupid, love, flowers, etc). Stickers, stencils, doilies, feathers and other lovely things are much appreciated by Friday, Feb. 10!

To help your child address his/her Valentines to their classmates, we have provided the class list below. (If your child chooses to participate, please make sure your child gives a Valentine to every child in the class.)

Pascale             Elizabeth                       Tania                Parker

Bhumika           Thomas                        Lilly                  Maria Joselin

Julian                Caiden                          Dev                  Nisha

Miriam              Ayden                          Amaya             Bryan

Maria Lili          Dreizin                          Lillian               Arashdeep

Roseyln            Calvin

DPS Technology Challenge- Fall, 2011: Congratulations, Fall, 2011 Challenge Finishers!

DPS Technology Challenge- Fall, 2011: Congratulations, Fall, 2011 Challenge Finishers!: Congratulations to the following 13 DPS teachers who have completed the Fall, 2011 DPS Technology Challenge! Kirsten Edwards Blaire By...

News Flash

January is full of excitement with Awards Day, a field trip, report cards, and a special presentation. Please read the January Newsletter to find out more.

How to Read Nonfiction Text | Reading Topics A-Z | Reading Rockets

How to Read Nonfiction Text Reading Topics A-Z Reading Rockets

Mark Your Calendars

January 11^th—Early Release at 1:30pm

January 16^th—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day—Holiday (no school)

January 19^th—Class Awards Day at 11:00am in the classroom (room 126)

*Each child will be receiving an academic award. Lunch will be afterwards at 11:30am. If you are able to stay you may have lunch with your child in our classroom.

*Please let me know as soon as possible if you will be buying a lunch from the cafeteria.

January 20^th—Field Trip to Marbles Children Museum

*Please make sure permission slips and money are returned by Tuesday, January 10^th.

January 23^rd—Teacher Work Day

January 24^th—Beginning of the 3^rd Quarter

January 25th--National Weather Service Presentation (10:45am-11:25am)

January 26^th—Report Cards go home

February 7th--Parent Workshop: Bully-Free Creekside (K-2) in the Media Center (6:00-6:40pm)

Why blog?

Happy New Year! Thanks for visiting our new class blog. Here you will find news, schedule updates, homework calendars, and more. I decided to create a blog because it is more interactive than a traditional website. Now, if you have questions or comments about something that you see you can ask me by commenting on a blog post. If you join our blog you will get an email anytime there are new posts added.

You can still access our website to view past newsletters at http://mrsharrellsfirstgradeclass.yolasite.com/newsletters.php.