When I Grow Up...

Fun fact, when I was in third grade, I wrote a paper about how I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up! Dream come true! We had fun talking this week about different jobs, and hearing what each other wanted to be when we grew up. We created a class book about our dream jobs, and have had enjoyed reading through it this week. The most creative page is from a hilarious kindergartner who thinks it would be cool to be a bad guy one day!  

This week also started out our career days! I'm excited to have different parents come in and share about their jobs. I think that this gives the students a good view of real community helpers in our very own community. Plus, I love parent involvement in schools! On Thursday we had our first parent come in for career days, a librarian! It was great to learn more about what librarians do, and listen to a story. 

The first graders have begun learning about goods, services, producers, and consumers during discover time. We are in the process of planning, working towards, and creating a lemonade and snack stand at the end of the month. While discussing these concepts, we are planning a menu, making a grocery list, earning money in school to buy groceries, and creating a sign for our stand. Later, we're planning on taking a trip to the grocery story, and making our own products!

The first graders have also been busy with phonics and reading. We have been learning different consonant blends, such as "nd" and "nt", and have been incorporating them in our reading. Our reading books have been becoming more and more advanced. We even read a mini chapter book this week! Keep reading at home! I reminded the students this week that reading doesn't have to mean reading all the words. Rather, looking through a book, spotting words you recognize or can sound out, and understanding a story through pictures!

Kindergartners are also becoming little readers! We began sounding out words such as "sit", "it", and "in". We also have our first sight words, here and is. During reading times, we have been "reading" the pictures and role playing books. 

In math, first grade have been exploring more with subtraction. We also began reading bar graphs more. A funny story (probably more if you were there), I showed a picture of a bar graph and asked if anyone knew what it was (not expecting any answers). One first grade casually says, "Yeah, it's a bar graph."! I asked if she wanted to teach the lesson! 

In Kindergarten, we have been diving into numbers more. We also have been reviewing shapes, comparisons, and patterns. These concepts are truly the foundations for math later on. The students have a blast with patterns! The want to make patterns out of EVERYTHING! Counting bears, words, names, sounds; truly anything. They combined many pattern links together to make an amazing chain!

Well, I hope everyone enjoys the weekend! Just a reminder that Tuesday is Midterm, so I'll be sending progress reports home. Report cards will not be sent during midterms, rather at the end of semesters.