Day 20 and going strong...

Hello First Grade Families,

I love the feeling of fall. Do you?  We certainly have had amazing weather.

We have survived 20 days and the first graders are really getting into a routine!  I know I can be tough at times, especially with routines, but I promise that it will help our first graders be successful in the classroom, especially during reading instruction time.  I am really proud of how well they are doing and how much better they are with structure and routine.

Math: Last Friday, students took their first unit math test. I am amazed how well they did.  Please look for an envelope in their take home folder.  I like to keep tests for my records. I made copies of the test to send home for those who may have missed a few.  Otherwise, if you do not get a copy of the math test, that means your child got 100% on the test.  Well done! In Unit 2, we will really begin to focus on addition.

Language Arts:  Students are working very hard on preparing for Language Arts stations.  Next week, I hope to start Guided Reading Groups.  Students must do stations efficiently for me to teach guided reading groups. We will keep practicing! They are doing a great job. 

*** I will try my best to send home read-at-home books this week, at least two times.  Please make sure that you record the book on the log and please send the envelope, log and book back.  It's important to not lose these books, as they are school property.  Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.

This weeks sight words:     his   had   were  her  are

Thank you parent volunteers! I appreciate everything you do. I will be in touch very soon with parents regarding volunteering in the next few weeks.

Also, thank you so much for our grandparents that came on Grandparents Day.  Please express to them how much I enjoyed meeting them. I hope it is a day they will not forget.

Coming up...

Apples Unit and Plants Unit:  We plan on making applesauce in the classroom on Sept. 28th.

Picture Retakes: October 16th *tentatively. Please check Wed. Word for dates.

A First Grade Tour...

 Math Station                                        Good Buddy Reading

Reading to Self

                                                                    Word Study Station

 We know how to eat at lunch politely!

                                                   First Grade Expectations Meeting

Wow! Great listeners!

 Reading Garden... Still beautiful and lush!

 Math center and mail station
                                                                          Word Study    
                                                                           Sorting Station

Carpet area

Guided Reading Area and Word Wall

                                                                             Writing Station

We are a Common Core Classroom!

                                                                      Individual Reading
                                                                      Tubs

 Working hard on our sight word sticker book!

                                                               We <3 our stuffies!

Perfect buddy reading!

Hello, September!

Hello all!

Today is the 14th day of school and I told the kids that this was their best day ever!!  They listened, they got their work done, and they seemed way more focused today. A long weekend does everybody good! I hope you all had a safe, fun holiday weekend.

Here are some academic updates:

• Sight Words: I forgot that even though it was a short week, I had originally planned on doing 5 sight words like normal.  This will be tricky to fit in the next two days but I really want to keep on schedule.  Today and tomorrow we will be practicing:

                                                   for     it    with    as    on

             **I will assess last weeks words and the words above next week. Thanks for practicing at 

                  home!

• Math:  We have focused on digits 1-6.  Ask your child what 5 partners and 6 partners are. The Unit 1 test will be on Thursday, September 14th or Friday, September 15th.  Students are doing well on quizzes and they did exceptionally well on the beginning of year assessment, which was a review of everything taught in Kindergarten. Great job kindergarten teachers!
• Reading:  I will start sending home books next week.  I will send an information sheet in the reading folder to help you with reading at home.
• Families/Communities:  We are going to start studying families and communities tomorrow. Please remember Grandparents Day is on Monday, September 10th. Information will go home tomorrow on this.  Our class is extremely diverse and I truly want to learn more about our families.  From now until the holidays, I really want to focus on culture, families, and communities. I hope before the holidays to do a Culture Unit, which will all students to do a presentation to the class about their heritage/culture. I did this in Hawaii and it was so interesting. For now, if you can have your child bring any special pictures of their family to share, I would truly appreciate it!

That's it for now!  I am going to post another blog of just pics!  Thanks for turning in your permission slips.

Ciao!

Sarah Nieder

Week 1 & 2

Week 1 & 2:

We have made it through the first ten days of school! Yay! 

Some highlights:

• Students are getting into a routine. Today (Mon) was our first day trying out literacy stations.  It's complicated and  we need lots of practice but our kiddos did a great job doing what they needed to do during literacy stations. Bravo!
• We are getting better about transitioning time--including bathroom breaks, water breaks, and all of the times we transition from one activity to another. It's tough with the odd-duck schedule!
• We went to the library for the first time to check out books and we also had our first class meeting with the counselor. Both went very well.
• Miss Nieder survived a medical crisis!  And the kids got through it, too!  Thank you Mrs. West for being an amazing substitute teacher!

Here are some of the things we have worked on these first 10 days:

• Sight Words: Last week: the, to, a, and, in. This week: that, of, is, was, he. I will test both of these lists this Friday. Please practice at home! Normally we would do one test a week, but last week was a little crazy with my absence so we are catching up this week.
• Reading: Reading folders will be sent home tomorrow (Tues).  Please read the book included in the folder and write it on the log.  This week we will have homemade books, which you may keep at home.  Next week, we will put in real books and they MUST be returned!  Please keep track of these at home.
• Math Sheets:  We are working on writing and recognizing numbers 1-9. As your student about number trains, equal partners, break-apart line, and adding partners. Our first quiz will be Tues or Wed of this week and the Unit 1 test will likely be next Friday (Sept.7th).

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• GRANDPARENT'S DAY:  Grandparent's day will be celebrated on MONDAY, SEPTEMBER, 10th. Grandparents may come in with the student that morning or come in at 9 am.  We will have a special activity and presentation starting at 9 am.  Grandparents will then accompany students to recess at 9:30 or 9:45. Students will then return to class and we can say our goodbyes to grandparents. If your child has a special person who is like a grandparent to them (if their grandparents can't come) please feel free to have them attend. Also, my parents and other adults from the buildings will be fill-in grandparents so everyone has a special person to share the day with.
• COLOR DAYS:  I haven't been real strict on this but students can wear the following colors on these days: Thursday, Aug 30th - Orange Day,  Friday, Aug 31st--Purple day,  Wednesday, Sept. 5th - Pink day,  Friday, Sept.7th--FAVORITE COLOR DAY. We will be doing a FUN color activity to wrap up our color unit :). 
• NO SCHOOL: Monday, Sept 3rd and Tuesday, Sept 4th. Enjoy the holiday weekend!!!

WHAT A GREAT CLASS!  I hope the students are enjoying it as much as I am. :)

Toodles,

Miss N.

What Summer Vacation?

This is the first summer in a long time I had no vacation plans or any big events planned, which is unfortunate because I love to travel.  The summer started with a bang, or I should say splash.  Memorial Day weekend was spent with old friends at the lake.  During a late night fishing excursion, I somehow fell in the lake, clothes and all.  My friends and I had a long laugh with this.  I did enjoy myself throughout June, catching up on netflix and watching endless documentaries.  But in July, that is where my vacation seemed to end.  As you know, we have a new principal, Howard Diacon.  On July 1st, we were both at the school often, preparing for the new year.  Throughout the summer, I attended district training on  Common Core State Standards, a change we will be seeing in our district very soon. I hope to devote some time on this blog explaining this change and what it means for our schools.  I am grateful I had the summer to plan for a less stressful second year at Sunflower--hopefully I can achieve that this year!  Overall, my summer had some highlights, including a ticket to the Home Run Derby. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the festivities, including the All-Star 5K, which I did with my newly retired Sunflower teaching friend, Gerry Bukaty.  It was a blast!  Unfortunately, there were some tough times as well. My grandmother passed away in June. She was my last living grandparent and I miss her very much!  Our family friend, Cindy Murray, also passed away unexpectedly in August.  I will truly miss Cindy--she was an amazingly caring and nurturing soul.  As the longtime high school nurse at LHS, she was a gift to all who knew her in the district.  My summer ended with a leadership conference in Topeka to learn about implementation of the Common Core. I enjoyed working with my co-workers, Pam Powers, Erin Girard, Eve Cummins, Robyn Vilcek, and of course Howard.  We are excited to start implementing the CCSS into our school!  Cheers to the summer of 2012 and the beginning of a new year in first grade!

Reflections on my first year at Sunflower! 2011-2012

 I am so thankful to have the opportunity to teach first grade at Sunflower!  It was an amazing year. Although it was not my first year of teaching,  it was my first year of teaching full-time in many years, so it felt like my first year of teaching.  I am blessed to have gone through training with dear friends I met at induction--Molly Soukup, Summer Smith, and Meg Roggero.  The training seemed a bit overwhelming at times but we learned so much!  It was hard to implement everything we learned and this upcoming year will be a wonderful opportunity to try many new things that were hard to implement in the first year.  

My students were wonderful and made so much progress.  I am so proud to see them walking down the halls as proud second graders!  We had some great memories last year.  I am glad I got an "inventory" on what they remember and loved about first grade at the end of the year.  

Kaden says "I loved the field trip to the aquarium--it was awesome!"

Abby, Morgann, and Owen said they loved learning how to read and write better!

And almost all of the first graders agree that the most memorable moment in first grade was the day Miss Nieder brought her boxer dog, Deke, to school a few days after he ate a huge thing of chocolate!  This made her stay up all night and her wonderful first graders wrote him all kinds of letters to brighten Deke and Miss Nieder's day.  He decided to visit them and boy did he get excited. But Chris learned not to leave the door open!  Deke escaped and ran into Mrs. Roggero's kindergarten. Yikes!  

Thank you to all of last years kiddos and their families for making it an amazing year I will never forget.