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.