Snippets from today...

It was a busy day in first grade--it felt as if we'd never left! I heard some great tales about the happenings of the vacation--trips to visit relatives, amazing gifts, time with family, and even some new pets! As I wrote in yesterday's post, I have some new things "up my sleeve" for the new year. Stay tuned...For now, here are a couple photos from today.

We looked at the -ot and -op word families today during SWR using a poem called, "Popcorn." We practiced reading it together for fluency, and then students looked for words with the -ot and -op chunks in them. We discussed how using parts of words we know can help us as readers and spellers. Our SWR stations are on hold this week, and we will do some whole group activities. I like to take breaks periodically from stations to introduce activities to the whole class that they may do during SWR station time later. 

Today some students were surprised with a "I was caught being good" coin in their green folders. I have always tried to recognize excellent student behavior verbally, but I am also giving some tangible rewards. This won't be an every day thing, and it might not even be every week. But, I think it's important to recognize students who are working hard to follow our classroom and school rules on a regular basis. More to come...

Mrs. Hughes had the great idea of launching the "Lunch Bunch" in the new year. So, beginning sometime this week, I will be inviting small groups of students to have lunch with me in the classroom. Our days are quite busy, and sometimes it's hard to find time to just chat. I'll post pictures after the first "Lunch Bunch" meeting!