newsletter 01

Banyan

Banyan Class 2009-2010

SEPTEMBER 11.2009

Banyan students gather together for their first group photo!

Getting To Know You...

We have been spending a lot of time this week getting to know our new classmates and friends. I shared my main goal for the year with the students: “I hope for a classroom in which everyone feels safe and comfortable and in which everyone works hard to be kind to each other.”

We played name games and learned new ways to greet each other in the mornings. The students learned a fun game called “Just Like Me” and we started to learn a lot about our likes and dislikes.

Science

We have been interviewing one child each day. We are asking them all sorts of intriguing questions such as: How many teeth have you lost? What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? What is your favorite book?

We are also spending some time establishing routines and rules to help make our classroom a safe and comfortable environment.

I am really enjoying getting to know your children and I am excited for our year together!

Sharon and Alice joined us this week to start the year in science with a lesson about nutrition. We talked about making healthy choices at lunch time. The students created their own paper version of a lunch tray. They drew, colored and labeled items that would make up a healthy lunch. We also talked about proteins and the importance of a balanced diet. We hope that this knowledge will encourage our students to make healthy food choices throughout the day!

Math We began each morning with math.

We introduced the daily schedule with ordinal numbers and digital and analogue times. We discussed the calendar and looked at the weather graph. On the first day, we talked about methods for knowing how many students are in our class each day. These will be some of our daily math routines for the year.

We also explored some math materials during Math Workshop. The students worked in centers to explore Geoblocks, Pattern Blocks, Power Polygons and Connecting Cubes. We began charting what we notice about each math material.

Reading Workshop We have been sharing the wonderful picture books that your children have brought in to share from home. Thank you for helping them to choose a book!

Each day, about 4 students share the title and the author of their book.

They also tell us why they chose this book. We are using this sharing to lead into our discussion about book choice.

So far, students have chosen books because... *they like the topic *they like the series *they like the author •they like funny books Please share how you choose books at the bookstore or library with your first grader. What do you think about when you look for a good book?

Writing Workshop I shared my writing folder with the students this week. They are excited to transform their plain white folders into “memory and story catchers.� Thank you for helping your first grader to put photos and/or postcards on the front and back of their folder. Please make sure not to glue anything to the inside or over the name sticker. When the students are stuck for writing ideas, they can look at these pictures for story ideas and memories. Also, keep in mind that I will laminate these folders and you will not be able to reuse that photo. Making color copies on regular paper works well. I hope you have fun working together, telling stories and sharing memories!

First Graders at Work In the pictures above, students explore math materials, browse and read from book baskets and play a name scramble game.