Well this was an eventful week! With the daffodils blooming in my yard I thought snow days were not happening for us this year. Boy was I wrong! The update for week will be brief - as our own week was quite brief! In reading we continue to practice our comprehension skills, envisioning what the characters are doing and feeling for fiction and envisioning the facts detailed in nonfiction texts. In math we are in the middle of our geometry unit. We've been working with 2-D shapes and will be exploring 3-D shapes this week. We begin another Artist in Residence program this week. Students will be working with a clay artist in March and April. This Friday is our first session where students will be exploring the clay and learning some background information about this art form. We would love to have parent volunteers if you are available. You can either sign up through the website or send me an email. A second session is on Tuesday, March 6th. I had my first training session as a Dyslexia Advisor for Glencoe and am excited about the information I am learning and confirming. The first modules were around print awareness, phonemic awareness and phonics. It reminded me of the importance of phonemic awareness, the ability to hear, identify and manipulate phonemes, the smallest unit of sound for early readers. I loved coming back and sharing some of what I learned with the class. Ask them one way they can figure out how many syllables are in a word. My next training is this week and the first and second grade teachers will be learning about the program Project Read. This is an intervention program that the district has adopted. I'm looking forward to learning about the program and adding to my own toolbox to try out. Reminders Tuesday, February 27 Laughing Planet PTA fundraiser Wednesday, February 28 Assembly 8:30 am Dance Theatre of Oregon Thursday, March 1 Project Read training - we will have a substitute Friday, March 2 Clay Artist Residency begins – volunteers needed! 9:30 - 10 Friday, March 2 Dr. Seuss Day Tuesday, March 6 Clay Artist Residency – volunteers needed 10:15 – 11:30
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What a week! Valentine's Day, a field trip, the 100th Day of School and Wacky Hat Day made for a fun and busy time in first grade.
Valentine's Day is always a favorite of mine. I love watching the students reading each of their cards and walk over to thank their friend. It is such a warm fuzzy love fest! I've posted a few photos from our celebration on the Photos page. The 100th Day of school is always a fun event. Since we had a field trip on the 100th Day we decided to do the majority of our activities on Friday. We read one of my favorite stories, The Wolf's Chicken Stew and retold the story putting events in order and students searched the room for 100 kisses. (The story ends with the wolf receiving 100 kisses from the baby chicks.) We also did a shaped graph with 100 different shapes. We still have a couple of activities I'd like to do so 100 Day may continue this week! We have a new student joining us on Tuesday! Everyone was very excited to hear that we would be gaining a new classmate and they are all eager to show Kiley how things work in Room 108. Welcome to Glencoe Kiley! I wanted to let you all know about some trainings that will take me out of the classroom for a few days over the next couple of months. Due to state legislation, SB 612 requires each school district to ensure that at least one K-5 teacher in each K-5 school receive training related to dyslexia. PPS is identifying teachers in each school as Dyslexia Advisors. Glencoe will have two staff members receiving this training and I am fortunate to be one of them. In addition, the Glencoe PTA provided funds for the entire staff to receive initial training at two recent staff meetings. I am so excited to be a part of this and feel like it has already helped inform my teaching in positive ways. The training will include 5 sessions and the first one for me will be this Thursday. While I do not like to out of the classroom I know the students will be wonderful for the guest teacher. Reminders Wednesday, February 21 - Late Opening Thursday, February 22 - Stephanie Out for Dyslexia Training Friday, February 23 - Book Orders Due Saturday, February 24 - Glencoe Auction Tuesday, February 27 - Laughing Planet Restaurant Partner Fundraiser We had a very eventful week with our Red Yarn performance on Tuesday. We all had so much fun with this project. I was so proud of the effort they put in to their puppets and their enthusiasm at the performance. I will have Turkey in the Straw playing in my head for many days to come!
In reading our strategy lessons have shifted focus from decoding/accuracy to comprehension. We will continue to revisit the strategies in our toolbox but our conversations lately will center on understanding the story. A fun strategy that we learned about this week was having readers make a movie in their heads. This ability to visualize the story and include a character's actions and emotions that are inferred by both illustrations and text, really helps to deepen our understanding of what we have read. In math we have been learning a little bit about penguins! We have measured two different kinds of penguins, rockhopper and king and compared their heights figuring out the difference in inches. This week students will compare the heights of both of these penguins to their own height and developing a strategy to determine how much taller they are than whichever penguin they choose. We are also just beginning out geometry unit - always a popular unit with students! We have quite a few special events this week! We will celebrate Valentine's Day on Wednesday. A list of the names of our classmates went home last week in case students would like to bring valentines to school. Please let me know if you need another list. We will be going on a field trip to see the play Pete the Cat on Thursday. We will be back in time to have lunch at school. I've heard great things about the show! Friday is Wacky Hat Day! Students are encouraged to wear a hat - it can be homemade if they would like. Reminders Wednesday, February 14 Valentine's Day Thursday, February 15 Pete the Cat field trip at the Newmark Theater & 100 Day Friday, February 16 Wacky Hat Day and our 100th Day Celebration Part 2 Monday, February 19 President's Day - No School Wednesday, February 21 Late Opening Friday, February 23 Book Orders Due |
MS. SCHIADAI teach first grade in southeast Portland where every day brings a new adventure!
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