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A Week in Mr Smith's First Grade Class
by Dustin...
Welcome to room 201 guys! You have just entered Mr. Smith's first grade classroom. I hope you got a good night's sleep. I hope you ate a hearty breakfast! Cuz' teaching 25 six year olds is not an easy job. But, somebody has to do it! And it might as well be us, the most creative, dedicated andcaring group of people in the world....Teachers!
So, follow me as I prepare for one more week in the grimy trenches of the'battlefield of education'!
8:00-8:30 - Let's have some review work out on the kiddos' desk when they come in. We were talking about consonant digraphs last week. Let's see who remembers what! Plus, we can take attendance and lunch count while they are busy!
8:30-9:00 - It's time for my morning meeting! I call it 'The Musical Morning Routine'. We'll use this time to review old skills and preview skills that will come later. We cover calendar, money, skip counting, place value, phonics, time and many other skills during block of time. Let's try to use as much music, humor and movement as we can. This is the time to set the tone for the rest of our day. Let's make it count!
9:00-9:15 - Nature calls! It's time for a quick bathroom break. Let's line the kids up in number order. They all have assigned numbers to help me keep themorganized in situations like this. I'll also pick a boy and girl spy to let me know if anyone is acting-up inside the restroom. Let's tell the students that we'll be picking one person to visit our behavior treasure chest. That should help out with the hallway silliness.
9:15-9:30 - It's storytime! But, let's do more than just read a book. I've picked out a few key vocabulary words from the text. We call these'Million Dollar Words'. I'll teach the kids how to say these words and what they mean. If they use them later in their writing they may win a million dollar bill and get to wear our special'bling bling' necklace. This will encourage the kiddos to start usingricher vocabulary as they speak and write!
9:30-10:15 - Let's do some math! We've got to introduce these dudes to odd and even numbers this week. We'll start off by teaching them a little chant.
Zero, Two, Four, Six, Eight! Who do we appreciate?
Even Numbers! Even Numbers! WooHoooooo!
One, Three, Five, Seven, Nine!
Odd numbers are so fine! WooHoooooo!
Now, let's do a little activity to help them understand odd and even numbers a little better. I've got these rubber rain boots with Odd printed on the right toe and Even printed on the left. We're going to have the kids step off certain numbers. As we walk and count we can look at our feet to tell if the number we say is odd or even! We'll start to notice that there is a pattern. Back and forth…Back and forth…Odd and Even…Odd and Even!
10:15-11:00 - We had better squeeze in some writing before lunch. Hmmm...What should we write about? How about spiders? We've been reading a lot of spider books this month. The students should have plenty of prior knowledge to do well with this writing activity. I've got an idea! I'm going to use this old work glove to teach the kids how to build a story. We'll call this 'The Glove Trick'. Pull on the old glove and explain that this trick will help us to write a strong story anytime we want to.
Draw an 'O' on the thumb and explain that this stands for our opening sentence. Now, draw a 1, 2, and 3 on the next three fingers. Explain that these stand for the details. We should at least tell three facts about spiders. Finally, let's draw a 'C' on the pinkie finger. This stands for closing sentence. Good writers always close their stories. An opening, three details and a closing is not bad for a first grader if you ask me! If we use this'Glove Trick' our writing is sure to get better and better!
11:00-11:30 - My stomach is growling! It must be lunchtime. Let's walk the kids down to the cafeteria and take a break. We've earned some 'me time'. Hahah!
11:30-12:00 - It's time for recess. We've got duty today. Got your whistle. Got your first aid kit? Put your game face on. Let's go keep these kids from hurting themselves!
12:00-1:00 - Let's take the class to activity time now. We go to the library today! We'd better stop by the room and grab our curriculum guides though. We've gotgrade level meetings to attend today. We're going to work with our colleagues on literacy pacing guides today. I can't tell how important it is to work closely with those around you. You will accomplish so much more as a team than you will alone.
1:00-1:10 - Time for another bathroom break! Just like before. These are just a fact of life. We gotta do em'...
1:10-1:30 - It's read aloud time. I'm working my way through a classic chapter book right now. The kids are loving it! Plus, this is my best chance to let the students HEAR what good readers sound like. I will be modeling fluency, voice and comprehension strategies for the class. Hopefully they’ll start to mimic me when they are reading on their own later. (fingers crossed)
1:30-2:00 - We'd better squeeze in some spelling practice here. We've been working on the 'ack' pattern this week. Let's start off by reading a poem (The Black Backpack) together. Have the kids touch their nose every time they hear an 'ack' sound. Now, let's make a list of 'ack' words on the board (black, sack, shack, pack, back) and read them aloud. Last of all, let's practice building our words using magnetic letters. Every child has their own set. Have the kids pull down the letters as they say the sounds in each word. This is your chance to walk about the room and check on students who are struggling.
2:00-3:00 - It's time for Guided Reading groups. You'll be pulling reading groupsback to work on reading strategies. The others will working independently in learning centers. They may be working on art, poetry, math games, writing or computer centers. We worked really hard to set the centers up early this year. Now, they can do them all by themselves. Our newest corner is called Silly Spelling. The students get to use ABC shaped bracelet bands to practice building our spelling words. They love it!
3:00 - Riiiinng! Look's like we've made it! Let's say bye bye and get these kiddos on their way home. We also need to take a few minutes to get ready for tomorrow. Because as sure as the sun will rise, the kids will be back bright and early tomorrow morning. And we'll be ready for em', won't we? Woo!
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Fantastic teaching ideas in here - well done, I look forward to using lots of them.