Hocus, Pocus....Everybody Focus...

Hi Fabulous Families,

What a fun and enthusiastic crew I have this year.   I'm so thrilled with this group of first graders!   They have done an excellent job hanging in there for the whole day.  Like I have said before, first grade is a BIG transition.   They are asked to do things they haven't done before like learn ALL DAY LONG!....oh yeah, and raise their hand to talk....:)

This week is all about learning to stay focused on the task at hand and raising our hands to talk. You may have heard that your child has had to go back to their desks during a group time....and it's probably true.  I've had to send quite a few kids back away from the group so that they could "re-group" or in the words of our favorite Mrs. Gardner (for you newbies, she was last year's amazing Kindergarten teacher), "get your power back".   I always feel bad when I have to send kids away and I seem to have to do it a lot during the first few weeks but then it gets oh-so-much better!   I find if I'm really tight at the beginning of the year, it makes the rest of the year a breeze.

So my message to you is this...don't be alarmed if your child has had to go back to their desk or they report that their classmate has had to go back to their desk.  It really is just a reminder to them to raise their hand to talk....such a seemingly simple request but one that is actually quite difficult when you are six and the day is long and you have so much to say....:)

Our reading rainbow rotations are in full swing.   Each day they read from their book baskets, work on a handwriting sheet (hence the reason for no handwriting homework), and meet with me to read or with Mrs. Taylor to work on their journal entry.  The last two days, I tested the kids on short /a/ words.  If your child did well, you will not hear from me about that assessment.   If they struggled with the concept, I will send you home a sheet with the words to practice.

We will begin sight word assessment today and will build a personal word bank for them to practice each day.

Math is one of my favorite parts of the day!   We devote an hour and a half to math each day.  Our schedule is laid out in your child's STAR book.  I will go over in detail what each section means in another post.  For now, keep practicing the Mad Minutes each night.  My goal is for every child to pass A by the end of this week.  If you do not think this is a realistic goal for your child (because you have practiced each night and they still aren't getting it), please let me know and we can come up with some strategies to help them.

Speaking of STAR books, I hope you enjoyed the cover of your child's book and the explanation of exactly what the book was.   We talked about how STAR was an acronym for Students That Are Responsible.    The acronym is NOT MTAR or DTAR for Moms That Are Responsible or Dads That Are Responsible.   It is not YOUR responsibility to get the STAR book in your child's backpack or your responsibility to get the book out of your child's backpack, it is THEIR responsibility and THEIRS alone.   I know it''s hard when they mess up (which they will) but in time they will become responsible and what a wonderful life lesson that is!

Have a great day and I'll leave you with a few sweet words from Mother Teresa...