Hello Families & Friends of Room 112!
Summer is upon us! I hope that June has been good to you and you have been able to enjoy some much deserved relaxation with your friends and family. As you can see from the photo - my dreams have finally come true and I now have a four-legged member in my family. (This is seriously a big deal - ask your kiddos!) His name is Axel and other than his #NoJoke separation anxiety, he is a good boy. Mr. Miller and I are proud pet parents. Summer is certainly a time to rest and rejuvenate, but I'm also continuing to reflect on our school year together and prepare for my new batch of firsties! So far this summer I've been to two days of GLAD training and learned about some really great engagement strategies for integrating reading, writing, and science/social studies. I also got to spend a day with Mrs. Kempton and Ms. Bell and strengthen our practice in co-teaching! Most excitedly I spent the last 3 days at Hanawalt working with the Hawk Leadership Team celebrating some awesome things that happened in our school last year and getting totally excited for our upcoming school year. I've bumped into some friends already this summer & it was great to see you! I hope you're reading lots! I've knocked out 2 books this summer & am working on a 3rd - what are you reading?? I can't wait to reach out to my incoming families soon! I hope you're all having a great summer! Love, Mrs. Miller :)
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100% That's how many students in our classroom made growth in reading from winter to spring as measured by the FAST assessment. This means that all students - whether struggling readers, on-grade level readers, or above-grade level readers - grew in their abilities. This is definitely worth celebrating! As part of our work with The Leader in Me and Standards Referenced Grading this year, our students got involved with their goal setting. This gave students ownership over what they were doing in the classroom, and a little bit of background knowledge going into "assessment season". We talked about the terms proficient and growth. We also looked at our school-wide goals for proficiency and growth and talked about what we've done in our classroom all year long to help us become better readers. When the time came for us to take the FAST assessment, we encouraged one another with "Good luck!"s and "You can do it!"s. We affirmed ourselves that "We can do hard things". We were ready to go! The encouragement and confidence among our Reader Leaders was outstanding and heart-warming. I was out of our classroom attending a training on Standards Referenced Grading, but I was getting text updates of "goals being busted!" and scores through the roof. Pictures of smiling first graders holding sticky notes were sent my way. Their smiles were so big because they knew that the work they had done this year was showing and that their goals were being met and exceeded. We were all so proud!! To celebrate, we enjoyed a dance party together the following day and talked about the goals we had achieved together. We also talked about continuing to work through our last ELEVEN (what?!) days together to grow even more before we say good-bye to first grade. First grade friends - you have made me so proud this year. I can't wait to see all you accomplish in your time at Hanawalt and beyond. -Mrs. Miller Happy new year, families and friends of Room 112!
Just like that, we are almost officially halfway through our year of first grade. Each morning, we add a box to our "How many days in school?" chart and marvel at how far we have come together. We talk about the things we couldn't do before that we can do now, the things that we model for the kindergarteners who watch us in the hallways because they will be us next year, and the things we aspire to do as we approach the second half of our year as "almost-second-graders". In the month of January, we are focusing on our purpose, It's a word that comes up often. What's the purpose of our writing today, friends? What was the purpose of the Lego you just threw across the classroom? What's the purpose of a the word "please" after we ask for something. This week we took the time to reflect on what we would like our purpose to be in 2017. Maybe the idea of a New Year's Resolution is a little bit cheesy, but you would be blown away to hear some of the things your sweet first graders want to accomplish this year. I invite you to start a conversation with your student about their purpose. It doesn't have to be their purpose at school - what is their purpose in your family? What is their purpose for an action they chose? We will continue to talk about our purpose as leaders and learners at school. Have a great weekend! Stay warm! -Mrs. Miller Hello, Families & Friends of Room 112!
It has been a while since I've posted on our classroom website, aside from the weekly newsletter & math practice! I'm writing to share a math resource with you. In first grade we are focusing on building strategies to help us add & subtract. We use doubles facts (ask your 1st grader 4+4 & I bet they tell you, "4+4=8, that's great!"), partners of 10, counting on, counting back, 5-groups and more! This focus will help us as we move into place value, and addition with 100 later in the year. Aside from having a "tool box" of strategies to use, first graders are expected to build fact fluency with sums within 10. This means that a first grader should be able to quickly recite a fact that has a sum of 10 or less. We practice fluency in our classroom with games, and "brain warm ups" every day in math. At home, a great way to practice would be with flashcards, orally quizzing your student, or using technology. Our students love technology. I hear a lot about the use of tablets at home. We also use iPads & laptops in our classroom. If you have internet access at home and allow your student to use technology, I suggest making an xtramath.org account for your student to practice fact fluency. xtramath.org uses adaptive technology for your student to practice their addition, subtraction, multiplication, & division facts. This means that once your student masters a fact, the software provides them with the next set of challenging facts to work on. At school, our focus is addition & subtraction in first grade, but if you find your student builds their fluency with addition & subtraction, you can choose to continue with the multiplication/division portion of the website. This is up to you! It is entirely voluntary to use xtramath.org at home, but I encourage you to try it if you're looking for ways to practice math fact fluency. As always, please let me know if you have any questions, or if you would like help setting up an xtramath.org profile. I'd be happy to help! Happy Fall! -Mrs. Miller Hello Families & Friends of Room 112!
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to meet with me for conferences. Being able to discuss your student's progress at school is so beneficial for them. Taking the time to get together lets your student know that you are invested in their learning and growth. As hectic as conference week is, it is one of my favorite parts of my job! To be able to sit down (mostly) uninterrupted and have a face-to-face conversation is so refreshing! Conferences are also a time to make sure that we are all focusing on the same goals for our students. As always, if you have any questions, or just want to share something with me, please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail (I can be reached most easily this way). You can also call Hanawalt and leave a message with Mrs. Hutton and I will get back to you. Have a wonderful weekend spent with friends and family. At the Miller home we are mourning the end of marching band season, but happily welcoming the beginning of hockey season (Go Blues!) -Mrs. Miller Hello families & friends of Room 112! Our class is taking part in the Global Read Aloud 2016. The Global Read Aloud is a way for students to interact with other students around the world while reading the same book(s). For the primary grades (K-2), students take part in an author study and read multiple books by the same author. Our class will be reading books by author and illustrator Lauren Castillo. While reading these books, we will be focusing on the learning standards for 1st grade, as well as making global connections. We have found a buddy class in Aurora, Illinois that we will connect with during our author study to discuss the books that we're reading. This week, we used Skype to meet our new friends and learn about the city that they live in. We also use Twitter and the hashtags #GRA16 and #GRALauren to connect with different classrooms. I decided to make a classroom Twitter for us to use during the Global Read Aloud so that we can easily connect with other classrooms - since my @_MeganMiller Twitter account is more of a communication tool for myself. We have used a few other digital tools - like the website Padlet - to share connections with other classrooms as well!
GRA has been a fun experience for us so far. The opportunities to connect with classrooms all over the world will be a rewarding & meaningful experience for us as well. We will continue our author study of Lauren Castillo for the next 5 weeks. Have a great weekend! -Mrs. Miller Hello Families and Friends of Room 112!
Happy first day of October! September went out with a bang at Hanawalt! Our week included learning our new Wednesday schedule to accommodate for club time, watching some kickball with the whole school, and receiving our 2016 Hanawalt spirit wear just in time for the block party! It was a fun week! In September, we also finished our first unit on rules, routines, and expectations. We have moved on to a new science unit about the sun, the moon, and the stars. We did a lot of great exploring this week about how we can predict patterns of the sun, moon, and stars using observations. We really became scientists as we learned about observing and predicting. We will continue this unit as we learn more about the position of the sun, moon, and stars in the sky, and how we can use our knowledge of patterns to make predictions. We have also gotten our Reader's Workshop in full swing. Each reading group has their own schedule of when they meet with the teacher, and has a book bag of readers to bring home and practice. Please make sure to get those book bags & books back to school each day so we can use our book bags in our learning! October will bring our first round of conferences. At this time, we will talk about FAST testing, grade level expectations, and behavior in the classroom. If you have not signed up for a conference yet, please e-mail me so I can send you the link to our online sign up. Enjoy the beautiful fall weather with your families! -Mrs. Miller Hello Families & Friends of Room 112!
As you know, we are implementing a program called The Leader in Me at Hanawalt. Hopefully you're hearing language like "Put first things first" and "Be proactive" at home. The Leader in Me utilizes the 7 Habits of Highly Effective people in a classroom setting. We believe that our students all have the potential for leadership within them, and we help them find that leadership at school. One way to grow the idea that everyone is a leader in our classroom is through the use of classroom jobs - or leadership positions. The idea behind these leadership positions is that each child has a purpose for coming to school each day. Yes, we come to school to learn and grow - but also, we have jobs to do while we're here. We have talked a lot about our community this week (ask your child to show you the sign for community!). Our classroom is a community, and each of us have to work together to make it a community worth being a part of. Your child should have brought home a Classroom Job Application on Friday. Please talk with them about our jobs in the classroom and which jobs they are interested in. Help them to fill out the application and please return it on Monday. I will review applications and get jobs placed within the week. Have a great weekend spent with friends & family! -Mrs. Miller Hello Friends & Families of Room 112!
I hope you are enjoying this beautiful Saturday in preparation for the Super Bowl of Iowa this evening (Go State!). As you can see above - we had some fun with the CyHawk rivalry yesterday. This activity was really great & had some great teaching points:
Something else I encourage you to talk about with your student is the language that they use. We have been trying to get away from, "I don't know how to _____" and say "I'm learning how to ____" or by adding "yet" to the end of the sentence. This is part of the idea of "Growth Mindset". The 1st Grade Team received a small amount of training on Growth Mindset this summer and it's all about teaching children that we can always improve ourselves. You can always get smarter! This link shows 10 questions you can ask your child to help them develop a growth mindset. Just for your information if you are curious about it! http://www.thehealingpathwithchildren.com/2016/08/22/worry-bag-growth-mindset-children/ Wow! That was a long one. I hope you stuck with me. Please make sure to check our weekly newsletter. Math practice will be posted under "At Home Practice" as well as photos added from the week. Enjoy your weekend spent with friends & family. Go State! -Mrs. Miller Hello, families and friends of Room 112! Today marks the end of our first full week together. We have come so far in 8 short days! This week was all about being proactive - choosing your own weather! We were able to look through the lens of Habit 1 all week long as we worked in and out of our classroom. We spent the week discussing how first graders show Habit 1 as leaders in the classroom. This was a good way to reinforce school-wide expectations. We have been working on developing a project we will share with the kindergartners - since we are now First Grade Experts at Hanawalt School! Highlights of our week included: earning 14 of 15 stars (one away from a special prize!), using watercolor paint to do some sight word MAGIC, getting lots of first grade learning tools (AKA school supplies ;)), and writing our classroom mission: In room 112, we will work hard to help others, listen to directions, and get smarter in first grade. We will use the 7 Habits. Please check out the newsletter for next week and click on the "Photos" tab to see pictures of us in action this week!
Have a great weekend spent with family! -Mrs. Miller |
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