7:45-8:20 Morning Sign In
Rise and shine! Each morning, students come into the class, unpack their backpacks, and get ready for the day. They pick their lunch choice with a magnet on my desk and have the option to buy ice cream or a healthy snack choice. Planners and homework are checked. After students have written in their planners, they use the rest of their morning time to write in their journal.
8:20-8:30 Morning Meeting
Morning meeting is such a fun way to start our day! First, we read our morning message (the morning message tells the students what we are going to do that day in school). When reading our morning message, we get to fill in missing letters or punctuation marks, other times we use our "word whacker" to identify words we know...sometimes we have to go on a hunt for super "e" (i.e. writ vs. write). We finish our morning meeting by learning or practicing some favorite first grade songs!
8:30-9:00 Writer's Workshop
Get out your pencils! Writer's workshop is a time to WRITE! Some days, we work on small writing projects and sometimes, we have bigger projects that take a few days (or even weeks!) at a time. Whether we are writing a book about our favorite fall activity or retelling the beginning, middle, and end of our favorite story, we are always busy during writer's workshop! Sometimes we sound out the words to spell (we don't want to only write words we KNOW how to spell!) but sometimes it is important to make sure words are spelled the right way (like if we are writing a thank you note to a class visitor!). We always use our word wall, though- these are words that are up on a bulletin board that we have practiced reading- students can just look up there when they need help spelling a common word!
9:00-10:15 Daily 4 Centers
Reading centers are busy, busy, busy! During this time, students rotate between three reading centers- (a) guided reading, (b) word work station, (c) independent reading station, (d) writing centers
(a) During guided reading, students read in a small group (usually 4-5 children) with a teacher or teacher's aide. We read lots of books, from phonics reading sets to poems to chapter books to the reading textbook. The important thing about our guided reading groups is that children are reading books that are on their level- not too hard, not too easy.
(b) At the word work station, students work in their same small group with a teacher or teacher's aide. This is a time to explore letter "chunks" (i.e. ch or tr) and patterns in words. We learn not only the how of spelling words, but the why. We use magnetic letters, letter tiles, small white boards, (sometimes we get messy and write words in shaving cream!), and many more tools to help us learn how to spell!
(c) Independent reading is a time to practice "grown-up" reading (reading quietly to ourselves). Students might read in the reading tent, read books on the computer, listen to audio books, or pick books out of their own "book box." It is so important for kids to learn to cuddle up with a good book!
(d) The writing center is a free choice writing time where students can work on: writing a book, a card, a letter, or a list.
10:20-10:50 Science or Social Studies
This is a time to explore! Each week (or every couple of weeks), we begin a new social studies or science topic (we call them units- like Famous Americans, Matter, Economics, etc). We take turns with social studies and science (we don't have them both in the same day) so we can really get to know the people, places, and things that we are exploring! From our science and social studies interactive notebooks (where we read and draw about our topics) to making booklets, or participating in projects, we LOVE learning about new topics in science and social studies!
10:50-11:10 Recess
11:12-11:42 Lunch
Click here for the Salem City Schools lunch menu
11:45-12:45 Math
It's time to crunch some numbers! We begin math with our calendar time (calendar practice, graphing, weather, etc). After our calendar time, we have our "hands-on" math. We use manipulatives (like blocks, counting bears, money, etc.), play math games, make human number lines and so on....this helps introduce new concepts. Of course, practice makes perfect so we include addition and subtraction fact skills practice.
12:45-1:30 Special Areas
Let's get our wiggles out! Now we go to P.E. , library, art, music, or guidance. On days that we don't have P.E., we have classroom P.E. (going out to the playground or playing a game inside). Please bring those tennis shoes everyday!
1:30-2:15 Finish Science/Social Studies, Snack, and Pack Up
The day is done! During this time, we finish up our science/social studies and pack up! Another fun day in first grade is over!!