Our First Full Week and Plans for Next Week!

Last week was SO crazy!!

We had "severe weather" during our already crazy dismissal 3 out of 5 days. Which meant that we didn't finish with dismissal until almost 3:00, an HOUR after we start dismissing. 

We had a faculty meeting the same day the girls had gymnastics, and a meeting on our early release day.  I didn't get to get too many pictures since the first week I'm constantly running around because first graders are NOT independent just yet...ha! But, here's a few snap shots of what we did last week.

We did a fun little Ten Frame Name Activity that my teammate found - you can download the freebie {HERE}.

We also did some activities from my {Pout Pout Goes to School} activity pack!

We've been practicing handwriting this week too! After this week, if anyone has any issues still, they will be getting handwriting homework - I just don't have the time to work on it anymore! ahhh!

This is from my {handwriting pack}

With all the craziness, needless to say, I did NOT get time to plan for next week.

So I brought it home with me... which is what a lot of teachers do anyway, right? Of course that's not our goal, but it happens.

So here's my planning pile...some of it anyway.

I have my wonderful planner from Traci - my weekly planner and year long curriculum planner are from her. You can check them out {HERE}.  The Pete the Cat pack is mine and you can see more about it {HERE}. 

So here is what we have going on in our week...

Phonics

Short A

 I finished "testing" all of my kids to find their starting point in our differentiated spelling. In addition to our core words starting this week, every student also has a different personal word list for spelling homework.

You can check out more about that {HERE}

We are also doing short a words this week in our core spelling, so I'll be using some activities from my {phonics packs}.

Reading

Pete the Cat

For Whole Group Reading this week, I'm using Pete the Cat! The kids love this unit EVERY year, so I HAVE to put it in. And I love doing it in the beginning of the year because it kind of grabs their attention.  I did it last year too, and it worked out GREAT! You can read about it {HERE}. We're going to be focusing on Story Elements, Character Traits, and Sequencing Events.

Writing

“I Like” sentences

We're going to be using more activities from Pete the Cat and writing "I like" sentences.

So, then what am I doing for Small Group Reading?? Well, I'm finished with my Running Records, Sight Words Assessment (you can find out what I use for that {HERE} - Be a Sight Word Star!), and I'm currently waiting to get our PASI/PSI tests, so in the mean time, I'm starting reading groups! We did center rotations last week, and I was able to show the kids HOW we do centers, so now I'm going to start pulling them back to my table during centers. If you want to see how I run Small Groups, check out {THIS} post.

Small Groups

Group A - I Love Art Class

Group B & C - Busy at School

Group D - A Day of Firsts

If you've been following me for a while, you know that I do NOT use any of the curriculum. I like to teach thematically and integrate our science/social studies content. And this is why I use Reading A to Z. I can just type in the theme/content I am teaching and it shows all the books at every level so I can print whatever levels I need! So this week, I'm still doing the "Back to School" theme so I found books at Levels B, C, and E for the exact levels that I need. 

Centers

1.Phonics – Short A Family (August Menu Centers)

2.Word Work – Sight Word Syllables (August Menu Centers)

3. Listening – Pete the Cat (Pete the Cat)

4. Writing – Write the Room (Lori)

5. Sentences -  Pete the Cat Scrambled Sentences (Pete the Cat)

Math

Number Decomposition up to 10

For this, I've been kind of making up what we do as we go. I made some numbers to glue into our INBs and we've been using some of {Deanna's Guiding Firsties Math} sets to help us along. By the end of this week, we'll be finished and moving on!

This cool little Ten Frame Stamp came from Really Good Stuff. I love it! I wish they had a bigger one though! I would totally buy every size if they had different sizes!

And after we talk about the numbers, I use {Alisha's Math posters} to hang on our math board! I love how they look!

Here's the rest of my math board...a.k.a - my entire front white board! ha!

The How Many Days you can find {HERE} and everything else on the board that's Calendar like you can find {HERE}.

Well, that's it! Hope your weekend is full of sunshine and fun! I'm off to jump in the pool with my girls!