Thursday, September 2, 2010

We Made it Through the Heat Wave!

It's been a really hot week, but children in Room 13 persevered - proving that they are ready and excited for second grade!  I can tell already that we are going to have a really great year!

We spent the majority of this week learning about and practicing some of our important routines and procedures.  Students are quick learners and have been demonstrating an amazing ability to listen carefully and pay attention to details! Ask your child to tell you about one of our Morning Meeting greetings, about his/her job this week, or about the story we are reading during snack (Sideways Stories from Wayside School, by Louis Sachar.) 

As a class, we also spent a lot of time talking about our goals for this school year.  Students reflected on their first grade experience - identifying things that they enjoyed doing, things that were a little tricky for them, and things that they were good at.  They then used these ideas to help formulate their "hopes and dreams" for second grade. Please ask your child to share with you his/her hope and dream! 

These hopes and dreams then helped us develop our classroom rules.  Students thought long and hard about what they would need to achieve their goal.  What would the classroom need to look and sound like?  What would they need from their classmates?  What would they have to put in themselves?  After considering these questions and brainstorming with each other, they decided on the following rules:

1. Respect others' feelings.
2. Keep each other safe.
3. Be quiet when others are talking and working.
4. Take care of our classroom and our school.
5. Try your best and have fun.

I'm hoping that these rules will help guide us all through a safe and fun school year!

In addition to these important accomplishments, students also took a baseline math assessment and a quick spelling inventory this week.  They can expect a (painless) reading baseline assessment next week.  I will use all of this information to help guide my instruction over the next few weeks. 

All in all, I think we had an extremely productive week and I am so excited about this school year!  I hope you are too!

*On a side note, I will be updating our blog at least once a week.  I apologize for not posting earlier this week - it was just too hot!!  Please check regularly to stay up-to-date with all that is happening in Room 13!

1 comment:

Jocelyn said...

Hello Mrs. Marzilli-

Thank you for this very informative blog update. These topics will be discussed at dinner tonight. We look forward to reading this throughout the year.

Jocelyn Edwards