Ms. Garverick’s Class

Welcome to the third week of school! We have been busy in our classroom taking pretests and reviewing some Kindergarten skills. The students in both classes wrote a short story about pets this week. I am going to conduct a Writer’s Workshop on Wedensdays during the morning and afternoon language arts classes. A half hour of our time will be devoted to the writing and editing process. Reading and writing go hand in hand, so I am really going to try and focus on teaching the students good writing skills. Right now we are working on the basics of a sentence. Does it start with a capital letter? Does it make sense? Does it have a period or a question mark at the end? These are the skills we will be working on during the first six weeks.

I am also going to start Accelerated Reader this week. I am going to get some books from the DTE library to send home. Please read these books with your child and review the events in the story. Discuss the characters, settings, and plot. When you child is ready for the test, send the book back to school with the card in it that lets me know your child is ready for the test. I have seen how well Accelerated Reader works, and the more books the students read the better readers they become! This should be something fun to help your child with.

First graders do not recieve a grade in Spelling on the report card until the second semester, but we are already working on some vowel rules. We are working on the CVC pattern right now. CVC stands for consonant- vowel-consonant. These words have three letters with the vowel in the middle (ie. cat, bag, man). The vowel sound is short. Practice making some CVC words with your child at home.

Our class schedule should be finalized this week. I am available for conferences between 12:00 and 12:30 each day except Wednesdays. I can also meet before or after school if that time doesn’t work for you. I also check my e-mail regularly, and can have phone conferences as well.

We are really off to a great start. The students have been very well behaved and come to school ready to listen and learn! Thanks for that! I will attach some more pictures tomorrow, when I get to school.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Ms. Garverick

We have been busy here in First Grade! I have been administering some baseline reading test to the students to determine their reading readiness. They have been doing quite well. On Tuesday, we had three support classes. The students have P.E. in the morning, and computer and art in the afternoon. Our schedule should be finalized next week, and once it is I will let you all know my conference times.

Also, I am going to put the homework folders together this weekend, so your child will be bringing home Language Arts and Reading homework next week.

Just a reminder- if you have not already done so- school supplies should be sent in by tomorrow. The most important item on the First Grade list is the chair bag, which can be purchased at the DTE bookstore. It is also very important for all students to have a backpack. The students have been so good this week, and I am really looking forward to a great year.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

What an exciting day for us here at Downtown Elementary! It was so nice to meet all the children and parents this morning. I am looking forward to wonderful year with this class. I have already noticed how polite and well behaved this group is.

We spent the morning getting to know each other during our first “Morning Meeting”. This is something that we do each morning, and is part of what makes us a Responsive Classroom. During the morning meeting we gather on the carpet, greet each other by name, share different things, and read a morning message that outlines our day ahead. It is a great way to start the day and really fosters a caring sense of community in our classroom.

It was an exceptionally exciting morning because during our meeting, Dr. Kriner Cash, the MCS superintendent, came into our classroom and listened as we shared our favorite parts of summer. Look for us on the news tonight!!!

After our meeting, we switched classes. I worked with the traditional class this morning, and will teach the optional class in the afternoons. We also had Music today with Mrs. Boggs. So as you can see, we were very busy! Enjoy the pictures, and let me know if you have any questions or comments in the comment section.

I hope this blog will help too keep you informed on all the wonderful things that are going on in First Grade at Downtown Elementary!

Ms. Garverick