I hope to see all of my students and their families at Open House / Artful Learning night on Thursday at 6:00! 

It's getting a little "batty" in first grade!

Bat stories (both fiction and non-fiction), bat thinking-maps, bat stories, bat games, bat diagrams, and bat crafts....

We've gone batty in Mrs. Guinn's room!  Be sure to ask your little guy or gal to tell you some cool bat facts that they learned this week.  Here's a few of my personal favorites:
- There are 1000s of kinds of bats!
- The bumblebee bat is so small it is the size of a jelly bean!
- The flying fox bat has the wingspan the same size as an adult human!
- Bats are mammals.  This means humans and bats are similar in many ways!

Be sure to come by the school on Nov. 8 from 6-7:30 for Open House.  You'll be able to enjoy seeing some of our bat projects and take a tour of our classroom!

Autumn Greetings

Fall is officially here!  The first graders are busy learning new Essential Learning skills that began this week, along with the start of the second quarter.  (I'll be posting the list of these soon!)  The beautiful piece of art in the photograph was created by one of our very own student's in Mrs. Basgier's art class!

Knuffle Bunny

My family and I went to see Knuffle Bunny, A Cautionary Musical, by Mo Willems put on by Cardinal Stage Theater this morning.  It was so adorably delightful!  My favorite part was seeing some Fairview families there! 

Officer Friendly

Officer Friendly, a police officer from the Bloomington Police Department, visited our classroom today!  The children were enthralled with his conversation about all of the equipment he wears every day.  Officer Friendly spoke with the first graders about 5 things:   1) Never go anywhere with an adult you don't know  2) Never touch a gun if you see one  3)  Always buckle your seat belt              4) Never put things in your mouth that aren't food or drinks and 5) Never let anyone touch you in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable, nervous, or scared.  Officer Friendly will return in the spring to talk more about safety! 

Pigeon Mania!

Okay, first grade parents.  Get ready!  Pigeon Mania is about to begin!  

This week will begin our unit on the always popular Mo Willems.  He is the author of many children's picture books such as Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Knuffle Bunny, and the Elephant and Piggie books.  If you have a reluctant reader, I highly suggest checking out his books from the Monroe County Public Library.  The stories are light-hearted and silly, and are always a hit with the first graders!

So, be prepared to see lots of pigeon drawings (we'll be learning the steps to draw one early in the week) and lots of pigeon writing too!  We'll even be using the stories to practice our other essential learnings such as making a graph!

Let the fun begin!

1st Grade

Super

It has been a super week in Mrs. Guinn's class!  We were extremely busy with our first round of assessments of our Essential Learnings but the students were super troopers and tried their best! 

The term 'essential learnings" might be new to some, so here's an explanation and a list of the essential learnings we are working on right now in First Grade!

Essential Learnings

Essential Learnings are the skills and standards that we are focusing on the most.  The students are assessed every 3 weeks to see if they are learning these skills.  These are the things that are most important for your child to learn.  We will keep the same essential learnings for the first 9 weeks of school.

Language Arts Essential Learnings (first quarter):

v After reading a story, tell the setting, characters, and important events.

v Write a story that includes 2 or more events.

v Read sight word phrases.

v Say the beginning, middle, and end sounds of a word.

v Blend sounds to make a word.

v Tell the sounds that make up a word.

v Spell common words correctly.

v Spell less common words correctly by sounding them out.

Math Essential Learnings (first quarter):

v Count to 120 starting at any number.

v Read and write numbers.

v Understand what numbers stand for.

v Understand tens and ones in two digit numbers.

v Use a graph to learn things.

More colors!

We will continue using colors as our theme for next week.  Next week's schedule is below.

Monday 8/27        Purple

Tuesday 8/28        Brown

Wednesday 8/29   Black

Thursday 8/30      White

Friday 8/31           Pink

Graphs and Maps!

This "double-bubble map" was created by our first graders.  We used this to compare where these animals live.  We found that while some live at the farm, most of the animals in the pictures live at the zoo.  However, we categorized 3 animals as living at both the farm and the zoo!  Maps and graphs help us categorize information we have into a thoughtful way! 

Colors!

This next week we'll be doing some fun activities with colors.  You can use the schedule below if your child would like to wear the "color of the day".

Monday, 8/20 - Red
Tuesday, 8/21 - Blue
Wednesday, 8/22 - Yellow
Thursday, 8/23 - Green
Friday, 8/24 - Orange

Getting to know one another!

Two days of first grade have flown by in a whirlwind of excitement!  We have been very busy getting to know one another, our new classroom, and Mrs. Guinn's class rules and expectations.  It is a very busy time of year, but I'm doing my best to keep it lively and exciting as well!  So far, we've learned a lot about each others names, used Kevin Henke's book Chrysanthemum to discover it's okay to be different, and interviewed one another so we can learn new things about our classmates.  We've also reviewed tally marks and counting by 5! 

Our Boys Town Skill of the week is:  Following Instructions.  We've been practicing this a lot, as it is an essential skill for the classroom and life in general!  The kids are becoming experts at this.  Here is how we teach it:
"When an adult gives you directions, you say 'okay' and do it right away."  Super!

Sweet!

What a sweet group of kids!  I had the honor of meeting a lot of my soon to be first grade class tonight at Fairview's Ice Cream Social.  I'm excited for Monday!  Go Wildcats!!

Welcome!

Welcome to Mrs. Guinn's first grade class blog at Fairview Elementary School!  I can't wait to meet my new group of kids tomorrow night at our Ice cream social!