Welcome Back!

Welcome back to the 2017-2018 school year! As the week went on, the kids are getting used to their first grade schedule. Mrs. Skalaban and I kept our homeroom for the first two days and we started switching classes on Wednesday. There's nothing like starting a school year with the solar eclipse and ending it with a hurricane! Stay dry out there.

This is a picture of the kids doing their first math activity on the first day of school. This past week, we worked on recognizing numbers and counting. My goal was to have each kids fluently count up to 10 in Vietnamese. Next week, we will be working on recognizing dot patterns and using ten frames. We will be learning how to compose numbers to equal to 10. 

We read the book Lacey Walker, Nonstop Talker which was about an owl who never stopped talking. She talked so much that one day she lost her voice and learned that when she stopped to listen to others, she could learn so much about them that she never knew before. As a class, we talked about how we could be a good listener and what a good listener looks like.

We explored math centers this week. We’re having a little difficulty cleaning up quickly and quietly but we will continue to work on it!

 We worked together as a table to create our “golden rules” poster in class. The kids did SO well working together and not arguing. Before I handed them the poster, we talked about how we could take turns so everyone was able to participate. 

In social studies, we learned about how to be a good citizen in class. We used our SS spirals for the first time this week and drew two pictures of how we are a good friend.

In Mrs. Skalaban’s class, the students learned about scientists and the different kinds of scientists we have.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to e-mail me, call me or even leave notes in your child’s daily folder. I check folders every day.

I am also looking for someone to help me stuff daily and Monday folders every Monday morning. If you are interested and willing to help, I would really appreciate that! 

Happy Summer!

I can’t believe the school year is already over and it’s officially summer. One reason why I love first graders so much is the insane growth they make academically throughout the year. While cleaning the classroom yesterday, I found some old things we worked on during the year and couldn’t believe how far they’ve come. Please keep reading, writing, and practicing math over the summer!!! On the last day of school, I showed them some websites they could go on during the summer to continue reading. These websites are on a blue sheet of paper that was placed in their daily folder. It was funny because on one of the websites, they saw a category list of “scary and disgusting” and they REALLLLY wanted me to click on it so I did…and let me say, there are some books over some really scary and disgusting things. One of the books we clicked on talked about how a tribe in Africa makes their houses out of cow poop. The book also had pages about bat caves full of poop, worm poop, nasty landfills, and etc. They were so interested and disgusted at the same time. Although it was disgusting, the book was pretty informational.

Teachers had to go to a professional development last Friday when students had off and they showed us this video. I thought it was really interesting to see how much summer learning really makes a difference in a child during elementary school. I don't necessary think it's an income issue, but it's more about the support at home, which unfortunately not all children are able to get.

https://youtu.be/ZolcNG3GVCs

There’s also a June and July calendar of activities the kids could do over summer break just in case they get bored. It was stapled to an end-of-the-year letter.

On Thursday, both Mrs. Skalaban and my class had a bead store BLOWOUT. They could buy whatever they want with all the beads they had left. I should have taken a picture of all the toys laid out on the tables for the kids to buy but it was so insane I didn’t have time.

 We had our very last Vietnamese sound check on Wednesday and the kids did pretty well. If the kids want to keep up with their Vietnamese, they can use their Vietnamese flashcards that we worked on all year long or go to www.ilearnviet.com to practice. The username is ttran and the password is austin. Please keep the flashcards as a good resource for home. I spent a lot of time putting these together every week or two for all 42 students.

 Here is a picture of the kids during “puzzle day.”

I hope everyone has a great summer!!! Thanks for a great year!

Meet-the-Teacher is August 17 from 4-6

First Day of School is August 21, 2017

We just reached the last Friday of the School Year

Here are some writings we did this week with our sight words. The kids have came so long compared to the beginning of the year. We will have our last VLA sound check during the last week of school. I can’t believe there’s only 7 days of school left.

Ever wonder how we practice our sight words? To practice our Vietnamese sight words, we sit in a circle with our white boards, glove and marker. We write the word, write a sentence using the word and then draw a picture. Instead of me leading the whole group lesson, I ask the kids who wants to be the teacher for the day and they will lead it for me. It’s super cute.

 We worked on bodies of water this week in school and did a drawing activity.

 We went on a walking field trip to the Milwood Austin Library this Wednesday. We were so lucky it did not rain on us. It was a fun, quick trip. Mrs. Richey even joined us!

 We finished our last Robotics class this week and the kids LOVED it. Who doesn’t like to put Legos together to program it to twirl and chirp?

 Sadly, we had our last Science Buddies lesson this Friday. It was so fun. The kids had a “snail Olympics” with their buddies. The snails competed in the high jump, the obstacle course, the sprint and other events.

 In four more years, our lovely first graders will switch roles with their 5^th buddy and get to be the “big” science buddy!

Don’t forget tomorrow is our Dual Language picnic!! It is from 11:30-2:00. Come out to enjoy some music, food, hopefully some sun and to get wet!

It's About Time We Learn About Time!

This week, we started our unit on telling time. We started telling time to the hour and then started telling time to the half hour. We will continue telling time to the half hour this upcoming week. 

The kids got to play Time Travel on ABCYa! during math centers this week.  

 Thank you to the Zimmerman family for providing us with perfectly cut delicious watermelon for our watermelon day on Friday. We got to taste the watermelons outside and then described the watermelon.

Watermelons are…

Watermelons can…

Watermelons have…  

 On Friday, we went to the STEAM lab to create some tortoises and hares with some 5^th graders. There was a contest going on to see who could make the most original tortoise and hare. Sammi won the best hare and Michael won the best tortoise.  

We did our last Vietnamese writing for the month of May. It says “This summer, I want to go to…”  

The kids finished their clay pots in art class. I didn’t want to send these home Friday because they had their Mother’s Day gift to carry and I didn’t want these breaking so I will send these home Monday.  

First Week of May

In math this week, we learned about perimeter and area. Here is a picture of our new math bulletin board.

The kids got to create their own area robot and their own area person. They had fun with this.

 In Mrs. Skalaban’s class, the children have been working on writing how-to papers. They created their “how-to take care of a pet.”

During VLA time, we created some chicks and their life cycle using transitioning words.

Thank you for those who showered me with gifts this week for Teacher Appreciation Week!

Hero-Up Field Day!!!

Thank you to our homeroom mom, Kate, for all the time she has spent on helping with our school’s Spring Fling. Thank you to the Schulze family for our awesome baskets. And thank you to the families who donated money towards our baskets.

We had SUCH a great Field Day! We were lucky to have beautiful weather and a smooth busy day. Field Day is one of my favorite days of the school year. I told the kids that the most important thing I wanted them to remember during Field Day was to have fun but also show good sportsman ship. They did such an awesome job with that even when losing during some stations.

 Check out some of the superhero gear!

 During math this week, we worked on comparing numbers and drawing base 10 models. It’s so amazing to look back and see how much they have grown academically and physically since first day of school. We started comparing 2 digit numbers and then worked our way up to 3 digit numbers. I pulled a small group with me and we compared 4 digit numbers. 

I pulled out the tablets and the kids got to play on any apps on it if it was math related during math centers.

We took our sound check and the kids did pretty well on it. Next week we will study 2 new blends. The kids have gotten a lot faster in writing their sentences during VLA time. The average amount of time I give them is 20 minutes now-a-days.

This month’s calendar will have a “May Fun Calendar” attached on the back. Each day in May, first celebrates a certain theme. Please stop by the classroom and sign up for an item to help for the May fun! We need volunteers to help sign up for popcorn, watermelon and animal crackers.

Austin Nature Center and Celebrating Earth Day!

We had a fun-filled field trip to the Austin Nature Center on Wednesday of this week. This was our last field trip. The kids had a great time exploring the different rooms and touching all sorts of animals. Here are some pictures from our field trip.

We’ve been doing different activities and watching different videos in class all week for Earth Day.

The 3 R's

Each year, the AISD science center sends us guppies and snails for our classroom for science. We received them this week and set up their habitat. We also received our class pet this week. It is a hedgehog. The hedgehog hasn’t came out yet so the kids are still waiting to see him. At the end of the year, Suzanne and I start to sell the guppies and snails in bead store so don’t be surprised if your child comes home with a guppy or snail ;) 

We finished out our unit of measurement this week. This week, we learned how to measure with a ruler to the inch and half inch.

We took our Vietnamese sound check this Friday. The kids did a pretty good job on it. We will start practicing new words next week.

 In science, the kids learned parts of a plant. These fabulous creations are hung up on our science bulletin board.

Mrs. Cardosa came in this week and taught us about growth mindset. “I cannot do this YET, but I can do this.” They watched this little clip with her also.

Giraffes Can't Dance