Animal Fantasy

Reader's Workshop has been focused on our genre study of Animal Fantasy.  What better way to kick it off than with one of our favorite characters, Pete the Cat?  We began our study of animal fantasy by first exploring many animal fantasy books with reading partners and discussing all of the ways the animal characters were acting like people.

Next, we took a closer look at some of Kevin Henkes' Animal Fantasy books including Chrysanthemum, Wemberly Worried, Lily's Purple Plastic Purse, and Sheila Rae the Brave.  We used character traits to describe the main characters' thoughts, feelings, actions, and personalities.

 This week, we completed our genre study by drawing and writing about our favorite animal fantasy characters.

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Ask your child all about our study of Animal Fantasy.  Next week, we begin our exploration of the Realistic Fiction genre and our kick off to Global Read Aloud-stay tuned!
Common Core Standards: 
RL.1.3: Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details. RL.1.7: Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Johnny the K

On Friday, one of our favorite visitors came to Fuller Meadow School to sing and dance with us- Johnny the K! Johnny comes every September to remind us about being kind, respectful, and responsible, and he does it in such a FUN way! We love singing along to his tunes and seeing all of his crazy hats! Johnny the K even chose one of our 1-Thomson first graders to be a helper at the end of his show! Thank you Middleton PTO and Johnny the K! What a great way to kick off our year-it's always a blast!

-Mrs. Thomson

Heart Maps

Writers' Workshop is part of every day in first grade.  This is a time when first graders write and draw about the things that they know the best!  This week, we talked about how writers often choose to write about the things they know and love the MOST!

Next, the first graders created "heart maps" to keep as a resource in their writing folders. Now, each time they sit down to write, they can refer to their map for a little inspiration!  Check out our 1-Thomson heart maps below:

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First Grade Beginnings

I always love the first week of school! It's so fun getting to know each other and hearing all about summer adventures.  I can tell that this is going to be a great year filled with lots of fun and learning.  This past week, we were busy establishing our routine and learning rules and expectations.  We were able to do this with a little help from our friend, David.  After Reading David Goes to School by David Shannon, we brainstormed a whole list of things we should and shouldn't do at school.  The first graders know their stuff when it comes to expected behavior!  After some good discussion, the students and I created a "classroom promise".  Here is what we came up with:

We are looking forward to a great year ahead!