As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that we're closing out our fourth week of first grade already. As they say, time flies when you're having fun. It's been a fun, eventful and productive week. I'll just take a few moments with you to highlight some of the goodies from this week.

Daily 5--as I mentioned at Parent Night, Daily 5 offers one of the most effective templates for learning to read that I have ever taught or experienced. Your children are working in a language-rich environment, progressing through five Language Arts tasks that vary from day to day. They carry part of the responsibility for improving their skill in reading and writing, while I coach each of them individually. We've got two of the Daily 5 components up and running effectively. The children are involved in Read to Self or Word Work each day. Next week we're going to add Work on Writing. As the children are working on their tasks, I am able to confer one-on-one with each student, at his or her independent reading level. We create a new reading goal and I hold them accountable for this goal the next time we confer. It's awesome. We usually get a few cheers when the kids hear it's time for Daily 5.

You may be able to see a few post-it notes on the posterboards behind these Daily 5ers. These posterboards categorize our reading goals and students place their name on the goal they are currently working toward. They're either working to improve their Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency or Expanded Vocabulary (hense the acronym CAFE board). I hope I haven't put you to sleep with all this nitty gritty. I'd be happy to share more with you if you're interested. We're going to have so much growth in reading this year.

Our science unit on animals and life cycles is wrapping up. You may have heard that this week we had a missing caterpillar transform into a butterfly right inside our paper towel holder. No worries. God performs miracles even inside paper towel holders. We brought the monarch (who looked particularly clean and dry I might add) outside and he fluttered away as if he meant to house himself in our sanitizing station. The kids were just a tad excited about this event.

                                    Here's the beautiful little bugger fresh from the paper towel dispenser.


One final note before I mention our important upcoming dates. It has become evident that we're starting to enter cold season. Several kids have developed coughs and sniffles. As we closed the day on Thursday, I prayed with the kids that God would restore the health and energy of those children struggling with coughs and sniffles. Suddenly, the room erupted in dry coughing and dramatic sniffing. Everyone seemed to catch the bug at that moment and I'm sure your children made God giggle just a bit. Thankfully, He doesn't need to hear the sound of my voice speaking our prayer, because I was momentarily completely drowned out by our coughing. Your children are so loving and they each want to be loved. They ARE loved by our Heavenly Father, by their supportive families, by one another, and they are loved by me.

The following are a few noteworthy dates:

September 17 Walk-a-thon pledges/forms due  AND  School Pictures
September 19 Walk-a-thon: 1:30-2:15@ HS
September 20 Math Homework Due
September 21 Library Books Due AND Spelling Test
October 10 Grandparent/friends Day
Oct. 18-23 Fall Break/Conferences: No School