"I made it through my first week of first grade!"

As my children wrote in their planner on Friday "I made it through my first week of first grade!" they were so excited! I loved seeing them excited about being at school and feeling like a big kid!

Last week we introduced the "stretch and slide" game which is used to sound out words. It goes something like this... "I'll do the first word, watch me. My word is "ran". What’s my word? "ran" Get ready, "r/a/n". Your word is "if" What’s your word? "if". Get ready, "i/f"." As the students say the sound you put a finger up to show a new sound. This was confusing for me at first because we were doing words like "shoe" which have four letters but only two sounds!

Next we did rhyming words. We read a poem and had the children clap when they heard a word that rhymed with "sam". I liked this because it kept children’s attention and got them involved with the reading.



"You will be suspended for any gang activity, fighting at school, profanity, cell phone use (if you are searched and have a cell phone on you it will be taken). Gang affiliation includes wearing head bands or bracelets related to a gang." This was the message presented by the assistant principle during the bully assembly. The fighting at school, profanity, and cell phone use is pretty common among most schools, but I have never had a gang talk during an assembly before! Teaching students about safety in the neighborhood and at school is another important part about living in this area.



Question: How do you monitor children's restroom use??

I have several students that seem to use the restroom 4+ times a day. Most of them I think are sincere, but it is hard to tell when they ask so many times. I hate making children sit in their desk or wait if they need to (as my children say) "use it". I know I can't concentrate if I need to use the bathroom so how can I expect them to learn if they need to??

-Miss. Hansen