Week 4 Reflections

Tuesday, September 6Today we worked on the letter F. We did a room search and came up with F
words, then did a worksheet with F pictures on it. We used white boards to word
down that began with F, which is something they love. I think they enjoy the boards
so much because if gives them some independence and lets them work on their
own at the same time were working as a group.
The next thing we did was talk about plots, settings, and characters. They
caught onto these very fast and it felt more like review. I told a story, and then they
told me the setting and the plot of my story. Then, a few of them told stories and
the class had to tell the setting and plot. Another thing they enjoy is looking at
pictures in their reading book and telling the plot and setting.
For math we did a pre test to see what they knew. You could tell after about
five minutes into the pre test that it was new material for them. This left me leery
about teaching it, but they caught on so fast, it was great. After the pre test we
talked about skip counting by 10s and did some activities as a class with that. They
soon realized that it was much faster counting by 10s than it was by 1s. Before the
day was over they counted to 100 by 10s like it was nothing to them!
The last thing of the day was a Labor Day Activity I came up with for social
studies class when we switch students. We talked about what Labor Day was, and
then watched a short 2 minute video on the jobs in and around the community. It
was a funny clip, so they really enjoyed it. Next, we got a sheet that they had to cut
and paste and make flaps out of. The point of the flap was so they could write under
it. Flap 1 said- When and they colored the picture on the flap and then wrote First

Monday in September under flap 1. The next 3 flaps had similar things on them.
They enjoyed this activity, so Im sure the other students will as well.
Wednesday, September 7Today we worked on the letter B. We began the day by writing them and
talking about the correct form. For some reason their form for this letter was a little
off. Next, we had a sheet with pictures on them and they had to write a B if it
started with a B. This is another morning routine that happens almost every day, so
they like it and like knowing whats coming next. Even though theyre only in first
grade, they really like routine.
Next, I gave them write boards to work with. Before any work, I let them draw
on them for about 2 minutes; I find this is easier than fighting their urge to draw
throughout the whole lesson. I told them a word and they would write it on their
board. Eventually, they would do it quietly to themselves then someone would raise
a hand to tell the answer to the class.
For math today we reviewed counting by 10s and worked with number grids.
First, they counted to 100 by 10 and then from 7 to 107 by 10s. They understood
this well, so we moved on to a counting activity. They got into groups of two and
each group had blocks. They had to count them and after three times of getting the
same number, they had to tell me how many they had. Next, they grouped them
into groups of 10 and decided it was way easier to count their blocks by 10s than it
was individually. The last thing we did for the day was switch classes, and I did my
Labor Day Activity with the next group of students.

Thursday, September 8Today we began the day writing out Ggs, and then they read their weekly
story, Tip and Tam by themselves quietly until everyone finished. After their sheet
was completed, we read the story together as a class, which is something they
enjoy. They like popcorn reading, as do I, because it requires them to follow along.
While reading, we also talked about setting, plot, characters, title page, and authors
of the story.
Next, we got out white boards and wrote out sight words, and then G words. I
would tell them a word and they would write it down. Once they all had it wrote
down, I would write the correct spelling and they would correct theirs if it was
wrong. After sight words, we worked in out workbooks on beginning sounds of
pictures that began with G.
For math we did some grouping review from yesterday. We counted to 100 by
10s and then had a worksheet to do in groups. The worksheet had an apple tree on
it, they had to count the apples into groups of 10. Once they had their first group of
10, they circled them and colored those apples red, then they had to do the same
for every apple on the page and color each group a different color. This took a little
bit, it was more time consuming than they thought it would be. We finished up the

day switching classes again, and I did the same Labor Day Activity with the last
group.

Friday, September 9Today we began with the letter Ii. I instructed the students on the proper way
to write the letter and which line the letter sat on. After writing it, we talked about
the long and short I sound. We worked with Silly Words such as zi, ci, li, etc. I had
them displayed on the smart board and the students would take turns telling me
what they were. They had trouble with this at first because they realized most of
them werent real words, but after I made them realize it was okay to say them,
they picked up pretty well. Next, they did the picture worksheet, like normal. If the
picture began with I, they wrote an I on the line, if it didnt, they left it blank.
Next, we practiced sounding out and blending words. I displayed words on
the board, and the raised their hand to tell me what the word was. After that, we
reviewed the high frequency words like we have the rest of the week. I let them
pick, and they wanted to write them on the smart boards. So, I said the word out
loud, and they wrote it on their white board. When someone felt confident that they
knew how to spell it, they would raise their hand and spell it for the class.

We then discussed Tip and Tam and read it out loud. They like reading it
together, so instead of being quiet and reading to themselves, we popcorn read it
again. We also talked about the plot, characters, setting, and reviewed the title
page and things from previously in the week. Its great seeing the improvement in
just one short week on this story. They went from knowing nearly none of the words,
to recognizing them right off the bat. I can tell theyre learning to read!
For math we worked on skip counting some more. They caught on fast with
the 10s again, but 5s were pretty rocky. What we did first was talk about them and
what pattern helped with counting by 5s. After the students caught onto the
pattern, they all got a bunch of connecting cubes to count with. We let them play for
about 5 minutes so they wouldnt be a distraction come learning time. First, they
counted them as a whole group, then they grouped them in 5s. For the last part of
the day since it wasnt social studies day, we read stories, and worked with running
records.