Rituals and Routines: Settling in - in First Grade

Oh, how we love to loop! Having our kindergarten students come back as first graders is wonderful. After a short refresher course on the rituals and routines of the classroom, they are back, ready for the learning and challenges of first grade. They know that they start each morning reading books out in the hall. They unload their folders while they are out there. When the bell rings, the children come in and go right to their cubbies to deposit their belongings. Their morning work is waiting for them at their tables. This quarter the morning work is handwriting practice. Letter formation is modeled for them and they practice in their handwriting journals. After the pledge and morning announcements, the students are brought to the floor with a song. Our class promise (which we will share next time) is said and then we promptly start Skills Block. This is where they learn about capitals, punctuation, word families, sight words, vowels, and practice with skill games. It was a great first week in Hog Heaven and can not wait to make more memories!

First Day of First Grade

The first day of school is a very special and memorable one at Chets Creek. It is the day we love to "WOW" the kids and make the first day exciting and fun. With our new theme, "Cultivating a Community of Excellence", the principal Mrs. Phillips, and her team WOWed all of us with a day at the farm. But instead of us going to the farm, she brought the farm to us. There was a watermelon patch where the children learned some fun facts about watermelons. Did you know the average watermelon has 750 seeds? There were ducks, goats, mules, tractors, bee keepers, planters, and singers. The day had its own special magic that only the first day of school bring. Mall-ard's Hog Heaven is looking forward to cultivating the best crop yet of first graders yet. We will do it by planting the seeds of knowledge, watering them each day with new discoveries, and nurturing each one until they are ready to take on new challenges.

Welcome to First Grade!

We have been busy the last few weeks preparing the classroom for our new first graders. The school theme this year is "Cultivating a Community of Excellence". A lot of ideas popped into our heads about where we could go with this theme, however, the one that sounded "just right" was "Mall-ard's Hog Heaven". In the dictionary "Hog Heaven" is termed as a noun/slang and the meaning is: "A state of utter bliss or contentment." That is exactly what we want a child's first grade year to be! Learning, growing, making new friends, and having the time of their lives in first grade! We can not wait to get started on Monday. Hog Heaven will be open for business and we will be cultivating our community of excellence!