Friday, September 6, 2013

Friday's 1st Graders Are in Full Swing!

Woo Hoo!  I now have everyone's paperwork, and most importantly, their media release.  Thank you parents for helping me get these important "nuts and bolts" in place.

The boys and girls are settling in well.  This will be a two week, blog post mashup....

On our first SAGE day, the boys and girls spent some time getting to know each other a little better.  By the end of a fun game of "Would you rather...." we knew we all had some things in common.  

We also read a beautiful book, Willoughby & the Lion.  A golden lion grants Willoughby 10 wishes. The lion hopes Willoughby makes the greatest wish of all....  We then looked at some folklore about wishes such as wishbones, coins in fountains, eyelashes, dandelions etc.  


After that we each wrote four wishes of our own and made a very special wish project that will be on display at our Open House on Thursday, October 3rd between 5:30-7:00 PM here in our SAGE classroom.










In the afternoon, the students took some time to look through the Exploratory Centers to find at least three they might be interested in starting.  
This week, they completed their Exploratory contract and were able to begin the Knowledge and in some cases Comprehension Level tasks.  They each made a podcast to tell you something special they learned during their Exploratory time.


 We ended our first day discussing ways we can communicate.  Besides blogging as a class, we will also be sharing our learning on Twitter.  Each of the students designed a bird of their own and posted their first "tweet" outside of our classroom on our bulletin board.
You can follow us @KochSAGE on Twitter.

Today, the students worked in the computer lab to begin filling in their SAGE Profile.  This is a document that will help me get to know them better by telling me about their  activities and interests outside of school, as well as talents, academic strengths and weaknesses and learning topics of interest.
This afternoon, the students had a few wonderful moments of frustration during our independent math problem solving work.  I use the word "wonderful", because I want them to begin paying attention to those moments when they don't know the answer.  Times when they feel frustrated and have to ask for some help.  I want them to begin to recognize these as moments to celebrate.  New challenges are precious moments of learning- not something to fear or shy away from but rather times to dig deep and know when they come home, they will have new learning to share with you.
Later, we will have opportunities for more affective discussions where I hope they will learn empathy as they begin to recognize this is how most students feel every single day.  

In the short run, it will be a little uncomfortable and I can't say that I don't expect a few tears.  That is okay too.  I want them to feel it now and learn to understand from where these feelings are coming.  Learning to feel frustration and to be able to stay in the moment because they have the confidence to know they will succeed is the essence of perseverance.

It is going to be a great school year!  Don't hesitate to call of email me if you or your child have any questions or concerns.

No comments:

Post a Comment