FIRST WEEK

I survived the first week of school with my first graders!  I think the week went really well, overall!  I love my students already!  In just two years away from first grade, I had forgotten how much fun it can be!  My favorite part of the week was the Read Alouds!  I shared a few of my favorite books with the class, like Old Black Fly and Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type!  I had forgotten how much fun those books are to read aloud!

We have some challenges, but I think this is going to be a great year!  I was able to get through everyone's individual alphabet assessment, the first 25 sight word assessment, and make letter/word cards for the students who needed them to practice with at home.  I also started the Fountas and Pinnell initial word test on about 1/4 of the class.  Next week I will finish that up and start the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessments.  According to my district guidelines, beginning of the year First Graders should be reading at Level D.   If they are not, I'll need to plan some Reading interventions right away.  Since we won't start Small Group Guided Reading/Literacy Centers for a few more weeks, I have the extra time for this testing now.   It can be very time-consuming, so I am grateful for the lightened load right now!

I still don't have anything on my bulletin boards, so I'm pretty much just skipping my entire calendar routine for now.  I've thought about setting it up as best I can in various places about the room, but I feel that by the time I do all that work, my boards will be replaced.  So I'm waiting for the new boards.  The work order is in the hands of the right department now, and they will get to me when they can.  If I see visible mold/fungus on my boards again before they are exchanged, I can contact them to come out and treat the boards again until they can be replaced.  That makes it sound like it's going to be some time.... We'll see!  The joys of an old building!  At least I'll have brand new bulletin boards!  (hopefully soon!!)

In a few weeks, we're going to start Reading Buddies on Monday mornings.  My class has partnered up with a 5th grade class.  I am hoping the 5th graders will teach my students how to take A.R. tests!  That would be a great help!  I am excited!

This has been a very long, exhausting week!  I heard many, many teachers say the same thing about this week!  While I brought some work to do at home, I am planning on getting lots of down time this weekend so I am ready to roll on Monday morning!