Ms.Soulas' Classroom

Here are some highlights from the week... The first grade readers have been practicing their independent and partner reading habits. This week they practiced the three different ways to read to a partner: Echo read (take turns reading the same thing) See-Saw read (take turns reading different things) Choral read (read the same thing at the same time) When you are reading with your first grader at home, I encourage you to practice these different ways of reading together! In writing, students have been doing a great job sharing their small moments and stretching their small moments across pages.   They are making their stories come to life by including dialogue, movement, thoughts and feelings to make their writing even stronger.We have been focusing on being a supportive writing partner by listening, giving specific compliments and asking questions. It is awesome to see the eager and excited authors of Room 112! On Friday, we had our first Art Literacy less...

This week in Reader's Workshop, we introduced Partner Reading! Partner reading allows for more time to practice strategies, build fluency, check for understanding, hear their own voice and time to share in this learning community. It also increases reading involvement, attention and collaboration. In our word study this week, the first graders studied the "ch" sound at the ends of words. Through this, they were introduced to the "catch/lunch" rule! When we hear a word with a "ch" at the end, how do we know if it's -ch or -tch?! We listen to the sound before it! If it's just a short vowel sound, we need the -tch to protect it! If the short vowel has another sound after it, or if it's a long vowel sound then we just need the -ch! Of course with all rules, there are some rule breakers - the first graders found out that "rich" breaks the rule :) On Tuesday, I was able to spend the whole day reading with students! Our new reading ...

The first grade authors had a publishing party this week! They practiced the process of picking a piece of writing from their "writing portfolio," editing (fixing), revising (adding), and then creating a final, fancy copy! The writers were absolutely beaming when they were looking at their published work - their pride and excitement was contagious!  On Tuesday we had "Travel Tuesday" and went all the way to the moon! We learned how the moon gets it's light, how far away it is and how many moons would fit in the earth. The curiosity and excitement around space continued throughout the week and we got to read some space books and see the 5th graders' scale planet models!  I am constantly getting asked, "is today buddy day?!" And on Wednesday, it was! We got to meet up with our 4th grade buddies and the first and fourth graders made "All About Me" cubes to continue to get to know each other. Mr. Graham and I are continually impressed w...

Here are some highlights from the week... In Reader's Workshop, we reviewed picking books that are a "good fit" for us! They are not too hard, not too easy, but just right! This can be a challenging task, but the first graders did an excellent job identifying when a book might be too hard or too easy.  We will continue to practice and reinforce picking and reading "good fit" books throughout the year.  *** Our current focus when picking books that are just right.  0 - 1 tricky words on a page = too easy 2 - 3 tricky words on a page = GOOD FIT! 4 - 5 tricky words on a page = give it a try  5 or more tricky words on a page =  goal book When we get to tricky words in our JUST RIGHT books, we work to solve them! Sometimes we can have some bad habits when solving words, but when we know what they are, we can drop them and pick up good habits instead!  We focused on dropping those bad reading habits and picking up good habits. Some bad reading habits t...