I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. This week we are "Reading to Succeed". We will continue reading daily but we will "drop everything and read" as a class for 30 minutes each day. At the end of each day Mrs. Long will check and graph our progress by pods. Ask your child how we're doing. We are Pod 3. Try reading for 30 minutes at home also. Practice makes perfect!!!! Below you will see our STAR readers who have at least 50 AR points and participated in the Walk of Fame. Everyone has one more chance to be the Walk of Fame in May. Happy Reading!!

We have new book baskets that we are loving. Everyone keeps at least 5 book in their basket as well as sticky notes, paper, and chart paper. We are learning to use lots of tools to help us keep track of our reading and our thinking. It's so cool to see everyone using the tools in their basket to sequence, write down important facts, draw pictures, write the author's purpose or anything else they feel is necessary.  Here are a few pictures.

This is what Jake made using tools from his book basket. Sticky notes with captions and illustrations of what he learned about dinosaurs. 

I know it has been forever since I've updated and I promise I will try to do better. We have had very busy first semester. It's hard to believe that 2014 is almost here. Where is the time going? I have the sweetest class and they have all grown so much as first graders this year. Here are some recent pictures of some things we have been doing.

We love to work in groups to solve math problems.

In each group one person is the recorder. This way everyone gets a turn with my "special" markers but each person uses the marker to sign his/her own name.

When each group has finished they sign their name and take their paper to the carpet where the reporter shares the strategies they used to solve the problems.

Almost ready to share with the class.

We had so much fun at Farm Day this morning. Here are a few fun photos. ENJOY!

Welcome to 1st grade! I'm so excited you will be in my class this year. We are going to have so much fun and learn bunches and bunches. I can't wait to meet you on Thursday, August 15th at 9:00. Be sure to bring your school supplies with you. Parents: I will see you again on Friday, August 16th at 5:00 for Orientation. You can pick up the paperwork you need to fill out at the front office. Otherwise, come prepared to write. See you soon!

Mrs. Parr's Million Dollar Students

Maria Andres
Jake Belew
Jonah Bryan
Ella Claire Christian
Benjamin Gomez
Tony Hand
Gracie Harvey
Ricky Allen Ibarra-Ramirez
Josue Juarez
Maria Lopez
Isabella Oliver
Miguel Pascual
Joselyn Rios-Martinez
Jorge Rodriguez
Victoria Rosas
Sadie Williams

I'm so proud of the readers we have become this year. We are really diving into Nonfiction text now. We have been pouring through nonfiction text and finding the features and what the purpose for those features. Today we worked with a partner to create our own chart of features we found and added the purpose. Here is some of our work.

These boys are thinking hard about what they are finding.

Team Work

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Today we went outside to bird watch for 15 minutes and see how many different kinds of birds we would see and how many of each kind. Each student was given a recording sheet to record their sightings. What a great day it was for this activity. We saw blackbirds, a cardinal, sparrows, and 1 robin. We had so much I think we are going to have to put a bird feeder outside our window so we can do more research. Enjoy the pictures.