Ms.Soulas' Classroom

It was great seeing you all at Back to School Night - thank you so much for coming and for your continued support! The first grade artists worked very hard on their lion portrait art project! They got to use sharpies and oil pastels to create some lions that are really something to roar about - pun intended :) In writer's workshop,  we started our Small Moments unit. The students are practicing the writing process and working on "zooming in" through their narrative writing. We have learned and been practicing the first two steps in the writing process: Think of an idea & Plan (touch, tell, sketch and write). When you are writing at home with your first grader, encourage them to plan out their writing before they start. This involves touching and telling the story out on the paper before writing. Ask your first grader to show you their invisible pencil! For those of you who weren't able to attend Back to School Night the conference sign up is posted outs...

Here are some highlights from Room 112... We continue to practice and focus on the independent reading expectations (Stay in one spot, work quietly, work the whole time, start right away, and build stamina). As we practice what it looks like and sounds like, we are also building good reading habits. We have discussed that good habits are things that we remember to do without people telling or reminding us. The good habits that we focused on this week are taking a "sneak peek" (ex. looking at the cover, taking a picture walk, making predictions, etc.) of a book before you read it, and "doing something" when you finish the book (ex. rereading, asking questions, going back to your favorite part, discussing it with a friend, etc.). Super readers have good habits when they start a book and when they finish one!  On Wednesday, we got to meet our 4th grade buddies from Mr.Graham's class! The first and fourth graders made n ame tags  that they designed using a speci...

It was a short, but busy week in Room 112! Last week I read the book "How Full is your Bucket." This book highlights the power of kindness and connects with our Room 112 bucket that is added to when we work together and get compliments and recognition from Stephenson Staff and adults. We have been continuing to get drops in our bucket for being examples of the school expectations and rules (be safe, be respectful, be responsible, be your best). We have already filled our bucket-- Go Room 112!  We have continued to practice Independent Reading and have been building on Reader's Workshop expectations: Read quietly, read the whole time, start right away, and build stamina. We will continue to build and develop these skills as we practice this independent learning and work time. I am already seeing their stamina grow! This week we also transitioned from exploring the math manipulatives, to using them as tools for math. It is pretty incredible to see their creativity when...