Mary Ann Hertz's First Grade Class

Welcome, I would like to take a minute to introduce myself.  My name is Mary Ann Hertz and I am the new first grade teacher. I am very excited to be the new first grade teacher! 

INTERACTIVE WRITING

We begin each school year doing a lot of interactive writing.  The teacher and the students share the writing utensils for these activities. 

We begin each day with the morning message.  In the beginning I write the entire message and the students take turns leading in the reading of it. The message includes the weather, the leader for the day, and the news.

Very soon in the year we share the writing and each child writes a letter as we "turtle talk"  some of the words, then individuals move to writing whole words.  The next step is having a single child write a complete sentence for the morning message.

Each day the leader shares something and we include a sentence about the share followed by a question to be answered by all students.  These responses becomes the class writing assignment and then an item for future reading by all the students. 

By about January the children begin writing the morning message in their own journals.  The weather is recorded for each day and a graph is made of weather conditions for each month.  The leader still shares something and a question is posed and answered by all the students.  These journals are shared in circle.  Sometimes we only read the responses to the question for the day. 

Sometimes a concept such as capital letters is the study for the day and a paragraph is posted with some errors in it.  The children find all the missing capitals and edit it as a group.  The the children find the errors in their own journals and fix them.

By spring, the writing becomes more of a response to literature.  The children are very good at writing on their own and using multiple sources for writing unknown words and editing.  Children compare characters, books, and videos.  They make connections to themselves and the real world.  Sometimes they writes about events in their own lives or look things up on the internet and write a reports.  Once the children have been introduce to various kinds of writing and have practiced each for awhile, they write independently, choosing how to respond to a book or story independently.

GUIDED READING

Reading is divided into three or four groups.  Groups usually have no more than five members in them at any given time.  These groups are constantly changing as individual needs change within them.  Instruction is given by a team of teachers.  The sessions start with independent reading.  At this time the teacher goes around the group and listens in as each child reads.  Notes are taken about the strategies being used, the things that are still confusing and need further instruction, and the fluency rate.  Then the new story is introduced.  Depending  on the ability of the group a book may be introduced page by page or with a broad overview.  We give enough information for the group to be successful while at the same time leave some information and unknown words to give readers a chance to problem solve independently. Children learn to love reading and practice faithfully every chance they get.  As children get good at using multiple strategies to read they become more and more independent.  Then they start picking up books and reading on their own.
 

MATH

Early in the year we analyze data, work with patterns, count and make graphs. Then we work with the numbers up to twenty.  Kids get homework to accompany many of the units.  Some even do extra homework.  That is very exciting to see.

By the beginning of the calendar year children in first grade are counting sets containing 50-70 items.  They sort these into groups using attributes and then resort in one or two more ways.  The next unit works on combinations, for example, find all the ways you can to make $.20 or all the ways you can combine three different colored tiles yet have no two alike. 

In unit five children come up with all the possible combinations for a given number, then find relationships between these numbers. Students are also given two parts of an equation and asked to figure out the missing part. 

Unit six is about measurement.  Children measure time, length and weight using standard and non-standard units of measure.  They record their findings and compare them.

SOCIAL STUDIES

It is very important that we understand communities. We work in one nearly every day.  We begin with our classroom community and then expand to our school, home, town and then the world.  We use maps to find out where we are in the bigger community.  Children are fascinated with maps and globes at this age and are very eager to learn about new places.  Later in the school year we study a foreign country.  We learn about the people, their customs, holidays and their explorers.  We discuss the impact of this culture on the rest of the world.

SCIENCE

For Living World

Usually we begin the school year learning about animals. We learn what characteristics they possess that classifies them as animals and how to sort them into groups.  We learn about their habitats, characteristics and their life cycles.

The Human Body

We learn the importance of food and a balanced diet to keep us healthy.  We learn and practice healthy habits like washing hands to keep down the spread of germs.  We talk about how we are alike and different.

Space, Time and Matter

We learn that matter comes in three different states: solids, liquids, and gases.  All matter has weight and takes up space.  We do experiments and explore properties of matter.  We study water nand what it looks like in the three different states.

The Universe, Earth and Environment

Early in the year we discuss weather and gather data during morning message time.  We study the water cycle and how it impacts the weather.  We experiment with water as a solid, liquid and a gas.  We explore water uses and discuss ways to conserve water.

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Email Grade 1 at grade1@millersrunschool.org
Millers Run School
PO Box 154, 3249 VT RT 122
Sheffield, VT 05866
Phone: (802) 626-9755   Fax: (802) 626-4316