Our First Few Days {and a FREEBIE}

Hello there!
We’ve been in school a little over a week now.  My kiddos are still learning our routines, but have come such a long way since this time last week. 

My grade partners and I have been assessing our little guys and gals in fluency and comprehension, as well as writing and math so we know how to place them.  For reading, we’ve been giving the Storytown assessments {our basal}, as well as fluency passages, and comprehension sheets to round out our results. {Those Storytown Benchmarks are a doozy for them}.  In math, we’ve used both the end of year first grade Benchmark, as well as the beginning of the year 2nd grade Benchmark in EnVisions. I {heart} EnVisions.

We’ve also been reviewing a few addition/subtraction strategies.  These are purely supplemental.  How much do you supplement your math/reading programs?  I feel like we do a lot, especially in the “memorization of facts” department.

So far, we’ve done the Flip-Flop rule as well as Best Friends {Numbers that make 10}.  I can’t believe how much practice my students still need with these strategies, so I’ll continue to hammer review them well into the first quarter, along with our EnVisions program.



What’s pictured?  Our Flip-Flop facts on, well, Flip Flops. Best Friends Musical Chairs on Post-Its. {I meant to use the cards from my Best Friends unit on TpT, but the laminator ate them instead}, our Stripes pictures from my Stripes unit, our Monster Behavior sort, and draw and write craftivity, Best Friends bulletin board from my Best Friends unit, our Playground Promise from my Bully Packet. {Yes, I know…I spelled nicely wrong :(}

Needless to say, we’ve been busy!  Next week we’ll start with our regular curriculum, and I am anxious to really get our routines down.  “I’m Done!!!” needs to be an extinct phrase in my room by September 21st!!

As promised, I have a freebie for you!!!  And, can you believe, I’ve already had a little one out sick?  I needed a last minute “While You Were Out” folder because all of mine from last year didn’t make it through the summer.  I uploaded it to TpT, and you can find it here :)



*While You Were Out Folder

Have a good one!

Halle