Back to School Night 2014-Check!

Man!! Back to school night is done!! I feel like I have SOOOO much to talk about and not enough time.  I do both the English and Spanish back to back so my mind is constantly moving and going!! I have a great group of parents this year and I can't wait to involve them in our fun activities!!
Here are some pics!!

The stand is from my friend Rosemary and the cupcakes and sign are from Mrs. Thomas's Class on TpT...these were a HIT!!! Click here to access her store! Cassie Thomas

Tables ready for the parents! Those folders were FULL of great information

Back to School night selfie! 

We have been working with short vowel sounds this week in English and las vocales in Spanish!

Here are some great videos from YouTube!

 The kids LOVE LOVE LOVE this video!

Also we started using ESTRELLITA this year!  Here are some videos for that! 

We also have TOTALLY embraced using GoNoodle! If you do not know about it, please please please go check it out and sign up-it's free and it is a GREAT way to get their energy you and refocus!! My class loves it!!!

We also started using Writer's Workshop this year.  Our amazing teachers worked over the summer to create a great model for us and we started the IMMERSION level this week! We immerse the kids in mentor texts and writing routines. This is going on during my English days.  On Spanish days, we are working on developing our Spanish vocabulary and also correct sentence structure in Spanish.  So far, we are doing very well.  Today, we wrote about something we did when there was no school, like this past weekend or even something they did this summer that they wanted to write about.  Our Mentor Text was The Dot and it was perfect!! Kids just drew, or wrote a word, or even a sentence  and I was so proud of them because they worked the entire time AND did their best!  Here is a chart I made to talk about storytelling (please forgive the lack of visuals...forgot to get them from the printer-I don't draw so I print a lot of pictures! )

Sorry for the folded paper-I have to change my charts a lot because of the English/Spanish so I often fold them and keep them by my lessons-it says, "If I can think it, I have a story to tell. If I can tell it, I can write it, if I can write it, I can illustrate it". 

Tomorrow is Spanish day so I am going to continue with our Interactive Notebook and I am going to do the A from my Actividades del Cuaderno pack in Spanish! Interactive Notebook in Spanish..I hope to take lots of pics to post!!!

Happy teaching!!

Alyson Hennessy

1st day success!

Wow! The first two days are complete!! AND the classroom is clean and supplies are put away!!! I don't think that has EVER happened in my 9 years of teaching! My class is great!! One of the great things about the dual language program is that the kids know me very well because their Kindergarten teacher and I are friends and we do a lot together! They came right in on the first day like they owned the place!! I love it!!!! =)   They are doing very well with the rules and routines and next week, we will begin centers!  They already asked for Homework!!
Here is a pic of my "Sweet First Day" hat that we made!  Excuse my sweaty face-we have no air conditioners in our classrooms and the first week of school was probably the hottest week we have had ALL summer! Go figure, right?

 The kids loved making their own! The kids then put the hat on, I made them wear an apron, and gave them a cookbook to hold for a picture!  I am using those for a gift for their parents at back to school night!  I am also thinking of making a hat that says, "1st grade WAS sweet!" for the end of the year and then putting the two pics side by side as an end of the year gift to their parents.  

Something we did today, which was super fun and helped them review letter/sounds was a name chart! I didn't get a great picture but on the first day, the students got a baggie with the letters of their name inside.  They glued the letters in the correct order.  Then today, we used an alphabet chart and drew a picture that is associated with the letters in their name.

Example:

Hennessy

I would draw a picture of a house, elephant, net, net, elephant, snake, snake, yo-yo

They loved doing this! I found this idea from another teacher blogger and let me tell you-success!! Cant' wait to hang them up for back to school night!

This student has an R as the first letter so he drew a picture of a rainbow!

We also read, "Interrupting Chicken"-love this story! We then used an activity that I found on TpT!  

For math, we read Chrysanthemum and counted the letters in our name!! I had to add another chart paper!  The kids loved this too!

Well, I am one tired teacher so it is early to bed tonight!! Hope everyone had a great week!

Happy teaching!

Alyson Hennessy