Field Trip to the Zoo

Last Thursday our class went to the San Antonio Zoo for a field trip.  The kids were so excited about going! Each first grade class had their own color tshirt and our class was red.  I'm sure I'm a little biased but I must say Lytle Primary had some good looking students.  My favorite exhibit was the monkeys.  I always enjoy watching them.  I'd like to give a big shout out to all the parents who attended.  Your help always makes things go so much smoother.  I've added a few pictures so you can check out the fun.

First Time Blogger

So I've been toying around with starting my own blog for a few months now.  I'm a true blog stalker and a Pinterest junkie!  I taught for 11 years and left to stay at home and raise my children but have returned after 5 years and LOVE how technology has changed the teaching profession.  There are so many wonderful teachers out there with fabulous ideas!  It's going to take me a while to get the hang of this but I look forward to the challenge of embracing technology and involving my students as well.

Our district is involved with the TAP program and as a grade level we meet weekly with our Master teacher to learn new ideas and share the fabulous things already going on in our classrooms.  We've really been working hard at building fluency in our students before they head off to 2nd grade.  This last month we started an incentive in our class called Awesome Reader.  I'm not really sure where this came from but the idea is that each day a new student reads a story to the class.  For some students they choose the book and others ask for help.  We send a letter home to the parents with a calendar so that each child knows when it is their day to read.  This allows them time to practice their book.  We have had  in depth discussions about what fluency looks like and how they should practice reading.  We also had discussions about what an audience should look like.  The kids have been so excited!!  Here are a few pictures of some students reading their stories.

Until next time......