Sample It Sunday & Our First Week!

Happy Sunday! My husband and I just got home from a beautiful, sunny day on the lake with some friends. Now it’s time to catch up on some school stuff and laundry before we start Week #2!  But before I think about Week 2, I’d love to share some pictures with you of some activities we did during our first week and bring you another edition of:

Today’s Sample It Sunday page comes from my Let’s Read and Write: Handwriting for Beginning Readers pack!

This pack is the first thing I use for morning work in my classroom.  We are always in need of a handwriting refresher and practice pack during those first few weeks of school.  I am not a fan of handwriting pages that have little meaning to them – so I created this easy cheesy pack, which combines handwriting development AND beginning reading skills! 
On the front side, students practice tracing the upper and lowercase letter of the day. They also trace, read, and draw a picture of three words with the short a sound. This is a great way to get to know your little ones as readers. I can quickly tell which students can and cannot blend simple cvc words together.

 On the back, students read, trace, and draw two simple sentences. Picture cues have been added to help beginning readers! Students have the ability to show their comprehension skills as they illustrate the sentences.

A second version of the back pages are included in the pack.  Use this version if you do not wish to have your students trace the sentence but rather write it completely on their own.  I start off with two weeks of tracing and then move to these pages. 

 This handwriting pack completes the first 28 days of our morning work in first grade (lines, circles, and 26 letters).  It is a simple but practical way to get my students into the swing of our morning work routine.  It also allows me to tackle handwriting in a short but effective way because my students are also practicing early reading skills.

  You can snag the above pages for free as part of my Sample It Sunday series by clicking HERE!

After you have tried the pages out with your students, or if you take a look at the sample and think that this pack would be perfect for your classroom, you can find the full version of Let’s Read and Write: Handwriting for Beginning Readers pack in my TpT store by clicking HERE


Now, let’s move on to some fun pictures of what we did during our first week of school!

My husband sent this adorable flower arrangement to my classroom on the first day of school.  He has a tradition of sending me flowers every year on Day 1!  I do not remember this, but back when we were dating, I apparently told him the old fashioned quote, “The first day of school sets the tone for the year.” He says he has always remembered me saying that and sends flowers for a great new school year! 🙂  
#awwwwww

 We played with the magic dough from my Back to School: First Week Fun pack on the first day of school! We completed our Magic Dough Lab Report and said the magic word that turned our dough from white to colorful! The kids had SO much fun with this! It’s the perfect first day of school activity!
We wrote about how we felt during our first day! I LOVE this activity because it is secretly a wonderful pre-assessment for me of their reading and writing skills.  I offer NO help at all except to read them the words, “I feel” and explain that they need to trace and write a word (or as many words as they can) about how they are feeling right now.  This little boy wrote the word ‘because’ all.by.himself.

I was loving the spelling of the word “awesome” from this little one! It shows me she has knowledge of vowel sounds and that she knows words need a vowel in them. It also lets me know right away that one of her first writing goals will be using lowercase letters in the middle of her sentences. 

 This m&m math activity is always a huge hit! This was our first big math activity and we thought it was delicious!! 🙂
 We sorted, counted, graphed, and added our m&ms to refresh our brains from summer (while having fun, of course!) 🙂

We learned how to walk in the hallway using a fun, concrete lesson:  marshmallows! My back to school pack contains all the details for this fun lesson!

I couldn’t help but take a picture of my lonely car in the school parking lot after work on Friday.  Can you tell it had been time for me to go home already?! 🙂
#thatsthefirstweekofschoolforya

You can find the above activities by clicking on the picture below.

Thanks for catching up on my first week with me! As soon as we get into the swing of our routine, I’ll be back on Sundays with my visual lesson plans on Sundays! 🙂  Until then, have a happy, happy week! 🙂

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