Holiday Party

Parents: I will be having a small holiday party for our class on Wednesday, December 15th. If you can send in one of the following items, it will be a big help! I have 19 students.
cookie tray
fruit tray
veggie tray
juice boxes
bag of potato chips
bag of pretzels
bag of snack mix (chex)
bag of cheese curls
bag of holiday candy
container of dip (ranch or onion)
package of holiday napkins
package of holiday paper plates
box of plastic utensils
Thank you!

A Bunch of Turkeys!

After reading about the first Thanksgiving in America, the students enjoyed making their own turkeys out of the wonderful paper plate! I am VERY thankful to have the privilege of teaching this wonderful group of boys and girls this year!

A Real Fire Truck Comes to ELA!

Yesterday our class was lucky to have Brice's dad bring his fire truck to school to teach the students about all of it's features. The students loved every minute of it! Many thanks to Brice's dad and his co-firemen for taking the time to share with our class!

Vocabulary Parade

Friday was our school-wide Vocabulary Parade in honor of our book of the month, Miss Alaineus. The students enjoyed dressing up as and making posters featuring their chosen "Seasons" vocabulary word. What a fun time for all!

Field Trip to Conner's A-maize-ing Acres

Although it was hot, the 1st graders enjoyed their day at the farm in Hilliard. They got to go on a hayride, go through a corn maze, listen to the farmer speak, and ride a small train! Enjoy the pictures!

Writing in our Source Books

Students use their writing source books to record ideas for future writing assignments. Oftentimes, kids will want to share stories with teachers and friends and there may not be time to do it. Recording these ideas in their source books helps them to remember their story ideas. 1st graders in Ms. Barnhardt's class are on their way to becoming great authors!

Sharing a book from home

We love when students bring a book from home to read to the class. Nice Job, Ky'eve!

Open House

Open House was last night at 6:30. Parents came in to see a power point presentation from Ms. Brown, the principal and in my class. Anyone who wasn't able to make it can let me know and I'll email it to you if you're interested. Thanks to all those who came!

Learning How to Partner Read

Last week we learned how to sit and hold a shared book for partner reading! Students learned that they can choral read (reading together at the same time) or take turns reading (each gets to read a page). Partner reading will be a regular part of Readers Workshop as it encourages students to help one another...instead of the teacher.

2nd Week about to begin!

Well, the students of room 126 seem to settling in nicely. They have learned our classroom expectations and have been practicing our rituals and routines daily. There is so much to learn in first grade! Remember to speak to your little ones often about the importance of following directions every day. Tomorrow we're starting our compliment chain. Each time another adult compliments our class for their model behavior in the hallways, we earn a chain link. When the chain reaches the floor of our classroom (it'll be hung from the ceiling), we get a popcorn party!

First Day of School

Well, we had a smooth first day of school for the 2010-2011 school year. Thank you to all the parents/families who were able to send in school supplies...believe me, I know how much of a hassle it is to find this stuff as I have 2 school-aged kiddos myself! Some items are not going to be necessary this year, so I sent them back home with your child in his or her backpack.
Hopefully you'll have a few minutes to read the letter I sent home in your child's daily folder. Please have your child bring this to school every day. As soon as we get the planners in from the district, I will be using that tool for parent/teacher communication.
Please remember to check your child's behavior letter/color daily and initial it so I know you saw it.
Remember, starting tomorrow you can send in a healthy light snack for the late morning since our lunch time isn't until 12:40. They were quite hungry by 12:40! They should eat a nice big breakfast too (if you can get them to!)
That's all for now.
Feel free to call me at any time w/concerns at (904)573-3260, ext. 1126 or email me at barnhardtd@duvalschools.org

Back to School for Teachers

Time for Enterprise Teachers to return to the classroom tomorrow morning. I can't wait to see all of my fellow teachers after a nice relaxing summer vacation. My husband and I had fun with our own two kids this summer. We have a 13 year old daughter, Ashlee, who is going into the 8th grade at LaVilla School of the Arts. And a son, Andrew, who is going to be a 5th grader at Enterprise this year! Early in the summer, we went to Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta where I went on many roller-coasters! We also went to Dorney Park up in Pennsylvania (where Mrs. Barnhardt is from) to go on some even bigger roller-coasters! I just love roller-coasters!! Lastly, I went horseback riding while up in the Poconos, visiting my in-laws.... that was a bit scary, but very fun!
I look forward to meeting all of my new students next Monday for a fun, exciting year at Enterprise. I anticipate it will be a smooth "exploration" (even though I do still love a good roller-coaster ride!)

Welcome!

Welcome parents and families! "Exploring New Waters" is our theme for the 2010-2011 school year. Each new year at E.L.A. brings new challenges and excitement for teachers to come up with creative and fun ways for teaching the curriculum at each grade level and I am very excited for this upcoming year with your first graders.
This year we will be "exploring" a new math curriculum called enVision as well as all the other subjects such as Reading, Language Skills, Science, and Social Studies. I welcome you to comment on our classroom happenings by clicking on "comments" after each post. You may also become a "follower" of this blog and set up notifications of new posts. I am still somewhat new to all this technology available to teachers today...so I welcome any advice or suggestions anyone has for this blog. It is a great communication tool for you to see what the kids are learning or doing in the classroom all from the comfort of your own computer. Please see the links to the right as they are also helpful.