Frost Lake First Grade

Welcome to the first grade Frost Lake web page. We hope you find this site useful and welcome your input on how we can improve it. Our goals are to inform prospective parents of what a great place Frost Lake is to learn and grow, to provide a place where current families can come to gather information and incite regarding their child's education, and to provide a safe place for students to find web sites that will reinforce what they are learning in school (see the learning links). Everyday first graders spend two and a half hours working on improving their literacy skills. This is done through writer's and reader's workshop, and a half hour skills block. Students also spend an hour or more expanding their math skills using the Everyday Math curriculum. They spend an hour with either the science, art, physical education, or music specialists. Every child visits the library, and the computer lab weekly and technology is a daily part of their learning. Each classroom has at least 2 computers and every room has a projector and sound system. This year we will visit the Children's Museum to support our learning about insect life cycles. We will also visit the Children's Theater twice this year and the Como School Planetarium once. We are off to a great start of what promises to be our best year yet. Below please take some time to get to know us better. You will find student work, teacher information, and class specific information.

Please click on your child's teacher's name to find a short bio., and class specific information.

Mrs. Brink Classroom Teacher (1309)

Mr. Larson Classroom Teacher (room 1315)

Ms. Tucker Classroom Teacher (room 1311)

Mrs. Yard Classroom Teacher (room 1313)

Ms. Martinsen ELL Teacher

Math
Everyday Math is a spiraling curriculum. It is designed to introduce a portion of a concept, practice it, and then add to it. For example we introduce telling time to the hour, practice it, and then add time to the half hour, practice it, and then add time to the quarter hour, etc. However it may be a month in between each new . This is different from the way most of us were taught math. In first grade many of the skills introduced are not expected to be mastered until second grade. Please click on the word "math" to find out information regarding our current math unit.

Readers Workshop
Reader's workshop is an hour of reading instruction that is a mixture of large group, small group, and individualized instruction. Students start in a large group learning about specific strategies they can use while reading. They are then given time to work independently on practicing those strategies. During this time students move from different independent centers while the teacher simultaneously works with small groups with like abilities and/or conferences with individual students. In first grade we have chosen to have our ELL support during reading time so that we may better meet the individual language needs of our many ELL students. This also allows for more frequent individual support for all. Please click on the words "Readers Workshop" above to learn more.

Writers Workshop
Writers workshop is an hour of instruction devoted to teaching students what good writer's do. It is based on both the Minnesota State Standards in writing and the NCEE (National Council for Economics in Education) standards in writing. Students start with a 15 minute mini-lesson focusing on 1 specific skill, strategy or part of their writing. Then they are given 35 minutes to write, practicing the strategy in the mini-lesson and others they have already learned. Then there is a 10 minutes sharing time.

Homework
Click on Homework to get details about the homework policy.

Word Wall Words
Each week our first graders learn 5 of the most commonly used words. These words are displayed in the classroom and practiced daily. Students are expected to spell them correctly in their writing. Click on Word Wall Words to view the words for the current week.

Last Updated: October 15, 2007