Category: First Grade

First Grade Teacher, Mrs. Donavan, earns community award

Dunlap Grade School First Grade Teacher, Jennifer Donavan, was awarded the Distinguished Service Award Young Educator of the Year honor at a banquet at Weaver Ridge Country Club on October 14, 2014. She celebrated this accomplishment alongside several of her DGS colleagues and family members.

1157387_842266792471843_4421239726891105446_n

As a classroom teacher, Mrs. Donavan has demonstrated a student-first approach as well as a strong conviction that all students can learn. Continuous improvement of classroom instruction is at the center of Mrs. Donavan’s teaching practices. She has been named a Renaissance Learning Model and Master Classroom for her practices and success with Accelerated Reader. She embeds student ownership and accountability in her classroom through the development of a student created mission statement and ground rules. She maintains instructional focus by having students create and monitor their goals in individual student data binders and on a classroom data center. Her students participate in student-led conferences and problem-solve using quality tools

A co-worker of Jen writes:
“It has been my pleasure to have worked beside Jennifer Donavan for three school years while she was at Ridgeview Elementary School.  Jennifer excels at being a first grade teacher.  Jennifer collaborates positively and professionally with the teachers she works with to plan activities for diverse learners. Jennifer has demonstrated her ability to be flexible and creative when implementing lessons which focused on the new common core and curriculum requirements.  Jennifer implements suggestions from prior experience, and she is resourceful in coming up with new additional strategies, projects and ideas, as well.  The students always love working with her and she always provides her students with frequent positive statements.  Jennifer Donavan demonstrates integrity as she interacts with students, parents and staff members.  She builds an excellent rapport with her students.  This rapport, in my opinion, is the key to empowering any classroom management plan.    She creates a positive, energized atmosphere, and her students feel encouraged and secure. She is a leader in the classroom, school and community.  She is always up for starting something new and taking charge and ownership of whatever it may be.“

Congratulations to Mrs. Donavan!
10440875_842238905807965_7630255195521634505_n

Welcome First Grade Teacher, Mrs. Norman!

District Strategic Goal #3: Create a Satisfying and Productive Classroom Teaching Environment

We would like to welcome Mrs. Norman to DGS. This will be Brooke Norman’s second year teaching in Dunlap. Last year, she taught first grade at Hickory Grove Elementary, and this year she will be joining DGS as our new first grade teacher. As a teacher at DGS, she will serve on the Building Leadership Team that sets and communicates school goals and professional development priorities. She is ecstatic to be a part of the DGS team, and looking forward to getting to know new families, fabulous first grade students, and all of the DGS staff. She is ready for a great new year to begin! She’s already been in her classroom creating a welcoming learning environment for all the first grade students. Welcome Mrs. Norman!

First Grade Completes Laura Numeroff Study

First Grade concluded their Laura Numeroff author study with “If You Give a Pig a Pancake” and a pancake celebration of their own! Several parents and staff members joined in the festivities to help and celebrate with first grade. The study of Laura Numeroff engaged students in strong models of children’s literature to promote a culture of reading in their classrooms and at DGS.

They then selected their favorite Laura Numeroff book and wrote the author a letter. We are sending the letters off today and hope to get a response soon!

~Submitted by: Mrs. Erikson pancake

First Grade Author Study

District Strategic Goal #1: Continuously Improve Student Growth and Achievement

First Grade kicked off their January study of author Laura Numeroff by reading “If You Give a Pig a Party” and enjoying a balloon party of their own! Laura Numeroff is an acclaimed author of several children’s classics. You can read more about Laura at http://lauranumeroff.com/ and play games and do activities about the books at http://www.mousecookiebooks.com/mouseCookieBooks.html. This month first grade will read several Laura Numeroff books and make a real life connection with an activity related to the book. Students are predicting the next book and activity by reading from our Laura Numeroff library!

~Submitted by: Courtney Erikson

photo 1 photo 2

Balancing a First Grade Reading Diet

Mrs. Donavan’s class is learning to balance their reading diets.  After reviewing their Accelerated Reading diagnostic report they have set a goal to only have 70% fiction and 30% nonfiction.  This means that 70% of the books the students read can be fiction and the other 30% have to be nonfiction.  Mrs. Donavan is also choosing more nonfiction read alouds to model this diet change. Balancing a ‘reading diet’ is important in offering students exposure to a variety of reading genres and text features. Implementation of common core standards also requires additional focus on non-fiction informational texts for students.

For her efforts in establishing a culture of readers in her classroom, Mrs. Donavan was recognized by the parent company of Accelerated Reader as a model classroom!

1499499_682260528472471_846434620_n

1st Grade Turkey Project

photo 5 photo 4

First grade read the book Turkey Trouble which is about a turkey who tries to disguise himself so he does not get eaten for Thanksgiving.  The students were then asked to complete a turkey disguising project at home.  Today was the last day to turn them in and the teachers got to vote for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.  Congratulations to our winners!  Thank you to all the participants.  It was fun to see your turkeys.

First Grade Classroom Learning Community

Mrs. Donavan’s class has been PLCing!  Last week we reviewed our Fundations Unit 3 test data.  We discussed the areas that we needed to work on the most and set some Unit 4 goals.  This process has helped us stay focused in Unit 4 because the students know what they need to work on.  We are excited to take the Unit 4 test on Friday and see if our extra focus and goal setting have made an impact and increased achievement.photo 1 photo 2

Submitted by: Jennifer Donavan

First Grade Learns Ordinal Numbers

First grade is learning about ordinal numbers!  Math in Focus encourages hands on learning so what better way to learn than to have a race!  These are our 1st through 10th place qualifiers. We were then able to use the picture to have discussions based on our vocabulary words such as; before, next, after, in front of, behind, in back of, on top of, beside.

first grade

Submitted by: Mrs. Donavan

Second Step in First Grade

Leave a comment

Mr. Creighton from the Center for Prevention of Abuse came to visit first grade to deliver a Second Step lesson! The kids absolutely loved his high energy second step lesson! Mr. Creighton will be coming back in a few weeks to model another second step lesson for the first grade teachers to ensure the program is being implemented to its fullest potential. Students have already learned the four essential skills for listening: eyes watching, ears listening, voices quiet and body still. We appreciate our partnership with the Center for Prevention of Abuse and their support on our implementation of Second Step.

cre

First Grade Pin Wheels

Leave a comment

First grade took science learning outside today as they applied their understanding! First grade has been learning about wind in science, reading, and writing!  We read the story “On the Move” by Nina Tsang and made pinwheels.  Today we took our pinwheels outside and learned about how to tell which direction the air was moving.  We also learned about how quickly or slow air moves and how if effects the speed of the pinwheel. What a fun day!

pinwheels

Submitted by: Jen Donavan

1 2