Read-A-Thon Trailer

Read-A-Thon Information

Read~A~Thon starts this Wednesday!! The children are so excited. I hope you will be recording those minutes at home. We will be honoring the top three first grade readers, the students reading the most minutes. There is also a class trophy for the classroom that has the most students meeting the 300 minute reading goal. I have been telling all the classes that we are going to win! I may be slightly competitive! We NEED that trophy! Trophy and joking aside, this Read~A~Thon will only benefit our students. Extra at home reading makes a huge difference in academic success! Please work hard these next ten days and READ, READ, READ! If I can support you in anyway, feel free to call. Don't forget to join us at Reading Club every morning starting Wednesday, 8:00-8:15 in the library.

I Will Be...

In class, we discussed at length different community jobs/leaders.  When we talked about different community jobs we listed qualities people must have to be in certain jobs.  The students came up with qualities like kind, caring, helpful, brave, hard working, strong, and smart.  We found that even jobs that are so different took the same important personal qualities. 

This video is a product of our study of community helpers although when I watch it I see so much more. I love my job and the opportunity to be a small part of making these children's big dreams.

Community

 

Our last inquiry unit had us exploring community. We researched questions like: What is a community? What are jobs in a community? What do people do for fun in a community? How do we get what we need and want in a community? The students read lots of nonfiction and fiction books about community. The had several lively discussions sharing their learning. We even wrote explanatory pieces about different jobs in a community.

The students worked very hard on their explanatory pieces. They had to write an introduction, at least three facts, and an opinion for their conclusions. Each student met with an adult individually for revising and editing. They are very proud of their hard work and loved using our class microphone to share with their peers.  Here are some off the writing pieces.

Happy Heart Day!

We had a lovely Valentine's party celebrating kindness and friendship. Our day was the perfect mixture of learning, fun games, and yummy sweets.  We started with a candy bar hunt. The students had to work as a team to find 5 candy bars hidden around the room. The candy bars had words on them. The students had to assemble the words to make a sentence. The reward....chocolatey goodness!

 

We had to mix in a little learning, of course.  We used candy hears to count and compare how many letters were written on each candy.  Also this month, we used heart dominoes to write inequalities.  We have been writing about all the things we love...learning is on the top of my list!

 

 

It was a short day packed with fun!  After recess we came inside for sweetheart floats and our pizza party!  Thanks for all the sweets!  We played a relay game called "Don't Break My Heart."  Students had to pass a tissue paper heart down the row using clothes pins.  They had to be so careful not to tear the heart.  The students were so sweet and appreciative of all their cards.  Last was the children's favorite part...they got to open all the Valentine cards.  They loved reading the sweet notes from their friends.  Here is a quick collage of our party!

Free digital collage personalized with Smilebox

House of ING

Today our classroom was transformed into the "House of ING."  We used the Chinese New Year to enhance our learnING.  First we watched a Reading Rainbow video on the Chinese New Year and read a wonderful book called Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas.  Go to the Reading Rainbow link on the top button bar if you would like to check out these wonderful resources.

Our morning work was learning to write the numbers 1-10 in Chinese characters.  We also filled in a message with tons of missing INGs!  Perfect for the residence in the "House of ING."  We became ING ending experts.

One my favorite activities today was spelling.  The students practiced adding ING to words with the added challenge of chopsticks.  We had Chinese take out boxes filled with words.  The children had to use chopsticks to pull out a word.  They read the word and added -ING.  Next, the students glued the word with -ING to the paper plate and read the new word.  They worked so hard at the reading and spelling until their plates were full!

 

A big thank you to Panda Expresss.  They gave me the take out boxes to fill with our words.  They also gave each of the children a fortune cookie!  What a great day for Chinese New Year and learning in the "House of -ING!"

Royal Readers

Presenting our Reading Royalty for the last two weeks.  Amazing!  All the kings and queens so far have logged over 350 minutes in a week to earn their crown!  Spectacular!  We will not be doing a crowning this week because of the upcoming break.  Thanks for your amazing home support.  The extra reading at home makes a significant impact on your child's reading.  Keep up the hard work.

Officiating Learning

We used the excitement of the upcoming Super Bowl to officiate learning.  We made referee signals for different punctuation marks.  Then we read and built sentences and used our signals to referee editing.  The students were awesome!  Here is a quick video of the children demonstrating the signals with a punctuation poem.


Of course, we just had to do more learning centered around the theme.  We did some Super Bowl spelling, a math menu to earn the laces on a football, and let's not forget predicting the outcome of this weekend's game!  I can't wait to hear what the children have to say on Monday!

101 Days of School

     We had so much fun on the 100th day of school that we kept the learning celebration going! For 101 we celebrated Dalmatian style! The whole first grade participated.  First grade is the best!
     Our day began with a hidden number picture.  Each child had a hundreds chart.  There were equations laying in the middle of the carpet.  One by one, a student chose an equations and read it to the class.  Each of the equations were a number in expanded form, a skill we have been working hard on in math.  The class solved the problem and highlighted that number on their hundreds chart.  When the students had solved all the equations the number 101 was revealed.

We made a cute Dalmatian craft.  The students had to really think because each puppy needed 101 spots.  It was interesting to see how the students organized their counting.  Many students had to count the dots over and over to get it just right.

The students used their iPads and the app Word Wizard to see what words they could create using the letters D-A-L-M-A-T-I-A-N.  Word Wizard is an excellent spelling app.  One of the features of the app includes a movable alphabet that the students could use to easily manipulate the letters and create new words.

On the hundredth day of school, we wrote 100 words around the room.  For the 101st, we made a little more of a challenge.  The students were asked to write 101 nouns.  The students used their book box and poetry binders to read through and find nouns.  Our best support was our 3rd grade buddies who came and helped us get started.  See if your child can give you some examples of nouns.

Later in the day, we solved 101 math problems.  The students were a little overwhelmed at first but soon realized they could preserver.  Luckily, Ms. Claudean had made us some puppy chow to help us through! 

We also made dog tags.  How many fruit loops do you put on a 101 dog tag?  101 of course!  The students decided the best way to organized the dog tags would be 50 on one side 51 on the other.  Again, the students had to work on organized counting strategies.  Look at all those piles of 10!  The activity also required fine motor control.  101, another awesome day of school!