Pajamas, Presents, Polar Express....and SUGAR!
What a great last day before break. The children in pajamas always starts the Christmas break out right! They were adorable and comfy. We started our morning by reading the Polar Express and wrapping Christmas presents. We also had cupcakes and hot coco. Yum! I wasn't sure if they would get enough sugar in the afternoon! The morning passed by so quickly. Time flies when you are having fun. We finished our literacy centers, read Christmas books to each other, had a little time for some math, but before we knew it parents were there to decorate gingerbread houses. Thank you for coming in and enjoying the sticky fun with us. I hope you have a beautiful holiday.
Grinch Day got the Connected Combo discussing the meaning of Christmas.
One way the students thought they could show their spirit for the season
was by giving kindness. We decided to become the "Random Acts of
Christmas Kindness Class." We have been sneaking all around the school
and community "R.A.C.K. ing" people.
Our first R.A.C.K. was for Mrs. Crum. We gave kind notes to Mrs. Crum.
Then, we wrote more notes for Mrs. Wolverton.
And, since the weather has been chilly, we gave the
cross walk guard some hand warmers. We also delivered surprise candy
canes to an 4 different classroom. Plus, we gave as many compliments
and smiles as we could!
The children couldn't get enough of the R.A.C.K.ing. They were just
full of ideas. So, we had a homework assignment to
perform a Random Act of Christmas Kindness. I was amazed with the
responses. Thank you parents for supporting this project. The children
were so proud of themselves and their kindness. Here are just of few
of the wonderful acts of homework kindness.
When we checked out the Chromebooks this week, we used them to warm up
for our math hour. The games linked below have fun Christmas themes and
practice addition and subtraction fluency. Enjoy!
Addition and subtraction fluency is an objective assessed on the next
report card. After Christmas break, it is only two short weeks until
the end of the quarter. I will have to be assessing several of our
reading and math objectives right away. Any extra practice over the
holiday on addition and subtraction will be beneficial.
The Connected Combo sure has Christmas spirit. They have been
enjoying every minute of the season. We have been writing, reading,
doing math, creating art, and singing....all about Christmas. Like I
said, these first and second grade elves have been hard at work. This post has
just a few of our Christmas themed activities.
We had many Christmas literacy and math centers. At the writing center,
students used ads to "shop" for gifts for friend and family. There was
also a sight word Christmas tree where students took word ornaments off the tree and wrote the high frequency words in their very best hand writing. We had
Christmas riddles and a Christmas stamp match center. For math, we had a
station called "Fa La La Fact Families," "Gingerbread Bump," and so
many more. There were tons of math and literacy games to practice all
the skills we have been learning. Mrs. Niemeyer needs to ask Santa for
some more card stock!
Another favorite activity has been reading by the fire. We loved listening to Christmas stories on our iPods. Also, our iPads have great reading apps like EPIC and Reading Rainbow. There were so many holiday stories to choose from.
We had a terrific Grinch day! It was a busy, joyful day! We started the day, of course, by reading the great book How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I have the book as an app on my phone. The book is on sale for $1.99 on the app store. I love the OM Book apps because the students can read along with the book. Click here to link to the book in the app store.
After reading the book, each grade level had a different writing assignment. The second graders studied the similes and metaphors in "The Grinch Song." We discussed the similes in the Grinch and then worked on writing our own similes. First, we brainstormed lists of adjectives that describe the Grinch. The children came up with some great words: furry, rotten, nasty, clever, lonely. We continued with adjectives by listing words that described the Grinch's heart at the beginning of the story (tiny, empty, cold) and the end of the story (large, caring, happy). Last the students wrote their own series of similes and/or metaphors to describe the character of the Grinch.
I loved what the students came up with. Here are a couple examples from the pieces.
The Grinch was as horrible as rotten cheese.
The Grinch was as sly as a fox.
His heart was as empty as the pool in the winter.
His heart was as tiny as a crumb.
At the the end, the Grinch's heart was full of kindness like Santa.
For first grade writing, we talked about how the Grinch didn't have joy. Together we brainstormed a list of things that bring us joy. Then, the students made their own lists. On the J we wrote nouns that bring us joy and the Y was for a list of verbs that bring us joy. They worked so hard.
The students used their joy list to write a sentence about how we would make the Grinch grin. Then we attached the sentences to a Grinch craft. They had wonderful ideas to bring joy to the Grinch.
Here are some of the excellent examples.
I would make the Grinch grin by telling him jokes.
I would make the Grinch grin by showing him love.
I would make the Grinch grin by taking him to class.
I would make the Grinch grin by being his friend.
We made some magic Grinch dust to keep the Grinches away this Christmas. To make Grinch dust you need a small bag of something sweet. Then you add two drops of love and two drops of joy. You must hug the love and joy in the bag until it turns green. I have to ask you to do the last step at home. Sprinkle the Grinch dust on your lawn Christmas Eve to keep the Grinch away and keep all your Christmas joy.
After lunch, we had an enormous QR hunt with the Miss Frey's class. The Grinch tried to steal our Christmas by scrambling all our Christmas words and sight words. We had to hunt all around the classroom to unscramble all the words. Such fun!
Math was Grinchy too! We balanced equations but instead of writing the answers, we shaped the numbers with cold, green spaghetti! Ewwww!
It was such a wonderful day. The whole first and second grade wing enjoyed Grinchy activities! I just love our school! We are still working on one more Grinch day art piece. Hopefully, I will get our final Grinch project posted on Monday.
We are up for this challenge! We are ready to code! Click start to begin writing your lines of code. START
This coming week is "Computer Science Education Week." The week was declared to bring computer science into schools and promote student interest in coding. A challenge was put forth for students to participate in an hour of code. The Connected Combo has already begun and wrote over 1500 lines of code in class. I see some future programmers in this class. We started as a class working through a tutorial on the computer science education week website: csedweek.org. The students had to solve puzzles to program an angry bird to move through mazes. While they are "playing" the students are learning how code with repeat-loops, conditionals, and basic algorithms. They had to use logic and problem solving skills. The challenges also tested their persistence and "I can" attitude. As they moved up levels, the students received video tutorials by gifted computer scientists in the field like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. The children were amazing. After we worked together for awhile, the students went to the Chromebooks and began their own coding. Look how intense! The children can code from their home computer as well. Just follow the link above.
You may have heard about our most exciting coding adventure....introducing Dash and Dot, our classroom robots! The children are in LOVE! We are having so much fun programing these robots! I purchased this robotics kit through a grant I wrote, the grant was funded by my hero Tom Wardell and the Billings Education Foundation. Using their iPads the children program the robots. The students are given missions to complete through the app. For instance, the groups had to program Dash to do a dance when a student claps. The students did amazing things! I couldn't believe it! You should have heard their squeals of delight when they were successful. We can't wait to get out the robots again. We have so much more to learn! Check out the website for Dash and Dot here. Dash and Dot are one of the biggest STEM toys on the market right now. I have a first grader hoping Santa delivers a robot to our house this Christmas.
Of course, we will also do other coding on the ipad. We will use the app LightBot where students use programming to move a robot and light up tiles in a series of puzzles. We have apps called Run Marco and Kodable. All of these apps are free on the itunes store.
