Kansas Day 2016 (January 29, 2016)

What a BIG day for us! The excitement had built all week. Costumes were gathered. Plans were made. Volunteers had arrived.

The kids went to specials as planned, so that Mrs. Hancock (Mrs. LaMar's long-term sub) and I could get the centers set up.

We had 6 centers, and the kids from both classes spent approximately 20 minutes at each one.

1. Cow patty toss: looking at a real cow patty (thanks Violet for the specimen), discussed its' use, talked about some pioneer homes, and then tossed a cow patty (really it was a wadded up construction paper).

2. Planted a sunflower seed, listened to a book about plants.

3. Looked at a Kansas map from today, and pioneer days. Compared and contrasted them.

4. Learned how to play marbles, and talked about other pioneer homes.

5. Saw a variety of home "tools" (a washboard, butter churn and LOADS more), and made butter.

6. Learned about old-fashioned school houses and saw many books, a teacher bell, and water dipper.

I have only one picture from the time, because we were so involved with the centers! This is the school house center, but in the background you can see the marble players having a wonderful time!

Thanks to more donations we made our own dessert (sunflower cookies). 

We had so much fun at recess playing pioneer/royalty. And twirling our skirts was an added bonus. 

More photos from the day...

What a fantastic day!

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Super good day! The leaders did great work!

They reread A Tale of a Tail, looking for long a words (ai, ay) and high frequency words (about, animals, carry, our, eight). 

And the polar bear craft. Fun! Tomorrow the writing will come. 

After a wonderfully sunny recess, they knocked my socks off with measuring and data assessments. We then ended the day with self-directed math learning during centers. 

Monday, January 25, 2016

I was so happy to see everyone this morning! Smiles and hugs make a good start to the day. 

Soon after that, this happened--

Desks were brought into the room! The students were so excited!

The desks offer us more opportunities to practice responsibility... Personal supplies and respect for others. 

We brainstormed how to help me teach and the students learn. 

The goal (which evolves as we learn together) is to be active and learn. We still have alternative seating and that will continue to be available, and I will continue to keep instruction short and manageable. 

Our ELA unit for the next 5 weeks is all about animals. This week's focus is animal features. We wrapped up measurement and data today and tomorrow will be the assessment. I'm looking forward to seeing them shine!!

The students had 25 minutes of math centers today (first time in a LONG time), and again, the learning was loud and energetic. We loved it. 

Our New Door

We took down the camping door just before Christmas Break. The kids took their picture and tent home with them.

I spent some time over Christmas Break trying to decide what should go up next. The idea I got was one that I modified after seeing it on a North Dakota teachers' blog.

For each child I thought about their leadership qualities and had photos made. These are the qualities that I hope each child grows into even more than they already have. Here's to a great 2016 and the future leaders...

Friday, January 22, 2016

Yesterday we worked more on opinion writing (and that opinions are neither right nor wrong). We had some Imagination Time, then wrote our opinions about that time. I LOVED it, because the students were very invested in their writing.

Just for fun we read a snowman book, sequenced the events in the book (first, next, then, finally) and drew snowmen (because the teacher is hoping for a snowday this winter).

And we ended the day with more data collection and interpretation. I'm excited to keep this going for the year, because it truly is a fun unit to teach.

An Update from Our Room

Very long and overdue...

Violet, Mr. Williams' calf, came back to school a week ago. We love petting her at recess and giving her more grain. Today when we went to give her the grain, all I had to do was watch--some students who did it yesterday did all the work. Love that!!! (The photos are from last week--today was a cold day. The kids who did not help spent their time on the playground finding and eating icicles. :-))

I was gone to a meeting on Tuesday, and had a list of six students that continually made smart choices for the sub. I was so proud of them that they got to eat lunch with me in our room on Wednesday. Hoping that the next time there is a sub, more students find their names on that "did the right thing" list!

So many bits and pieces of learning this week. Here are a few...

Contractions:

Digraph oo (like in book):

Gathering and interpreting data in math:

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

What to add?

Great day, good kids, smiles. 

It was nice to read another MLK Jr passage and then fill out a graphic organizer. 

The best part? The kids chose the words/phrases. So much hope for our future in this group (as well as others) of amazing scholars. 

We tried out math centers. It was rocky, only because of the needed structure that is hard to define without the initial experience. The next time will be fantastic for sure! 

Monday, January 11, 2016

What a beautiful, mild day. We LOVED our outside recess today. There were no arguments or troubles. The kids were just so happy to run and be loud. 

The fluency passage this week is about Martin Luther King, Jr. This helps us know why there is no school next Monday. I'm excited to share more about him over the week. 

 

I was so happy to meet with 5 small groups during reading while the kids worked hard on their centers. 

Our phonics pattern is o-consonant-e and u-consonant-e. We will continue studying word families (which will aid in more fluent reading) and to help us, we met Chunky Monkey. He reminds us to look for chunks we know in unknown words. 

We are doing a little social studies this week, by comparing life in the past to now. C. C. The Cow helps us Compare and Contrast. 

Measuring continues to be a fun, hands-on way to end the day. I enjoyed watching the kids play a subtracting game with some of my new dice. 

Looking forward to more good days this week. 

Thursday and Friday (January 7 & 8, 2016)

Well, thankfully I changed the day on the previous posts (Guess I got confused what day it was--did you notice?).

Any way...
I cannot remember much about Thursday. The two photos I have are from the end of the day wrap up we started. I ask the kids to think and then share something positive of the day, and then something they want to do better tomorrow.

These photos are of the kids during this time, and the list we created.

Today...

During reading, we reviewed those tricky soft c and g words, by playing a fun "swat" game. There were no prizes, no running, but the smiles told me that they enjoyed it.

I also listened to more kids individually (going to be updating groups soon and really focussing on the skills needed), and the rest worked on their centers. The kids rocked their learning and allowed me to work with individuals. It was heaven. Even the other adult in the room commented about how wonderfully the kids worked.

We wrapped up folk tales with a "newfangled" version of Little Red Riding Hood. So many predictions and cause/effect scenarios.

Mr. C. (our principal) has challenged all the kids in the school to monitor their voices at lunch (with the help of the grown ups). There is a chart that keeps track of the green days (good) and today our class got our second green (out of two tries!!!). Pretty excellent, I think!!!

I got a little furclempt at the beginning of math. In fact, I had to stop and ask for a tissue to wipe my eyes. Here's why...

The number 43 was written on the board, and one sweet friend said, "hey, that has 4 tens and 3 ones." OH MY!!! If every single first grader could do that by May for any number to 99 (and for some to 999), I will be super-de-duper ecstatic!!!

When I was put back together again, they ROCKED the measurement papers using centimeter cubes. Basically, I could have gone out for a chai tea, because not a soul needed my help. I felt useless, but happy. Again.

We ended our day (and week) together by celebrating a birthday, which is always fun. Singing, writing letters and enjoying a snack.

Here's to a warm and sunny weekend!!! (Wishful thinking...)

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

The rain and cold kept us inside all day, but the kids were on fire learning!!!

The fabulous firsties are rock stars with metacognition (thinking about thinking, in the case: thinking about their reading thinking).

What a big word. 

I've not used that word with them, but maybe tomorrow I will. 

What are they thinking about? Cause and effect in folktales. Today I read 2 stories and they helped tell me causes and effects. If they can do this, that means understanding, and that makes me happy!!!

I also taught the soft c. Like in mice and place. More great understanding, reading and spelling. 

We even tried adding suffix ing to words ending in e. (Drop the e, then add the suffix.) I am amazed at their sponge brains--they want to know everything!!!

So, they will keep me busy for sure. 

I'm going to be firm with letter formation and spend time daily on that as well as number writing. Today was so much better than yesterday. 

Measurement. Today we put three objects in order shortest to longest (again--almost too easy for them). 

Then we discussed just using anyone's foot and the trouble it may cause, so that brought out rulers. More work on that in the next days. 

We ended the day with a K-1 Cloverbuds meeting. Kids were mixed with other classes and went to only one teacher. Maybe ask your child which teacher they had and what they did. We will do this every Wednesday. 

I'm so looking forward to more work tomorrow in these great skills. 

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Happy New Year!!!

It was a BIG day in first grade...

I took 2 writing grades and 2 math grades! Talk about jumping right in. 

We started off the day by discussing the new year, and watched The Ball Drop. It was just as exciting for me as last week, because I was with my class!

Then we dove into Cause and Effect with a read aloud--Squirrel's New Year's Resolution and continued by writing about our own resolutions. FANTASTIC writing.

Next we moved into our genre for he week (folktales) by reading Interrupting Chicken. We used this book to review being responsible and especially responsible at school. This time we created a class chart about being responsible. It hangs on our door. 

Then we jumped into math. We will continue to practice, review and get faster with facts (right now it's subtraction) and writing numbers to 120. 

Our concept is measurement, so today our vocabulary word was endpoints. To measure, make sure the endpoints are the same so it's true! This is a fun unit because the kids are SO GOOD already. 

We ended the day with a birthday party. 

I got some hugs, loads of smiles and plenty of kindness. 

Looks like the start of a FANTASTIC 2016!!!