Merry Christmas....

"The Littlest Reindeer" and More

Today was our Polar Express and Happy Feet day.  The students chose which book and movie they preferred at the beginning of the week.  We began the week reading Tacky the Penguin for those students wishing to see "Happy Feet" and The Polar Express for those wishing to watch "The Polar Express."  The students listened to the story and completed journal entries for the book of their choosing.  The journals consisted of story maps, text to self connections, predictions, story elements (characters, setting, problem and solution).  Next week in math the students will create a glyp that is related to the literature they chose.  The Polar Express activities are from Deanna Jumps Polar Express Literacy and Math Fun.  The Tacky the Penguin activities I created to go along with the book.  I plan to get them posted to TpT soon. I'll share them as soon as they are up. 

Reminder:  Next week the first graders will perform their Christmas Program The Littlest Reindeer.  The program will be on Thursday, December 19th at 7:00 p.m. in the California Performing Arts Center at the High School.  Please have your child meet Mrs. Friedrich and their teacher in the High School Band Room by 6:45p.m. dressed and ready to go.  There will be signs directing you where to go.  There will also be a dress rehearsal during the day on December 19th.  The dress rehearsal will start at 9:00 a.m. in the California Performing Arts Center.  Please send your child's costume or dress clothes to school that day.  Parents and family are more than welcome to attend the dress rehearsal.  Don't forget to have permission slips returned to attend the dress rehearsal on Thursday.  If you haven't turned in your permission slip, please do so no later than Monday.  If you need a new one, please contact me asap.  



 

Upcoming Polar Express Day...and More

The students have officially published their first piece of writing.  They chose their best piece and worked on editing and revising it on their own and with a partner.  Then, they rewrote their final copy.  We binded their work so it would look official.  Afterwards, the students shared their work with the class.  We then voted on the class Caldecott Award for best pictures.

In reading we have also been working on reading nonfiction.  The students have learned how to notice when they are learning something new.  In addition, they have also learned how to record any I Wonders or Questions they have while reading.

On a side note we celebrated my little Elly Sue's 2nd birthday this weekend.  Here are a few pictures of my angel at her party.

We have a lot of things planned this week, including our annual Polar Express Day.  It is the most wonderful time of the year and I love teaching with the book The Polar Express by Christ Van Allsburg.

The students will have the choice to participate in the reading of The Polar Express or Tacky the Penguin.  Students will study the book of their choice this week and will work on various reading literature standards with the text of their choosing.

It's Time for a Friendly Competition.....

Start collecting those canned goods.  We'll be placing them under our Christmas tree this week and turning them in on Friday.  Our class LOVES pizza so we'd love to earn that pizza party.  Also, if you are a teacher and you missed out on Cyber Monday...don't fret!  The TPT cyber sale will continue for one more day.  Everything in my little shop is 28% off.  So what are you waiting for.....get those shopping carts filled!!!

CYBER Monday and Tuesday!!!

Giving Thanks…

First graders at California Elementary celebrated Thanksgiving with a Thanksgiving feast.  Our wonderful art teacher, Mrs. Lee, had the students make Indian headbands, necklaces, coifs, and hats for the occasion.  Some classes dressed as Indians and the others were Pilgrims.  We utilized as many parent helpers as possible and had our own Thanksgiving feast.  Here are some of the cutest little pilgrims I’ve ever seen.


I am thankful for many things this season.  My family being one of them.  I am also thankful for this wonderful first grade class and all of my parents.  I appreciate everyone of you.  Your donations and willingness to volunteer is what enables us to have our annual Thanksgiving feast.  Without you, this would be impossible.

May you count your blessings this Thanksgiving as well.  Happy Thanksgiving to all!

TpT Cyber Sale

My TpT shop is participating in the Cyber Monday and Tuesday Sale on TpT.  Simply use the promo code:  CYBER to get up to 28% off.  Happy shopping.  :)

The Literary Work of Fabulous Firsties

We have spent the last two weeks learning about revision and editing.  Students chose their most favorite piece to publish.  Students worked with a partner to revise their piece through storytelling.  The writer would read a page of their story and the reader would then ask questions about the piece {who? what? when? where? why? how? questions}.  Next, the writer would answer the questions and add the information to their piece.

Afterwards, we looked at a piece together as a class and discussed editing.  Students were given an editing checklist and together, page by page, we went through a piece as a class and practiced our editing skills.  Next, the students worked on editing their writing on their own with a red pen.  Finally, the students got to work with their partners again.  Together they went through the editing checklist.  After completing the editing portion, students rewrote their pieces for publication.

I am so excited about sharing some of these great pieces once they are finished.  Students' books will be binded and shared with the class.  They will then be placed in the library for viewing {after we vote for Firstie Newberry Award and Hogan's Caldecott Award}.  In the meantime, please enjoy the pictures of our revising and editing and publishing process.

 

Students also visited the book fair at the library last Friday.  Here are a few of the students picking out their favorite books.  :) I absolutely LOVE Book Fair Week.  Thanks Mrs. Williams for making it so much fun.  Our class won the BINGO game and got $40 in books.  I was so thrilled!!!

Going to New Heights

Our wonderful principal Mr. Williams was reading on the rooftop today.  Please check out the article on KRCG about the Principal's Challenge to promote reading during National Young Readers Week.  Thank you for all who participated in this event by wearing camo to support Mr. Williams.  I would also like to extend my sincerest "thank you" to Mr. Williams for doing all he can to support the students at California Elementary School.  Check out the article HERE!

Pumpkin Investigations

Happy Halloween!  Today was a fabulous day of investigations.  First and foremost I would like to extend a “thank you” to all of the parents of our first graders that donated a pumpkin (no matter the size) for our investigations day.  The students learned a lot about pumpkins and it was a great way to spend our Halloween day at school.

  Students hypothesized if their pumpkin would sink or float.  Then, they recorded their results.                Students also hypothesized if the force from a blow dryer would make their pumpkin roll.  Afterwards, they recorded their results.

Then, students predicted the height of their pumpkin.  They used unifix cubes to check their predictions and then recorded the results.Students also predicted the circumference of their pumpkin.  They used string to measure and recorded their results.

They then guessed the weight of their pumpkin and recorded the actual answer in their recording books.  All the students in first grade voted for how they wanted our grade level pumpkin to be carved.  Their three choices were happy, silly, or scary.  They chose ScARy!

Then, the students predicted how many seeds they thought would be in our pumpkin.  We took a pumpkin back to our classroom and pulled out all of the seeds. The students grouped the seeds by 10 and together we counted…

wait for it…

467 SEEDS!!!

This cute little pumpkin investigations was created by Cara Carroll over at First Grade Parade.  You can check out this unit HERE.

Bats, Word Work, and Retell Rope

Students took the primary spelling inventory at the beginning of the year.  This assessment comes from Words Their Way.  This program groups students based on their personal word work needs.  Students in my class have been working on their words in a variety of ways.  Below are some more pictures of our word work study activities.

Students using wiki sticks to spell their patterned words.

Students using the Promethean board to work on rhyme patterns.

Students using magnetic letters and magnetic burner covers to spell their patterned words.

This past week we began our unit on nonfiction features.  During shared reading we learned about bats and then used the materials we used during shared reading to learn not only about bats but nonfiction features found in most nonfiction books.  Below are some pictures of our work with bats.

To begin our unit on bats we took a poll on whether we thought bats were creepy or cute?  This cute little graph came from the very talented Cara Carroll over at The First Grade Parade.  Check her out.

Then, we displayed our data and interpreted it.  This again came from Cara Carroll over at The First Grade Parade.

 We have also done a lot of work in the past few weeks on retelling stories using key details in text.  I've created a retell rope that I use with my class to help clue them in on the things I expect when I ask them to retell a story.  Click on the pictures to grab your own copy.  I used clipart of Godilocks and the Three Bears to clue the students in to each part of retelling. 

Retell Rope

Retell Rope

Heavy Hearts...

Arrangements for Mrs. Butt's husband, Travis will be; visitation Monday from 4-8 @ First Baptist Church and funeral on Tuesday @ 1p at First Baptist Church.  Prayers go out to Mrs. Butts and her precious little girls Alayna and Madelyn  as they face the days, weeks & months ahead.

 

Upcoming Conferences

You will notice in your child’s Friday folder you were given a pink slip with your scheduled conference date and time.  If this time does not work for you, please let  me know a date and time that would work for you so we can reschedule a time that better suites you and your family.  I look forward to discussing your child’s education with you next week!

Next week is also Red Ribbon Week.  The elementary students and staff will be dressing up each day next week according to the following themes:

Monday 10/21—DRUGS CAN’T FIND ME! Wear Camouflage clothing

Tuesday 10/22—I’M A “JEAN-IUS” WHO IS “RED-Y” TO MAKE DRUG FREE CHOICES! Wear your jeans and as much red as possible.

Wednesday 10/23—DRUGS ARE RIDICULOUS!  Wear mismatched clothes and ridiculously funny hair.

Thursday 10/24—GO GREE-DON’T LET DRUGS POLLUTE YOUR LIFE! Wear green clothes to show your commitment to a drug free life.

Friday  10/25—CALIFORNIA PINTOS ARE PROUD TO BE DRUG FREE! Wear your red and blue pinto clothes.

I'll be back this weekend with some more pictures of our work with word stations.  I forgot my camera at home so I was unable to upload them.  So...please check back again!  :)

Daily 5

You've probably heard me mention the daily 5 more than once.  Let me give you some background on what the daily 5 entails.  Daily 5 is simply a way to set up literacy stations in the classroom.  It consists of daily literacy activities that the students are involved in:  Read to Self, Read to Someone, Work with Words, Work on Computers, and Listen to Reading.  These five stations are the rotation of our literacy work station or daily 5.  Depending on the day, the students will also work in a guided reading group with Mrs. Dusenberg or myself.  During read to self, students are doing just that....reading to themselves.  It takes a long time to build our reading stamina so that the entire class is reading for the whole time.  During this time, I meet individually with the students.  I listen to them read, coach them, and give them reading goals to work towards.  I love this time of the day because I get to see all the strategies your child employs while reading.  During read to someone, students are doing just that....reading to someone.  We've talked a lot about partner reading in our class and what that should look like and sound like.  Students have different partners daily.  During this time, students get to share the books they've been working on with someone in class.  They get to coach them as well.  If a child can teach/coach another child with a word that gives them an even better understanding of the strategy.  During work with words students are using their spelling patterns to learn to spell.  All spelling lists are differentiated according to the primary spelling inventory the students took at the beginning of the year.  They work on their words for 2 weeks, are assessed, and then given a new list of words to work on.  During work on computers, students are working on the computers we have in the classroom.  They might be reading on Raz-Kids, playing a reading game on the Promethean board, building words on Starfall, etc.  There are so many reading programs and games out there and I try to utilize what fits the needs of my students at that particular time.  Listen to reading is when a group of students listen to books on CD players that I have in my classroom.  Later in the year, it will be when students record and listen to themselves read on the iPods.  All of these literacy stations are going on while the teachers in the room are pulling small differentiated reading groups back to work on reading skills that are at their just-right levels.  I hope this gives you a better understanding the literacy stations in our classroom.  Below are some pictures of the stations in our room.