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.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

Thank you so much to all of our parent chaperones that joined us on our field trip to The Peach Tree Farm.  The kids had a truly enjoyable time.  I love this time of the year and I am so happy that I get to share this experience with my firsties.  Here are a few of the pictures I was able to get today.  Enjoy!

Apples, Apples, Apples...and a FREEBIE!

First of all just a quick reminder for all of my parents that Monday, October 7th is our field trip to the Peach Tree Farm.  I sent a note home yesterday about the field trip, as well as a chaperone expectation letter for those of you that are joining us on our trip.  If you've never been to the Peach Tree Farm I think you'll really enjoy it.  Below is a picture of my two little girlies at the farm last October.  I can't wait to bring them back again this year.  It is our yearly October tradition.

This week we finished up our themed unit on Apples.  I love thematic teaching!  I'll share a few of the things we did this week here.  During our CAFE instruction, I introduced nonfiction features through the use of Gail Gibbons book entitled, Apples.  You can check her book out below.
                                   
The class used resources from Deanna Jumps Apples Math and Literacy Activities thematic unit.
                                                
They used a bubble map to record down all of the information they already knew about apples.  We then read the book and created an apples Are, Have, Make chart.  In addition, during shared reading we read a variety of fictional poems and books about apples.  Students were to locate rhyming words and sight words in the shared dreading activities they were involved in.  The culmination of our unit included an apple tasting where students got to taste test three different types of apples.  We then graphed created a graph and a pictograph about our favorite apples.  Afterwards, the students wrote about the data they collected.   I didn't bring my camera these days, so I don't have any pictures to share as of now.  My plan is to get some pictures and update this post sometime this weekend of our apple fun so you can see it.  Please come back to see them soon!  Below are a few pictures of the students during our math rotations.  After our mini-lesson, students go to a fact games station, paper practice at their seats, computers, Promethean (that's our Activboard), or they work with Mrs. Hogan or Mrs. Dusenberg in a guided math station.  Please enjoy the pictures below!

Playing an addition game called "Shake Those Beans."

Another group playing "Shake Those Beans."

And yet another group playing, "Shake Those Beans."

Math games on the computer.

I am working on creating some materials to use in my classroom to explore the life of Christopher Columbus.  I haven't gotten far...but I thought I'd share the FREEBIES I have created so far.  Click on the picture below to grab your copies.  ENJOY!