~LOVE is in the Air~

Wow...what a sweet little Valentine's party we had the other week.  My apologies for not getting this up sooner.  I did post pictures to our class Facebook page though.  Thank you so much to all of you that thought of me in someway...gift cards, candy, school supplies...whatever it was.....THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.  It was truly amazing to see all the sweet treats that were brought in for me and made me feel super special.  The kids did a great job creating their Valentine's day boxes and bags.  Their special treats and cards were so cute.  They loved getting to share how much they care about their friends.  They had a ton of snacks and drinks and just plain had a blast.  I was so caught up in the fun that I forgot to take pictures until right before school was letting out.  Here are some pictures of the students boxes and bags they created.

The students have been learning how to compare and contrast events and characters in a story.  We compared ourselves to our friends using a Venn Diagram and then wrote about each other.  We also got to compare Mrs. Dusenberg and Mrs. Hogan!  The students also have compared Ruby Bridges, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr.  Some other books we have used for comparing are The Three Little Pigs, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, Red Riding Hood and Lon Po Po.

We also reviewed our doubles facts with this sweet little activity I created for the kids.  In math we are learning how to recognize our "doubles plus 1" facts.   This is important because if I know my doubles facts I can easily apply that information to my "doubles plus 1" facts.  For example, if I know that 5 + 5 = 10 then I know that 5+6 must equal 11 because 5 and 5 is 10 plus 1 more is 11.

Research in First Grade

You might be thinking...research?  How does a first grader conduct research?   We have been learning about penguins for a few weeks in class.  The students were given articles and books about penguins that we read during shared reading.  We also watched bits and pieces of the documentary The March of the Penguins.  While watching the movie, the students were given a journal to record their learning.  Afterwards, the students paired up and were given more nonfiction material on penguins.  The students partner read and recorded anything new that they learned about penguins.  Next week, the students will take their journals to computer class with Mrs. Allee.  They will take the facts they recorded and create a slideshow presentation about penguins.  Once they complete their presentations they will have the opportunity to share their work with other classrooms.  Here are some pictures of our work:

Some important reminders:

*Tonight is the Me and My Special Guy Dance in the elementary gym from 7-9 p.m.

*Valentine's Party is on Thursday, February 12th.  Don't forget to bring in your valentine box and cards.  The class list was sent home yesterday on the back of the newsletter.  If you lost your list and need another one, please let me know ASAP!

*NO SCHOOL, Friday, February 13th for professional development.

*NO SCHOOL, Monday, February 16th for President's Day

Making Learning Fun

This week was filled with great literature and fun learning activities.  We got a new math series this year and it constantly spirals through all the standards.  This helps ensure that the concepts taught are being seen consistently.  This is much different than the typical, you teach it once in the year and never see it again.  The students are really able to retain their math facts with this series as well.  This week one of the lessons taught was on counting by 5's and using tally marks.  I decided it would be much more fun and hands-on if the students learned how to make tally marks with wiki sticks.  I modeled making tally marks to count the number of students who were eating a school lunch vs. the number of students that brought a lunch from home.  Then, we used the wiki sticks to tally the number of fingers and toes we had and then practiced counting by 5's.  Here is a video of one of the groups.  They loved it.

The students were also introduced to a new word work activity this week...sight word string up.  The activity consists of letters, pipe cleaners, and sight word cards.  The students use the letters to string up their sight words.  Afterwards, I had the students write the word in their word work journals.  Up to 75% of words in children's literature consists of sight words.  Learning these words is the first step to reading fluently and accurately.  We have been working really hard in class to not only learn how to read these words, but to spell them too.  We have a word wall in class that displays the sight words or trick words from our Fundations unit. {Don't forget, the sight words/trick words your child needs to know are sent home each time we begin a new Fundations unit.  The Fundations packets I send home consist of the trick word flash cards.  I hope you all have been cutting them out and keeping them for practice.} Learning to spell these words will help us become a better writer as well.  The students enjoyed the new activity and what a better way to practice the reading and writing of our sight words than to use letter beads and pipe cleaners.

We have also been continuing to work on retelling the stories we read.  Retelling is a comprehension strategy that will help us understand what we read.  This week we read Bear Snores On.  I modeled using the retell rope with this book.  Then, the students were given the character pictures of the story. They colored the pictures and glued them in order on a sentence strip and made a retell hat.  The next day, we reread the story.  This time, after the reading, the students partnered up and used their retell hats to retell the story.  They did a fantastic job!  They are really getting the hang of retelling using the retell rope.

UPDATE:  Here is a picture of the Martin Luther King, Jr. character trait silhouettes we made.  Last week I blogged about these, but I showed an older photograph of what I used to put on the silhouettes (vocabulary words).  This year I opted to having the students review character traits and placing three words that described Martin Luther King, Jr. on the silhouettes.  They did a fabulous job and it was a wonderful review.