Honoring MLK, Jr.

I love that I get to teach such a variety of materials daily to my students.  It is one of the joys of being an elementary educator.  The last two weeks, we have spent a lot of time learning about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The students have been extremely interested in his life and I feel like they have thoroughly enjoyed learning about our history.  Of course the history behind MLK is a sad.  It is so easy for our little ones to recognize that we are all created equal.  However, out of that sadness comes a story about bravery and love.  I'll fill you in on all of the activities we have done to learn about our history and MLK, Jr.

We began this unit by watching a Brain Pop, Jr. video on Martin Luther King, Jr.  This really got the kids thinking about him and brought up some memories we remembered from learning about him in Kindergarten.  Afterwards, we learned a song about Martin Luther King, Jr and we read a book from this fabulous unit by Megan Mitchell:  MLK Jr. Unit for Primary Teachers.  We also read the following books, Let's Dream Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr and the March on Washington by Frances E. Ruffin and Stephen Marchesi,  and  Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport.  We also watched several videos about Martin Luther King, Jr on Discovery Streaming.  Afterwards, we discussed Martin's BIG words and why they were so important. We then made silhouettes of Martin Luther King, Jr. face and wrote some of his BIG words on the silhouette.  Below is an example of what the silhouettes look like.

Parents, on Friday the  Fundations unit 9 take home packet in your child's blue homework folder.  We will begin this unit next week.  We will review words and the students will learn about closed syllables.  The trick words say, says, see, between, and each will be added to our word wall.  They are also in the pack for you to cut out and add with all the other trick words from the previous packs.

Some of you may be wondering about the 100th day.  We will not be celebrating the 100th day on Tuesday.  First grades common core standard states:  CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.NBT.A.1
Count to 120, starting at any number less than 120. In this range, read and write numerals and represent a number of objects with a written numeral.  Therefore, we celebrate the 120th day of school.  The 120th day is currently scheduled for March 2nd.  Keep in mind that as we miss school due to the weather the 120th day will be pushed back for each day missed.  The kids will be asked to dress like a rock star as we celebrate our accomplishments.  I created a unit a few years ago that we will use for this day and I can't wait to share it with the class

Runge Nature Center Visits CES

The Runge Conservation Nature Center visited our school this past week to teach our Pre-K, Kindergarten, and First Grade about reptiles.  It was a great program and the kids really enjoyed themselves.  Here are some pictures of their visit.

Happy 2016

I am so sorry for the delayed post.  All three of my children got the flu last week.  I missed one day of work and then it seemed that once I returned each of my other children got what their older sibling had.  So after a week of the flu, I am hoping my family is on the mend and ready for a happy, healthy, 2016.

I can't even believe that this school year is half way over.  It is hard to believe that my little first graders are nearing second grade.  This week, I wanted to add pictures from our Grinch day.  We held Grinch day on the last day before break.  Many of you have probably seen these pictures as I added them to our class Facebook page that week.  However, for those of you that don't have Facebook I wanted you to be able to see the fun we had before our winter break.  Here is a look at Grinch Day.

As you can see we had a lot of fun!  We read the book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr. Suess.  We discussed story elements,  We also made our own Grinch and wrote about a time when we felt "grinchy."  We ended the day with our class party, a grinch drink (7 up and lime sherbet), and the movie.  A big thank you goes out to all the parents that donated items for our class party.  The kids really had a blast.

I hope you all had a wonderful break.  The kids and I have come back ready to learn.  We have a lot to accomplish in the next two quarters to prepare ourselves for second grade, but we are up to the challenge and ready to finish the year off with a bang!!!  Happy New Year to your family.