Baby News

My doctor is inducing me on Friday, February 28th.  My maternity leave will begin today and I will return on April 14, 2014.  Mrs. Julie Oppermann will be our long term sub.  You may continue to contact me if you have a questions or concerns or you can contact her at julie.oppermann@californiak12.org.  You can always reach her before and after school as well by calling the office number.   Thank you for being understanding during this very exciting time in my family's life.  I will keep in touch on here as best as I can.  I look forward to sharing pictures with you soon. 

Some upcoming dates to remember:

Tuesday, March 4th  McTeacher Night (bring in your coloring sheet so we can win another McDonald's lunc)

Wednesday, March 5th  Spring Pictures

Thursday, March 6th 120th day of school.  Dress like a rock star and bring in 120 items.  A note will go home next Monday about this celebratory day in our classroom.

Scientists in the Making...

I always love this time of year when the students get to partner up for researching projects.  The students really enjoy this time too!  They are always so eager to share the information that they learn and I just love their enthusiasm for learning.  We have been working on noticing when we learn new information during our comprehension lessons in our reading block.  I decided to take this a step farther and let the kids try this skill on their own and conduct their own penguin research. 

 The unit I am using for our nonfiction research on penguins.  Click on the picture to find this on teachers pay teachers.

 Before conducting any research, we read an emergent reader about penguins.  As a class, we also brainstormed all the facts that we already knew about penguins.

 The students were divided into researching groups.  Each group was given a nonfiction book on penguins.  They then were sent off with these nonfiction research journals to start conducting their research.  Students are using their daily 5 read to someone time to work with their buddy/researcher on reading their nonfiction books.  They are really focusing on reading the nonfiction features in their books because we have already learned that we can learn so much from the features that authors use in their teaching books.  Students are recording the facts they are learning in their nonfiction research journals.  After conducting their research and finding six facts about penguins, they will take their researching journals to computer class with them.  There, Mrs. Allee will work with them on publishing the information they learned into a class book on penguins.  This of course meets the following common core standard:  CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.6 With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.  Afterwards, the students will get to share their published work with the class, as well as, the information they learned about penguins.

Here are some pictures of the class conducting their research.  I love how "into" this they get!

The 120th day is coming up.  First grade has definitely rocked it to the 120th day and we can't wait to celebrate.  The celebration will take place on March 6th.  Students are encouraged to dress like a "rock star" on this day.  Please no hair or face paint.  We'll be using the following unit to celebrate our way through the day.  Please be on the lookout for more information to go home about this exciting day!

Preparations Under Way…

Baby Karly will be making her presence known any day now.  I’ve been working diligently to prepare 6 weeks of lesson plans for Mr. Sub.  He’ll have plenty of materials for my kiddies and they are excited about having him in the classroom.  As soon as Baby K arrives, I’ll let you know.  I am hoping for a super smooth transition when this occurs.  Until then, I will continue to work up until our little one comes.



We had a great Valentine’s Day celebration in the classroom.  I love seeing the students creativity when it comes to decorating their Valentine boxes.  Thank you to all who thought of me on this special day.  Also a BIG thank you to all who brought treats for the class.  They had a blast sharing their Valentine’s.  I hope you enjoy the pictures from our party.










I hope your Valentine’s was spent with family and friends that you care deeply about.  Remember we do not have school on Monday, February 17th for President’s Day.  Then, it’s back to learning on Tuesday!  Hopefully they’ll be no more snow days getting in the way.  Here’s the most recent thing I’m working on for the kids.

Be on the lookout for our special 120th day celebration coming soon!!!!!!!!  I can hardly wait.  I hope baby K stays in a little while longer so I can celebrate this day with the kiddies.

sNOw More Snow

Well…at least no more snow days!  This teacher is going to be crazy behind with all these snow days we’ve had.  The things I dislike about snow days is it always seems like it takes forever to get caught back up.  So many lessons that have to be taught and SNOW little time to get it all completed in.  I feel double the pressure this year since little Baby K will be arriving in 4 WEEKS!!!! SAY WHAT??!!! Where did the time go!!!!  I can say however, that snow days have allowed me some precious time with my babies and I will always cherish our fun days at home.  It also allows me some catch up time on all my chores at home that I so quickly fall behind in.  I’ve felt the need to purge and get ready for Baby in more ways than one during these snow days.  First things first though I had to get my maternity leave plans completed.  CHECK!!!  I have six weeks of plans all wrapped up as well as all of my procedural expectations.  Now if we could just have school so I could go in and make all my copies for Mr. Sub!!! Yes I said MISTER!!  I’ll have to keep on top of my plans because I have six weeks out from today so that if Baby decides to show up now I’m ready.  Now each week all I’ll have to do is plan for the next week to stay ahead of the game.  Let’s hope I can keep on top of the game! Easy peasy…lemon squeezy right??  Next came operation change rooms for my youngest.  It’s still a work in progress but I’d say she started jumping out of her crib this week at just the right time!!  {NOT JOKING!} Now her and sissy are sharing a room and they are both thrilled.  I’m still in the process of transferring clothes from one closet and dresser to the next.  It is definitely a work in progress.  With two girls already we have a TON of clothes!  I took out all the baby clothes from my totes to place in Baby’s room and have purged like crazy.  Books we never look at {because we have a gazillion thanks to mommy and Scholastics} and toys we no longer give the time of day to went to a new home….GRANDMA’S.  At least there they will get played with and they won’t be taking up our precious space!  I’ve also had some time to work on my fun little projects that make for my kiddies and sale on TpT!  I love getting creative and I have an obsession with clipart!  {Anyone else have this problem??!!}  I finally finished my sweet little Valentine’s Day pack that has been uploaded.  I can’t wait to use it next week with my students.  On our previous snow days I uploaded my penguin pack that we will begin using next week as well!  So excited about both of these.  My most recent projects have been my best yet.  The more I create the more ideas I get and the better I get at it.  It is definitely one of the things I look forward to doing when my kiddies are asleep.  I have also been updating some of my previous packs on TpT….so always be on the lookout for updates so you can re-download my goodies.  I’m very close to finishing my Daily 5 and CAFÉ  packet.  This will definitely be one of my faves!  I’m already using most of my stuff from my packet…I’m simply working on aligning posters and reading skills with the common core so it will be easy for you and I to track the standards we are teaching.  Hopefully once Baby arrives this packet can be finished and posted.  {Anyone else have ADD when it comes to creating?  I often start things and before I finish them I begin something else.  I have so many things in the works!}  Well…not much to report on the school front since we’ve been home.    I hope everyone has been enjoying the snow mother nature so nicely gave to us.  My girls love it and it sure is a sight to behold.  Love the look of freshly fallen snow.  Hopefully next week will be a full week of school.  Don’t forget, next week is a 4 day week.  No school for kids on Friday, February 14th.  Our Valentine’s Day party will be on Thursday, February 13th at 2:15 p.m. 

 

Check out my Valentine pack.  I’ll be using it this week during my math and literacy stations.  So excited about it! 

Powerful Learning, Poetry, Penguins, and Oh So Much More....

I want to thank you all for being so patient with me as I am slowly but surely catching up from being absent when my daughter was ill.  I was also absent this Monday and Tuesday for the Powerful Learning Conference.  This is a conference that I attend as part of our PLC (Professional Learning Community) work.  Every year when I attend these conference I learn such a great deal of information from other schools like ours that have gone above and beyond to ensure student learning and growth is taking place in their schools.  This year was no different than the previous years, except for the fact that I was not overwhelmed with new information.  Instead this year the things I saw these exemplary schools doing are also the same things our school is in the process of doing.  One of the biggest ideas that I saw this year was the usage of data notebooks for the students.  This idea is not one that is new to me.  In fact, my firsties all have their very own data notebook.  Inside the notebook my students track the sight words they know, their progress in reading (their DRA2 level), published writings, and their math scores.  I wanted to start out small this year because data notebooks can be such a powerful tool for students.  Well let me tell you I learned so much from a particular school on using data notebooks.  I am excited for the students to share their notebooks with you during our spring conferences.  Next year, I plan to send our data notebooks home on a weekly basis and have our students write their current goals in their notebooks.  Currently, when the students and I discuss reading, writing, and math goals I post them in the classroom.  Next year, my goal will be to have my students record their goals to place in their binders to take home and share with their parents.  What a powerful tool for both you and your child.  I am so excited to take the idea of the data notebooks to a whole new level next year.
This week, we learned about the sounds of ou and ow.  Students were given the following poem to help them remember the sounds these two letters make.  You can grab your own copy by clicking on the picture.

We then brainstormed words that have the ou and ow sound and wrote them on band-aids and placed them on our chart.  Today we went back into the text of several books we read this week to locate these sounds.  We recorded them on following worksheet.  Click on the picture to grab your very own copy from Fantastic First Grade

.I left my camera at home the day we did this activity.  I hope to get some pictures of our anchor charts and come back to post a few.
Next week, we will be learning about standard RL 1.4 Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.  We will be doing this with a variety of poems by Eloise Greenfield and A.A. Milne.  We will also take a look at some of our vocabulary strategies on our CAFE board and identify how these strategies will help us become better readers.   The students will use their Interactive Word Work Journals to record the vocabulary that we learn in these poems.  In addition, we will begin using Deanna Jumps unit on penguins as well as my own unit on penguins to work on some foundational reading skills as well as begin our first shared research project of the year.  You can check those units out below if you are interested. 

Come back next week for a peek at how this all played out in the classroom.  Until then, stay warm and cozy!!!