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!

Just a Little Update...

I would like to send out my sincerest gratitude for all of the get well wishes for my daughter.  For those of you unaware, I have not been at school since around lunchtime on Friday afternoon.  My oldest daughter has had a cough/sickness that she just couldn't kick.  On Friday we took her in AGAIN to finally find out that she had caught pneumonia in her upper right lobe.  She was put on strong antibiotics as well as some other things to help her kick this.  On Monday she really wasn't any better so I brought her back to the doctor and she was given 2 shots of antibiotics to help move things along more quickly.  Today she was admitted to the hospital so that she could receive antibiotics through an IV....and might I say she has made TREMENDOUS improvement.  YAY!!!!!!  I have never had pneumonia nor has any of my children or close family members and I must say it is quite scary!  They believe that she will go home tomorrow at some point after she has another dose of her antibiotic.  She will then finish out the rest of her medication at home.  Seeing her with energy today has been the biggest blessing thus far in the new year.  I plan to return to school on Friday.  I certainly miss my kiddies at school and I hope they miss me too!  ;)  Of course I am so grateful I have a job that allows me to be with my daughter as she is on the mend.  I know she certainly appreciates my comforting her in her time of need.  If you are a parent, you will notice that only the math homework sheets have gone home this week.  We will resume normal homework next week.  In addition, you probably noticed there was no Friday folder or newsletter sent home last week.  I of course had all of these items ready to go home last week, as well as all of the students narrative writing pieces from first semester, however life happened and I left school in a hurry to take care of my daughter.  My goal is to send the newsletter, a Scholastic book order, and their narrative writings home on Friday.  If for some reason this does not happen you can expect to see them on Monday.  I appreciate your understanding in the delay of these items and lack of communication this week.   In the meantime, I have been creating fun and engaging units for my school kiddies and I am getting so excited about teaching them this semester.  I plan to make a few finishing touches on a few of these and then they will be posted to Teachers Pay Teachers for you all.  In the meantime, take a peek at what I've been working on and what my students will be working on in the near future.

You guessed it....we'll be learning about Penguins.  My students already worked on the Tacky journals as we read Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester before break.  We have been working on a lot of nonfiction this quarter and we will soon be starting our very own research on penguins.  The students will use their nonfiction journals to record their learning during their research project.  We will also get into some vocabulary development.  This pack includes several graphic organizers we will use to sort out our data as well as a nonfiction reader we will use in shared reading.  I love teaching about penguins and the students always soak up nonfiction like crazy.  I can hardly wait to see how these items in my newest unit help aide in our annual penguin research project.  I'll let you all know once it's posted for you on Tpt.  Until then...thank you again for your thoughts and prayers.  Please keep them coming as she continues to get better.