Welcome to First Grade ~ 2016-2017

Welcome to first grade!  I hope you all had a fabulous summer!  I spent my summer hanging out with my three beautiful daughters, reading lots of books (both children's literature and books for me!), we spent tons of time at the pool, went on a trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and had lots of fun outside and inside just enjoying each others' company.  The school year is upon us and while I'm sad that the long days of summer have come to an end, I'm also super excited about the coming school year.

I hope you all received your welcome letters from me in the mail.  If not, I'll tell you a little about me here.  I am in my eleventh year of teaching first grade (wow!) at CES.  I was raised in California my whole life and graduated from CHS in 2001.  I then graduated Summa Cum Laude from The University of Central Missouri with my Bachelors in Elementary Education.   I became a first grade teacher at CES and then went back to school and got my Masters from Southeast Missouri State University in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages).  I am married to my college sweetheart, Kelly.  We have three amazingly beautiful and bright little girls, Lily, Elly, and Karly.  In my free time I enjoy spending time with my family.  I also enjoy photography, reading, and walking.

It is my goal to create a warming and welcoming environment for my students. I hope my classroom is an extension of home and that my firsties love stepping into our room everyday.   It is also my mission to instill a love of reading and learning in all of my students.  I strive to make learning fun and enjoyable.  I strive to differentiate all of my lessons based on each child's individual academic needs.  I promise to give 120% of myself all of the time.  I love my job and my students truly are an extension of my "family."  It is with great pleasure that I will be serving you this school year.

Welcome to first grade...it's going to be AWESOME

Below there are some pictures of our classroom.  We are trying out flexible seating this school year.  There will be another post about this type of seating in the coming weeks.

Sweet ~ Sweet ~ Memories

Here it is...the end of the year...ALREADY!  How did it go so quickly?  Your little ones that started the year out with me are now ready for 2nd grade!  Can you believe it?  They made so much growth and I am so proud of each and every student.  I had some amazing parents...THANK YOU...and some very wonderful little kiddies that will forever be "my kids."  This year's students are very unique because my own little girl is in this Class of 2027!  Before you know it we'll be sitting in the gymnasium watching this amazing group of students walk across that stage and get their diplomas! It seems like it is so very far away, but I know deep down it isn't.  Time flies by so quickly!  The following video is one I created to show the class at the end of the year.  I typically burn them onto DVDs for my parents, but this year I had difficulties using my DVD burner.  So after hours upon hours of creating the video and then trying to burn the videos...I gave up and decided I'd find another way to get it to you all.  I love doing these videos because it captures your little ones throughout the entire year.  You can see how much they've grown throughout the school year and get the wonderful sweet memories of some of the amazing things that went on in our classroom.  I hope you cherish this video just as much as I do.  

End of Year Activities

Below is a list of our end of the year activities.  If you haven't brought your money for Sonic, please do so by Thursday, May 12th. 

May 9– Stuffed Animal Day—Each child should bring a small stuffed animal that can sit with them throughout the school day.

May 10—Read in Day—Each child should bring in a few books from home (no more than they can carry).  They can also bring in a small snack and drink item for them.  In addition, students can bring in a blanket to sit on.  Please make sure your items are in a bag so that students can easily transport items to our different reading areas throughout the day.

May 11—FFA Barnyard/Movie Day—Students will be bussed to the high school.  Students will also watch Charlotte’s Web with popcorn.

May 12—Library Day (Moniteau County Library Trip) - Please return the permission slip for this trip asap.  We will be walking to the Moniteau County Library to hear about the summer reading program.

May 13—Ice Cream Day (Sonic Trip) - Please return the permission slip, along with  $1.50 for ice cream.  We will be walking to Sonic on this day.

May 16—Memory Day– Students will be making a memory book this day.  Grade cards will go home today, as well as other classroom items that belong to your child.  Memory DVDs will also go home today.

May 17—Fun Day—School dismisses at 1:00.  NO BOOK BAGS.  PLEASE BRING SUNSCREEN AS WE WILL BE OUTSIDE ALL DAY.

Please check back after school gets out.  I will be posting our pictures from our last couple days of school on our website. :)

What's Up with Matter?

We finished our science unit on matter by completing lots of fun experiments.   This is the perfect unit to bring in some experiments and provide the students with a hands on inquiry approach to learning.  We learned that matter is anything that takes up space.  We also learned that there are three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas.  Once we came back from spring break, I wanted to review what we had learned about matter in a fun way.  I blew up a regular balloon, put water in one balloon, and then put water in a balloon and froze it.  I brought these balloons with me and pulled them out of my bag during science class.  

 We also read Dr. Suess' Bartholomew and the Oobleck.  Afterwards, we made the oobleck from the book and discussed which type of matter it was:  liquid, solid, or gas.  We came to the conclusion that oobleck is a solid when it is being moved/rolled and it is a liquid when it is sitting still.  The students ~loved~ this experiment!  We got plenty messy and had a ton of fun.  It was totally worth the huge mess it left behind in my classroom.  Each child got to take a little bit of the oobleck home (I hope they asked an adult before they let it out of the bag).

Another matter experiment was an "oldie but a goodie!!!  MENTOS and DIET COKE!!!!  Well, I'm sure you know the result there!  The kids had a blast and thought it was the coolest experiment yet. Before we conducted the experiment the students used the graphic organizer I created to record their observations.  I didn't have time to "fancy" it up as we say...but it worked out great and they did a wonderful job of recording their observations like "real" scientists do.'

Our last experiment was such a simple, yet fun way to review the different states of matter. On Monday, we conducted the Root Beer Float Experiment.  The students were given root beer and ice cream.  They discovered the fizzing bubbles (gas) and were in amazement to see what could happen when you combine a solid and a liquid together.  We discussed which items in the float was a solid, liquid, and gas.  Some of the students learned that they really did like root beer floats and they enjoyed a nice little treat that afternoon after we talked about the experiment.  I love days like these.  The root beer float experiment was a cute little packet from Class of Kinders.  You can visit her store by clicking on the picture below.