Happy Halloween!

We had a spooky good time at our first grade Halloween party this year. Whether it was wrapping a buddy up like a mummy, playing monster mash, snacking on spooky treats, or one of our many Halloween themed centers, our little monsters had a blast! Thanks to all the "mummies" and daddies  who donated items or joined in our festivities!

This picture slideshow made with Smilebox

IXL Math

Check out this great interactive math website for extra pratice in math skills. Click on First Grade Skills to take a peek. We will practice navigating the website when we visit the computer lab. You can pratice at home and earn credit hours for our classroom! Look for your students username and password in their homework folder this week. www.ixl.com

OREO Writing

 

We began our journey through narrative writing by doing none other than taking a closer look at an Oreo cookie! Did you know an Oreo cootkie is just like a great story? There are three parts, a beginning, middle, and end. The top cookie is just like the beginning of a story; it gives you the who, what , when and where. You save all the delicious details for the cream filling. That is the best part of your story. The biggest part of your story happens in the middle. There are multiple events and lots of details! Finally, the last cookie is like the ending of your story. There is even a title on top of the cookie that says OREO. The kida had a blast creating their own Oreo. We had just read the story Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, so we took some inspiration from Alex by writing about a time we had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. The oreos are haging in the first grade hallway outside our classroom. There are even a few spotlighted on our bulletin board. Stop by and check them out!

We will never forget...

We commemrated September 11th by first reading a story, not about the events of September 11th, but about the great Twin Towers that no longer stand tall. The story was called The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein. It was a true story about a street performer names Philippe Petit who walked across the twin towers on a very thin cable in 1974. It was an intriguing story that kept the children on the edge of their seats and gave them a little insight about the towers that once were.
Next we read  a very special book with the class titled September 12th: We Knew Everything Would be Alright written by the first grade students at H. Byron Masterson Elementary School in Kennett, Missouri. This book was written, illustrated, and told through the eyes of a first grader. It is an excellent, light hearted book for dealing with very heavy material.

We also discussed the meaning and colors of the flag, the symbol of freedom for our contry. We remembered the people who fought for our freedom on that day in September by wearing a yellow string tied around our finger today.

"Arrgh" Treasure Hunt Around KTE

Today, we explored the school using a treasure map of KTE. We visited the art room, computer lab, front office, media center, cafeteria (galley), and the music room! When we arrived back to our classroom we discovered a treasure chest! Inside was:

First Day Jitters

It's normal to be a little scared or nervous on the first day of school, even for teachers! To get out our nervous "jitters" we read the story First Day Jitters. We were surprised by the ending too! The story is about a girl named Sarah who does NOT want to go to school. The author leads us to believe Sarah is a student. Turns out, Sarah is the teacher!!!

We also read the poem "Jitter Juice" together before we made "Jitter Juice"! The ingredients were:

• lemon-lime soda
• rainbow sherbet
• berry blue Koolaid
• unsweetened lemonade  

Sounds.......delicious! The kids loved it, and it did the trick...no more JITTERS!!!

David Helps Us with Classroom Rules

Ahoy! We have set sail in First Grade and are moving full steam ahead towards a successful year. We began the week by establishing the rituals and routines in our classroom and school. Together, we read the story David Goes to School by David Shannon, a hilarious tale about poor, little David who just can't seem to follow the rules. We used the non examples David displayed in the story to create the rules of our classroom

Arrrgh You Ready for 1st Grade?

We are Sailing the S.E.A.S., Successfully Educating All Students, this 2012-2013 school year. I am so excited to welcome my new group of first graders bright and early Monday morning! I can't wait to get to know each and every one of my little sailors. The first day of school is always a memorable one. We will be learning and practicing the rituals and routines of first grade and even going on a treasure hunt to explore the school! "Sea" you soon!

Viva Italia!

For the past two weeks we have discovered a favorite book series.....Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola, a classic Caldecott winner, that has been brought to life again in room 136. We have been following the adventures of Strega Nona, Big Anthony, and Bambolona while we focus on the comprehension (understanding while reading) skills "Making Predictions", "Noting Details", and "Problem Solving". The students have really taken a liking to the characters and we have even learned some Italian along the way.

Strega, meaning "witch" and Nona, meaning "Grandmother" is a delightful tale of an old woman who lives in Calabria. She helps the towns people by making magical remedies to take away headaches and warts, to name a few. Big Anthony is her house boy who helps with the household chores such as milking the goats. The students were very surprised to hear that milk can also come from goats! Big Anthony always seems to get himself into some sort of trouble that only Strega Nona can fix.

We are currently on our 4th book in the series. Check them out with your child the next time you visit the library! You'll have some laughs, see how engaged your child gets when reading the tales, and even pick up a few Italian phrases.....Buona lettura!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

On Friday, March 2nd our class celebrated Dr. Theodor Seuss Geisel's 108th birthday. We began our morning by watching Tim Tebow read Green Eggs and Ham on the morning announcements.

The kids made predictions if they would like green eggs and ham before we had our morning snack. Together we feasted on what else....GREEN EGGS AND HAM!

 

After making "Cat in the Hat" hats, we started our Seuss Centers. The students rotated between a Seuss rhyme hunt, book browsing, exploring http://www.seussville.com/, One Fish, Two Fish Goldfish graphing, and a Seuss inspired  antonym activity. It was a such a fun day and really got the kids excited about our upcoming Seussical Musical Thursday, March 15th at KTE!

Pizza, Pizza!

To kick off our study of functional ("how to") writing, the students and I took part in pizza making! In order to teach someone how to do something you must be an expert. What better way to make sure we get all the steps right, but to actully make a pizza. We started by spliting the English Muffins (thanks to Mrs. Deason), the students then spread the desired amount of tomato sauce all over there individual pizzas. Those who wanted pepperoni added a few, and we finished them off with a handful of shredded mozzarella. I popped each one in the microwave for about 1 minute, just to let the cheese melt and voila......pizza!

The kids had a blast! later that day we started our first functional piece of writing. The kids came up with some great beginnings! We really focused on grabbing the reader's attention by posing a question. They were very detailed when describing the steps to making pizza. Our "How to Make a Pizza" writing is spotlighted on our hallway bulletin board and also on our "Rapid Writing" board inside the classroom. Feel free to stop by and check them out.

Make a slideshow design

Delightful Digraphs

This week we have been learning about digraphs. Digraphs are the letter combos -sh, -th, -wh, and -ch that we see at the beginning and the ending of words. Some examples are ship, brush, catch, cheese, whale, tooth, then. Check out these great websites for some interactive digraph practice: (a great rainy day activity or something fun for our three day weekend)

http://www.softschools.com/language_arts/phonics/games/ch_sh_wh_th_sounds.jsp

http://www.starfall.com/

Happy New Year to All!!!

Hello parents, students, and followers! I'm sorry I haven't been posting in a while, it's been a very busy Holiday season! Make sure to check the blog this weekend and upcoming week for new posts. I have lots of pictures and stories to share from our field trip to UNF, Christmas party, pizza making activity, and other goodies. Thank you for your patience. Happy Blogging :)