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!